A holiday in the Mediterranean was also born from the desire to get lost. In addition to the glamor, the chic restaurants on the sea, the boats, dammusi and farms, in addition to the renovated and gentrified villages, you can start with the intent to leave everything behind ourselves – including ourselves – and go to the origins. Is the Mediterranean of freedomthe journey from which we return different, those “navigations after which we look at things differentlySaid the Croatian writer Predrag Matvejević “who are at the beginning and end of each story about the Mediterranean».
But is this journey away and rediscovery today still possible? The Overurorism – which for the summer 2025 will bring to Italy The record figure of 35.7 million international touristsfor a total, including us Italians, of over 65 million people traveling – He tells us that to find silence and solitude we will have to choose very well and also have some luck.
On the other hand, since tourism has become a consumer product equal to others, or a reassuring status symbol, he also turned into a very expensive entertainmenteven for those who do not necessarily seek exclusive destinations and hotels. Second Altroconsumo The average of a week of vacation in Italy (stay + travel) for the summer 2025 is 1,000 euros for a couple, and if at the sea, even 1,400. According to theFederconsumatori National Observatory A family of 4, considering travel, stay, umbrella and sunbed, fun and restaurants, will spend 6,539.30 euros for a beach holiday, +2.5% compared to last year.
There are many data that record the phenomenon – on the rise – of “holiday poverty”, thanks to the crisis, inflation, increases. A week of vacation costs 980 euros each and also in Europe the number of workers who will not be able to afford a week of traveling holidays increases
It is the crazy year of the increases: the price of the bathing establishments increases by 5% compared to last year (and 17% more than 4 years ago), with the Beach Club «Vip» who also cost to cost € 1,500 per day. And for those who want to spend little instead? Out of curiosity, On the Airbnb map I looked for accommodation for two people he had a price less than € 50 per day Throughout the Mediterranean and the result has been revealed. Near the sea, there is a place in the campapers more or less everywhere, in curtain and in caravans, but if we talk about accommodation, then the chances of finding a stay at that price drop drastically: excluding large cities, there is some good price in price in Spain (in Malaga and Alicante for example, where however the crowds are there), someone in France (Tolone has affordable prices), but almost none in Italywhere only a few unexpected accommodation in the South is found. There are few B&B below € 50 also in Croatiaand instead they go up in number in Montenegro and Albaniain Türkiye and also in Tunisia (but the strong heat is a variable to consider in this case). Few accommodation available in Greecenone at Cicladisomeone in Dodecanesea Kalymnosthe freeclimbers island, and then a good choice Cretegreat and always magnanimous.
98-99% of the seaside concessions have expired, the extensions are illegitimate, yet the managers are allowed to occupy the beaches and to profit on a good of all by paying negligible canons. We talked about it with the lawyer Roberto Biagini of “Free Sea” who asks for the intervention of the prosecutors and the possibility, for everyone, to go to the sea without paying: “We must exercise our rights”
So if we want to put everything together, the desire to (re) find yourself in a different and still authentic place (however slipped this definition), A place where there are no huge crowds of tourists, A place where maybe a luxury hotel still does not exist and where still The prices are – if not low – at least goodwhat do you do? The different is taken into consideration. For example, you can aim for the Ionian coast of the Calabriawild, authentic, Mediterranean up to the bone (and where for € 500-800 a week for two people there are farmhouses inside and also some residues on the sea pleasant). Maybe you can choose the village of BovaGreek colony from the 19th century but that tradition also wants to be founded by a Armenian princess, a village perched at the foot of the Aspromonte with the sea a little further down, or Monastery(which has a series of agritourisms in the greenery for a relaxing holiday) or again towards Trebisaccesleeping in the built -in villages base of the Pollino Park.
Also the strong land of Sardinia preserves places to find yourself in the nature of the Mediterranean alone, such as the Gulf of Bauneiin Ogliastra, with the countries of Baunei, Lotzorai And Santa Maria Navarrese(if you are looking for well for about 700 euros there are rooms in small well -kept hotels), or, to the west, the wild beaches of the Costa Verde just below the Gulf of Oristano, from Pistis to get to Buggerru on the coast of mines and perhaps going down to the island of Sant’Antiococertainly famous, but not as beaten as it seems, and with a firm local culture.
In Spain there is the village of Begur that even if on the coast of Girona is still authentic, with rocky coves between the Mediterranean scrub; in Francethe Department of the VAR which is already on the French Riviera, however, is a separate place, still not very tourist with good prices near exceptional beaches such as i Calanque de Port d’Alon or the long tongues of sand of Héyreslike Almanarreto enjoy the wildest sea. There is the Montenegro with its villages with the stone houses on the mouths of Cattaro (some less known, such as Risan, where for € 500 per week there are well -kept apartments) and then Albaniawhere al Borghetto di Qeparo You live back in time between stone houses (which are rented for € 400 per week) with the beaches just below.
To change the course, in short, you have to change attitude and also altitude, sleeping in the woods that look at the sea, you have to return travelers and explore the places that have never heard of, and go a little further: in the Aegean you sail up to the little known islands of the Dodecaneselike Nisiros And Tilosor is aiming for Anaphy the anarchist island of Cicladito be reached on the ferries at night. Of course, like all the islands for a few, they are because they have few structures, but something is still found.
Alternatively, it is always a good idea to go to Creteat the dawn of our Mediterranean, inside the Minoan culture, to visit the Dittea cave where – according to mythology – the goat amaltea nitrì Zeus newborn. To the south, and especially to the south east, the island of Crete becomes wilder, the beaches are so many that you visit a different one every day and the structures at a good price are many, certainly better and better to stay inside or not go to mid -August (the ancient village of Aspros Potamos transformed into an electricity without a real experience). And for those who want to navigate again, and definitively escape tourist logic, south of Crete there is the island of Gavdosthe southernmost place in Europe, border also mental, where the studios start from € 60 per night in front of the sea, where everything flows between dunes, junipers, and a lot of freedom.
Source: Vanity Fair
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