Deserted and white beaches, blue sky, clear water... a dram only few can afford: a trip to the tropics or on a small island of the Austral hemisphere. That’s also the impression you get when travelling along the Statale Aurelia, connecting Livorno to Grosseto, directed South: a tropical beach, no palms, but a blue sea and candid sand.
From the height of the Aurelia, coming from Livorno and having surpassed the Castiglioncello exit, before reaching that of Rosignano Marittimo, turning your gaze along the jagged coastline, an unusual strip of extremely white sand appears, about four kilometres. This peculiar place is known, quite understandably, with the name of White Beaches.
The reason for the unusual white colour of the sand is the result of years of production of bicarbonate, with its plant in Rosignano Marittimo, about a kilometre from the coast.
The White Beaches are free beaches. In the southernmost part, towards Vada, you can use a service of daily hire of beach umbrellas, sun chairs and sun beds, a shower service and finally a small bar/refreshment area. The White Beaches are equipped with fee-parking areas, an indicative cost is 2.5 euro for half a day (subdivided in two time-areas, from 9.00 am to 1.00 pm and from 1.00 pm to 8.00 pm); whereas for bikers parking is free.
An advice all those meaning to go to the white beaches might want to heed is that of being very careful of where they mean to park, particularly during the summer months, on Sundays, when the beach becomes the sun tanning destination young people from the provinces around it prefer (Livorno, Florence, Prato and Pisa). Because apart from the payment parking, which is all full after a very short while, any other space to park on the provincial road that goes from Vada to Rosignano, is full of permanent parking restrictions, so watch out for the signs, or after a nice tan you’ll find an ugly surprise!
Municipality of Rosignano Marittimo
