Baratti beach is great because there aren't hundreds of beach chairs lined up in a row leaving hardly any "beach" left. Most people in the area go to Rimini since it is much closer, but if you travel just over an hour more, I think it is well worth having warmer water, better scenery and less people. Baratti is mostly is a free beach where you can bring your own chairs and umbrellas, but we usually choose to pay for a couple of lounge chairs and an umbrella at Bagno Altamarea. It is 20 euros total for 2 lounge chairs with an umbrella for the entire day. Bagno Altamarea has three rows of chairs, but pretty much all of them in the first two rows closest to the water are reserved by the locals. We arrived by 9am and had our choice of chairs in the last row. There are no bathrooms or shower facilities at Altamarea, but I usually just use the bathroom at the beach restaurant. Parking is paid by the hour in the main parking lot and you should not have a problem finding a space if you arrive before 10am.
1.50 euro for some fresh coconut
We always bring a cooler packed with water and some snacks, but there are a couple of restaurants for lunch located right at the main parking lot. Ristorante Demos has outdoor seating and very good, reasonably priced, standard Italian fare with a focus on seafood. We started with an assortment of appetizers including clams and mussels cooked simply in white wine, garlic, olive oil and parsley plus a fritto misto of shrimp and calmari. For the main course, I had linguine with lobster and A had spaghetti with alici.
After a day of soaking up the sun and napping all afternoon post lunch, we headed over to Camp Darby in Pisa, an American military base. Our friend from the area told us about an American Festival that Camp Darby hosts every June for two weeks. The main feature is "real" American burgers, hot dogs, chicken fingers and fries, but they also have some carnival rides plus a night featuring car tuning. It is free entry for the festival and they take either U.S. dollars or euros when you purchase any food or drinks. If you happen to have dollars then it will be to your advantage as there is no currency conversion. They had three different lines set up: 1. chicken fingers and fries for $7, 2. hamburgers for $3, cheeseburgers for $4, corn on the cob $1 and 3. hot dogs $3 or chili dogs for $4. Drinks included Water, Sunkist, Dr. Pepper, Beer and Granita. I was excited that they used all American products even Wonderbread! Even though I had just got my America fix a couple weeks of ago, this hit the spot and I will definitely return next year. It was a little piece of America right here in Italy. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures since we weren't allowed to take any!
It was a great Saturday and we cannot wait to return to Baratti during our next free weekend.
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