Italy second in Europe for cleanest sea

The FEE (Foundation for Environmental Education) yearly chooses the cleanest and best beaches in all of Europe and awards them with a blue flag, to be flown for the year at that beach.
This year, Italy won 90 flags, putting it second only to Spain, which took 104 flags. It barely beats France (89 flags) and Greece (82 flags).
Of the regions in Italy, Tuscany won with a whopping 14 flags.
For a complete list of the best and brightest beaches in Italy, visit this link (Italian).

Sunburned in Tuscany

Maybe it was the millionth vicious tiger mosquito. Maybe it was the multi-hour delays and perpetual strikes. Maybe it was the pollution or the bureaucracy. Maybe it was all the Germans in sandals and socks, or the loudmouthed Americans. Maybe it was the horse meat, or bringing your own silverware to the hospital. Whatever it was, we felt gritty. Sunburned. Footsore. The Tuscan sun was hotter than one might expect, and we became enlightened.

We love Italy, don't get us wrong. But we're fed up with the tourist-eye view: the tidied-up, superficial, and monumental. Hence this blog: Italy unretouched, unfiltered, and undressed, but never unloved.