Marina di Grosseto Beach

Marina di Grosseto is the easy beach of the Maremma, and it makes no secret of it. The sand runs for kilometres between Castiglione della Pescaia and Principina a Mare, wide enough that even a packed August day rarely feels shoulder to shoulder, and the sea slides out so gently and so clear that small children can wade for what feels like forever. Behind the front stands the tombolo pine forest, a deep belt of umbrella pines that keeps the air cool and gives you somewhere shaded to retreat when the midday sun turns fierce. For a family that wants comfort over drama, this is one of the soundest choices on the whole coast.

The front is a working Italian resort, so set your expectations to match. You get a long promenade, rows of bagni renting sunbeds and parasols, free public stretches in between, snack bars, mini golf and small fairground rides for the children, and a steady summer hum of families doing exactly what you are doing. The free sand, the spiaggia libera, is generous and genuinely pleasant, but it fills fast in July and August, so the honest move is to arrive before midmorning or pay for a bagno and trade a few euro for shade and a fixed spot.

What lifts a day here above the average resort beach is the town at its back. Spend the morning on the sand, then drive the ten minutes inland to Grosseto, a walled Medici town most beach traffic skips, and eat properly: acquacotta, the humble Maremma soup of bread and vegetables, tortelli maremmani stuffed with ricotta and spinach, wild boar slow cooked with olives, and a bottle of Morellino di Scansano from the hills just east. Walk the full hexagon of the city walls afterwards, find gelato on Piazza Dante beneath the cathedral, and you have turned a simple swim into a real Maremma day. For wilder, emptier sand nearby, drive south to Marina di Alberese in the Parco della Maremma, or north to Cala Violina.