Heat Blocker

Holiday had been planned to do some culture as well as the traditional summer beach plunges. Bolgheri is close to Florence, Pisa, Sienna and the island of Elba. However the 35⁰C+ weather put an end to the culture. Heat combined with peak tourism time would have made it hell.

Bolgheri itself is very rural, the area best known for its vineyards. I think Bolgheri probably only exists thanks to the spectacular 5km long, straight cypress alley leading from the town to the coastal road - shown on main photo.

The area between the road and beach is largely a nature reserve  and thus the beaches are not commercialised as one often sees on the Adriatic coast, with kilometres of deckchairs in row upon row.

Just 10 minutes from Bolgheri we found a small, reasonably priced pay & display carpark on the edge of a forest. Was then a 10 minute walk down a track to the Doggy Beach. We could have opted for the otherside with a bit more on offer including a bar and restaurant and I think playground equipment. 

The Doggy Beach had a guy with a pile of deckchairs who would drive them over to your wish position on his John Deere Gator quad-like 6 wheel vehicle. There was also a hippie elder lifeguard who sat under an awning all day either tapping on his large bongo drum or playing good jazz & rock music on a decently volumned music machine. We set up camp next to him. I like most had some form of ½tent or umbrella & mini deckchairs on wheels that doubled up as trolleys. There were a number of dogs but in the three days we spent here, never saw any problems with/between them, their owners or their 'remains'. Beach was at least 100m wide before another 100m of half sandy scrubland and backed by forest (WWF nature park). For me ideal, totally peaceful, relaxing. Water temperature was between 25-30⁰C, also ideal for 'Warm-Showerer' me!

Nearly six hours later, returned 13km home via a lovely supermarket with attached cafe selling great hot & cold coffee for ridiculously cheap prices. It also had the benefit of a 22kWh AC charger at reasonable price, so with an hour's worth of coffee drinking and shopping for dinner, we got 120km of power in the battery. More than enough.