Why you shouldn’t spend your holidays in Pescara
Found a flight to Pescara for €20 and thinking of having a nice holiday there? Well, think twice... Pescara is a tourist non-place: not ugly enough to be folkloric, not beautiful enough to enchant. It’s the kind of city where you arrive and wonder “and now what?”
It’s not postcard Italy
Looking for medieval alleys, intact historic centres, Renaissance palaces? Go elsewhere. Pescara is a modern city, rebuilt almost entirely after the heavy bombing of the Second World War [link]. No breathtaking cathedral, no Renaissance squares; what little there is is often surrounded by modern or neglected buildings. It feels like… just any city, with a sea in front of it.
Pescara grew rapidly and unevenly, absorbing with little harmony neighbouring districts and towns such as Montesilvano and Spoltore. Getting around on foot outside the centre can be a challenge, and the urban aesthetics are often a chaotic patchwork.
Meanwhile, several urban projects have favoured concrete over new green spaces. For example, it is ironic that in Franco Summa’s work “Il giardino incantato” (The Enchanted Garden), the trees are... concrete pylons!
Beaches? Yes, but...
Pescara’s beaches are long and sandy, sure. But they are also full of beach clubs packed one next to the other, and in summer they look more like a campsite of umbrellas than a piece of paradise. Pescara has less than 20% of free beaches [link], which means that most of the time you will have to PAY just to spread your beach towel on the sand. Incredible, having to spend money to enjoy resources that should belong to all humanity — like sun, sand and sea — right?
The largest stretch of free beach in Pescara is the one next to the river mouth and the port. Not exactly a prime area. But then, let’s be honest: even along the other stretches of coast, don’t expect the waters of Sardinia or the Amalfi Coast. Pescara’s sea is often murky, with a sandy seabed and poor visibility. There are also periods when temporary swimming bans are issued for hygiene and health reasons [link], a problem shared with the neighbouring towns. [link] [link] [link]
Romantic, isn’t it? 🤢
Hospitality is DIY
In central Pescara there are about ten hotels, and going to sleep further away is hardly an option without renting a car. With the exception of the connections to Montesilvano, Pescara is poorly served by public transport: it is a city built for cars, not for pedestrians.
The city administration has boasted of an increase in beds for tourist accommodation [link], even though no new hotel has been built in recent years and, in fact, one has been demolished [link].
This can only mean that the new beds were created by private citizens, converting their properties into gig-economy lodgings, with all the inconvenience that this brings for residents but also for tourists [link].
Why this web page?
I’m a citizen of Pescara and one of its fiercest critics. Perhaps Pescara was never a pearl, but in recent years it has actually got worse, because of politicians (of every political stripe) who claim that our city can live on tourism alone.
But who actually gets rich from tourism in Pescara? Not the seasonal worker, not those who rent, not the citizen who lives here 12 months a year. Only those with an entrenched, rent-yielding position who run the tourism and leisure sector get rich. Meanwhile, in Pescara rents are rising while quality of life is falling.
Since I’m tired of this situation, but I can’t change our representatives’ minds, I want to open your eyes to the poor quality of the holiday you risk buying.
We live here and have no choice. You do.