Paddle boarding in Tuscany

SUP in Tuscany at Lido di Camaiore

If you love SUP, and the Italian sea, as I do, you’ll be glad to know that it’s now common to find SUP at Italy’s beach towns.

After five months of cold it suddenly turned warm enough on April 15 to switch to summer clothes and by April 21 I was paddle boarding in the sea, out of Lido di Camaiore (a beach town on the part of the northern Tuscan called Versilia.) Being from Santa Cruz I thought I’d need to use my half wet suit, after all it was only April. Nope. SUP in Tuscany, even in April, apparently requires a tiny bikini.

Because my pale skin got way too much sun exposure when I was growing  up, before we had a clue about sun block, I now have to cover up. So I had on knee-length gym pants, a long-sleeve rash guard shirt and a hat. One of the women in a minuscule bikini, looked at me and said, “you’re wearing that?”. Only after I told her that dermatologists have taken off endless actinic keratosis spots on my back did she relinquish her surprise and say, “Ah, OK”.

To get myself to Lido di Camaiore, I took the train from Lucca to Viareggio with my bike. Exiting the Viareggio station at 9:30am I biked down a quiet street lined with orange trees in blossom. Heavenly! At the sea, I turned onto the bike path. This bike path goes from Viareggio all the way up the Versilia coast to Marina di Massa, for a total of 28 kilometers.

It was an easy 30 minutes bike ride to Bagno La Vela on the Lido di Camaiore beach where Luca runs his SUP operation. This excursion was his inauguration of the season, so he’d arranged a big lunch for us.

After paddling on the calm water to the pontile (wharf) we all jumped in at Luca’s urging. Back at Bagno la Vela about 25 of us gathered at a long table, and in typical Italian beach fashion we feasted on sea food spaghetti, and fritto misto, washed down with Tuscan white wine. I was the only foreigner—which is the same when I go out with my salsa dance group. I don’t catch a lot of the jokes but I can mostly hold my own in conversations and I find Italians exceedingly welcoming.

All the sybaritic elements were there: blue sea, warm sun, exposure of flesh, slippery succulent clams, mussels, and spaghetti noodles, crispy salty melt-in-the-mouth batter-fried octopus, the buzz of wine in the afternoon, the palpable enjoyment Italians have of pleasure… it was one of those times when it was clear to me  that Italians have more fun.

Later I dosed on the beach, and then at the end of the day we reconvened at the water’s edge. Luca showed up with two left-over bottles of wine, and an arm full of wine glasses. I toasted to “Mare in April” (sea in April), knowing that this is why I moved to Italy. Have a look at my video for a good visual of those sybaritic elements.

Here is the gist of what Luca is saying at the beginning of the video in response to my questions:

“I prefer water over dry land, and with surfing I get to be in water with waves and with SUP I get to be on flat water. Above all I’m a surfer. SUP is something I’ve been doing more recently. We have waves here in Versilia, there are places with good waves, like near Livorno. I haven’t been to your town, Santa Cruz. I went from Santa Monica south to Mexico, because the water is colder up north.”

To rent a Paddleboard, or take a SUP class, at Lido di Camaiore, contact Luca Palla