5. Santa Severa
Only 40 minutes by train from Rome’s San Pietro station, the wide sandy beach at Santa Severa has a lot more going for it than sun and sand. A 14th-century castle, its foundations extending right to the water, bookends the long beach, a large portion of which is free to the public.
Those who like a little wave action will find it here (unlike most of the Lazip shoreline), although the waters are calm enough in the summer to make the beach a favorite with families. There are stabilimenti for those who want to rent lounge chairs, and plenty of restaurants to choose from.
Walk around the walled borgo (village) under the castle to browse in artisans’ shops and see the exhibits in the castle, whose origins date back at least to the 11th century. Before that, Santa Severa was a Roman settlement along the via Aurelia, and you can still see the huge stones of the Roman foundations.
6. Sabaudia
Under the wooded slopes of Mount Circeo, a beach of soft golden sand continues for 15 kilometers, backed by dunes and the Sabaudi Lagoon. Most of the beach is free – highly unusual along this coast – and because it’s a little harder to reach than other Lazio beaches, uncrowded. The water is a clear turquoise blue and the beach pristine, earning it a Blue Flag status.
The Circeo National Park surrounds the beach, which is accessed by a series of boardwalks, so there is little commercial development apart from a few stabilimenti where you can rent loungers and umbrellas. Its size and location in the park keeps the beach more natural than its more developed neighbors.
To get to the beaches from Rome, take a bus from the Laurentina metro stop to Piazza Oberdan in Sabaudia, and a shuttle bus from here to the beaches. The town of Sabaudia may surprise you with its abundance of Rationalist architecture; it was built in less than a year, after Mussolini ordered the coastal marshes drained.
