August 2025: photos of the receipts of the bathing establishments flock on social networks. All indignant for the 40-50 euros per day of umbrella and sunbeds. But the truth is that many Italian families have already raised the white flag for years, moving the holidays to June or September. Or completely renouncing.
Surely the rates so dear for umbrellas are a problem, but lIn question it is much more complex and does not concern only this year. The real drama is the total absence of a family-friendly vision in Italian tourism. In hotels, a family with three children often have to book two rooms, with double costs and logistical complications. Abroad there are rates designed for familieshere the boys for 12 years of age pay as adults. In transport there are no significant discounts for families and even just getting to their destination costs as a half holiday.
The paradox? Pets have more concessions than children. Pet-friendly structures everywhere, special discounts, dedicated services. It is not a battle against four -legged friends, but a bitter observation: in a country with only 1.18 children per woman and just 370 thousand new born in 2024, perhaps we should review the priorities.
Not to mention that this problem also explodes during the winter with the white weeks, when prices become absolutely inaccessible for a family with more than two children. The problem is not only the summer umbrellas: it is a tourist system that in every season of the year puts families in the position of not being able to travel, Forced to go to the grandparents’ house in the countryside.
This is the real scandal: over 40 euros of the umbrella, We have a tourist system that treats families as a problem instead of a resource. And then we are surprised if people no longer make children.
As always a cultural and economic question they go hand in hand.
Behind every empty umbrella there is a family that has given up. And behind every family that gives up, there is a country that ages and goes out.
