Naples Posillipo free beaches row

Naples opened its 2026 bathing season on April 22, but the argument over Posillipo’s “free beaches” did not end with the mayor’s ordinance. (comune.napoli.it) Mayor Gaetano Manfredi set the season from May 1 to September 30 and said Region Campania and ARPAC monitoring rated seven city bathing areas “excellent.” (comune.napoli.it) (rainews.it) In Posillipo, the flashpoint is not water quality but who gets through the gate. The Comune page for Spiaggia delle Monache still says access is limited and booked through an app, with 450 entries from Bagno Sirena. (comune.napoli.it) That booking system was already hit in court. On March 18, 2025, the Campania regional administrative court said the closed-number system and reservation requirement for Donn’Anna and Spiaggia delle Monache were unlawful. (napolitoday.it) The ruling said the limits, first introduced during the Covid emergency and then extended, penalized unaccompanied minors and lower-income families, who could book only three weekly entries. (napolitoday.it) A second legal fight hit the private side of the same shoreline. On July 16, 2025, the Council of State upheld the annulment of Bagno Elena’s extended concession and said the Port System Authority had to move quickly on new procedures. (napolitoday.it) Days later, the Port Authority published a European Union tender for three Posillipo beach lots: two areas of about 1,000 square meters on the main shore and a third of about 500 square meters at Spiaggia delle Monache. (napolitoday.it) That tender said nearly 50% of the beach areas would remain for free public use, while the winning operators would also have to provide lifeguards, cleaning, and maintenance for adjacent free sections. (napolitoday.it) Activists say the access problem survived the court wins. On April 12, 2026, the committee Mare libero e pulito staged an action at Spiaggia delle Monache and said bathers still had to pass through a private condominium gate. (napolitoday.it) The committee said the court had required the Comune and Port Authority to work on a right of way, while the Comune chose to appeal and argued that beach-access responsibility did not sit with City Hall alone. (napolitoday.it) Manfredi had already framed the issue that way in February 2025, saying the Comune did not manage the concessions and that the Port Authority had done so up to then. He said that when the city took over, it would try to guarantee the widest possible public access. (napolitoday.it) So the Posillipo row is now running on two tracks at once: Naples says the 2026 beach season is ready, while courts, activists, and public agencies are still fighting over who actually controls the sand. (comune.napoli.it) (napolitoday.it)