Punta della Ginestra

Punta della Ginestra is a shingle-and-sand beach at Fossacesia Marina, on the stretch of coast known as the Costa dei Trabocchi for the wooden fishing platforms - trabocchi - that jut out over the water on stilts. The beach sits below low cliffs a short walk from the Abbey of San Giovanni in Venere, and a couple of restored trabocchi nearby are now used as summer restaurants, giving the beach a distinctly working-coast feel rather than a resort one.

The trabocchi that give this coast its name are spider-like wooden platforms built out over the sea on stilts, using long arms to lower and raise fishing nets - a technique developed here because the shallow, current-swept water made boat fishing difficult. Several survive along the Fossacesia stretch, and a few, like the well-known Trabocco Punta Rocciosa nearby, have been converted into restaurants that serve the fish caught from platforms just like them.\n\nThe beach itself alternates between fine shingle and patches of sand, set below the low sandstone cliffs and green terraces that lead up to the Abbey of San Giovanni in Venere, a 12th-century Cistercian abbey visible from parts of the shore. The Sentiero Verde della Costa dei Trabocchi, a cycling and walking path built along a disused railway line, runs right past the beach, making it easy to combine a swim with a ride along the coast in either direction.\n\nCompared to the built-up resort towns further north in Abruzzo, Fossacesia Marina stays low-key: a handful of stabilimenti (beach concessions) with sunbeds sit alongside free stretches of sand, and the trabocco restaurants are the main draw beyond the beach itself. It suits visitors who want a swim paired with some local history and food rather than a full-service lido experience.

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