Our Naturist Road Trip in Italy in 2021

If there has been one benefit of the COVID lockdowns, it’s that we suddenly gained a lot of time to think. For many months, traveling from one place to another just wasn’t an option. So we started musing about the future of Naked Wanderings and we started learning new skills. We got interested in video. It’s a completely different way of creativity and one that we could easily include in our Naked Wanderings concept.

When the world opened up again, we started creating videos of nearby naturist resorts and nude beaches. As we were in Spain at the moment, those weren’t all that hard to find. But we wanted a larger project. We wanted to create a series of videos. And we knew the perfect place for that.

Back in 2019, we had already done a short naturist road trip around Italy, in which we visited 5 resorts. This time we would aim for a little bit more, re-visiting some of the resorts where we had previously been and adding a couple of new ones to the list. And we would visualize it all.

As we would be traveling early in the season, going from south to north would provide the best chances of great weather throughout our road trip. So we decided to start our journey in the southern province of Puglia. We had already visited Grottamiranda before, which made it easier to think about an angle for our videos even before we arrived at the resort. Grottamiranda is about luxury naturism, about quietness and relaxation, about enjoying time in good company.

The Puglia region, on the other hand, is known for its picturesque villages and excellent food. We know, the food is great everywhere in Italy, but it’s just a little bit better in Puglia. And a little bit more. Or better, a lot more. We found ourselves eating pretty much all the time. There was just no way around it. Food was everywhere and it all looked so delicious that we could never say no. In between meals, we did find the time to visit some of those typical villages like Monopoly and Polignano a Mare. And thanks to the arrangements of Martine and Pierre, the owners of Grottamiranda, we had the chance to go on a private mini-cruise along the Adriatic coast of southern Italy.

Have you ever heard about Abruzzo? Until a couple of months ago, we definitely hadn’t. It’s a region of Italy that apparently got a bit lost between its more popular neighbors like Lazio, Puglia, and Umbria. The reason why Abruzzo had caught our eye was that there’s a small naturist B&B in the region. La Sorgente only has two rental apartments, but the images on their website looked so promising that we decided that this was the perfect next stop on our itinerary.

When we look back at it now, Abruzzo is probably the region where we found most of the “true Italy”. The Italy we know from the movies and the songs. Dotted with endless farmlands and villages that don’t count more than a handful of houses. Lots of local shops selling local products and a type of hospitality that you don’t often find anymore in many parts of the world.

This is also where we met the people from ANAB, the local naturist association of Abruzzo, who introduced us to their local nude beach, took us out for dinner, and invited us into their homes as if we had been long lost family members instead of complete strangers.

Another place we definitely wanted to revisit after our road trip of 2019 was Suncave Gardens, close to Rome. Not only because this is a lovely resort and we were really looking forward to seeing their pool that was finally finished, but most of all because we wanted to see Leslie and Hoppie again, the couple that runs the place. During our last visit, we had spent so many hours chatting with them, and that is exactly what happened again this time.

Our timing couldn’t have been any better to visit Suncave Gardens, because on the second day of our stay, there would be the first naturist event of the year. Organized together with UNAIT, the naturist association of Lazio. Once again, we met lots of friendly Italian naturists, there was barbecue and body painting and a band playing. We realized how much we had missed this because also for us this was the first naturist event in a very long time. Or really any event whatsoever. COVID has taken our social lives away, and it took an event like this one to understand how precious this really is.

Our road trip continued direction north and once again we found ourselves on familiar grounds. As soon as we arrived at the naturist campsite Sasso Corbo and embraced Bas and Domenica, it felt as if we had never left. The atmosphere was still exactly how we remembered it, and so were the amazing views over the valley. Also from a graphical point of view, we had been looking forward to visiting Sasso Corbo again. We just knew that we would be able to create stunning videos here.

During our last stay, we had spent most of the time inside the campsite. It had been very warm and sunny and we just preferred the shade of our safari tent and the cool water of the pool. This time, however, we were determined to explore more of the region. The southern part of Tuscany is much less touristy than the part up north, and there are some hidden gems to be found. The historical village Pitigliano and the Etruscan excavated roads are just some of them. And we visited the local nude beach, which is said to be on the most beautiful part of the Italian coast. We can’t judge because we haven’t seen all of the coast, but it did look pretty amazing.

Our next stop was also a naturist campsite, and more specifically, one of the oldest ones in the country. Ca’ Le Scope is a well-known name in Italian naturism, but the reason why we really wanted to visit the place was that we had heard that since this year it would be under new management. From experience, we learned that new ideas and visions can do wonders for a naturist resort, and we just wanted to be among the first to experience this at Ca’ Le Scope. And we were right, the place was full of life, there was a great atmosphere and lots of interesting activities were being organized.

One of these activities was “a green clay treatment”. This had been a tradition at the campsite until several decades ago when the source of the green clay ran dry. This year, however, a new source was discovered and we experienced the first traditional green clay treatment in 30 years. Whether it has been beneficial for our skin is hard to tell, but it was definitely a fun experience. During the process, everyone is rubbing themselves and the others in a complete layer of the green substance and then we all went for a walk around the campsite to let the clay dry. It looked as if a bunch of Aliens had just landed in Italy.

On the other side of the Emilia-Romagna region, we revisited Borgo Corniola. A three-room naturist bed and breakfast that specializes in wellness. The big highlight of the resort is definitely the “aufguss” sessions. Aufguss is a trend that originated in German saunas. Most people know the sauna as just a wooden room where you sweat as if your life depends on it. Aufguss takes this experience a whole other level with a sauna master who distributes the heat by the use of towels, who adds different scents to the air, and who chooses the perfect music for the session. Every day we spent at Borgo Corniola, there were at least two aufguss sessions.

We wanted to learn more about this phenomenon and the sauna master agreed to give Nick an initiation. That wasn’t such a big success. Lins did slightly better during her archery initiation, but we both realized that we are just much better at laying on a table and receiving a massage.

On our last day, we got the chance to explore some of the beautiful surroundings of Borgo Corniola. Romina, a local guide and frequent visitor of the resort, took us on adventurous hikes in the nearby villages and to a super-scenic waterfall for a refreshing skinny dip. A visit to nearby city Ravenna and the Lido di Dante nude beach were the cherries on the cake.

The final stop on our road trip through Italy was once again a naturist campsite that we had visited before, but not in 2019. Instead, Costalunga was the first naturist resort we had ever visited in the country, long before Naked Wanderings was born. It was great to see that the place hadn’t changed all that much over the years. It was still the friendly, social resort as how we remembered it. Instead of one major update. Since this year, they have a brand new swimming pool. And what kind of pool, a huge infinity pool that provided views over the valley down below.

These were our last days in Italy, the trip had gone so incredibly fast and we decided to shift a couple of gears back and just relax next to the pool, chat up with the owners and the other guests and get some more Italian wines. Until we heard that there was actually a wine region nearby. We jumped into the car in search of one last wine tasting, which we quickly found at a winery called Cordara. Now we were ready to leave Italy.

Truth to be said, we had completely underestimated how intense and time-consuming a video project is. For the last 4 years, we had mostly focused on creating blog posts. This means that we had to make sure to have our notes and some photos and then do most of the work afterward. With video, this is not the case. If you don’t have all the shots you want by the time that you leave the resort, you just don’t have them. Basta.

Luckily, we got a lot of support for this project. From the resort owners who helped us with the activities, to the local naturist associations who showed us their preferred spots, and the Italian Naturist Association FENAIT who helped us put together our itinerary. And from you, our readers and followers who have sent us so many tips about the best places to visit, the best wines to taste, the best foods to try, and the best words to say in Italian. Only because of all of this help, our Italian Naturist Road Trip has been a success. So thanks a lot everyone!