Italy for Nudists and Naturalists

Italy is accustomed to the yearly influx of tourists raring to see the city’s remarkable art. It is a famous travel destination for its breathtaking sight alone. Carefully preserved through the years, Italy has a stunning collection of palatial buildings in their rustic beauty, grand churches, and museums.

Naturalism is usually associated with Italian art. After all, the roots of baroque styles are found in the art of Italy. Most Italian artists longed for greater clarity and simplification. This inspired a number of artists to turn against the anticlassical Mannerist style, with its subjective emphasis on distortion, asymmetry, biting colours, and bizarre juxtapositions. Annibelle Carracci and Michelangelo Merisi were the two artists at the forefront of the early baroque. Their art is greatly influenced by naturalism and the grand humanism of Michelangelo and the High Renaissance.

These days however, naturalism has already become synonymous with nudist. Naturalism is no longer “limited” to art but has come full circle to even define a particular lifestyle. Europeans have a reputation for being “liberated”. In as much as their land is deeply rooted in culture and history, they have come to embrace the modern world and its new “style” of going about things.

It seems that Italy has fully accepted the concept of Nudists and Naturalists. Being a devoted Catholic country, Italians do not recoil at the concept of a Nudist gathering, seeing it not as a rude sexual act but as a way of life — much like vegetarianism.

In Italy, there are a number of Nudist beaches with people walking around the beach clad only in their birthday suits. Without any inhibition, they talk, they walk, and they socialise with as much ease as fully clothed people. They do not see it as a conversation barrier but regard it as totally normal. The idea is a little hard to grasp for those who can’t even walk out of the house without proper underwear but some Italians have long found comfort in this way of living.

A good place for nudists and naturalists to visit when in Italy is the Lake Como Family Nudist Resort. The place is stunning and those who have been lucky enough to reach that destination swear the naked bodies aren’t as attention grabbing as the scenery.

Visiting naturalist foreigners would not feel out of place in Italy. According to a survey done in Rome, most Italians think sunbathing in the nude is perfectly natural. Results also show that they do not mind unsightly bottoms and do not shun those with less than perfect bodies. Topless sunbathing is widely practiced in Italy but bottoms are usually required. Visitors must take note of this as they can face large fines on some beaches.

The Italian Naturalist Federation said that nearly 70% of those who participated in their survey admitted they would sunbathe nude if everyone else did it. More than 80% said that in their opinion, nudism was not grossly erotic but beautiful and natural.