Sperlonga’s Sandy “Piazza”

When heading off on vacation to the seaside – either the Mediterranean coast or the Adriatic – Italians must leave behind their center of town life, the main piazza, but they simply transfer to another place of social gathering. A sandy one, not a cobblestoned or paved one: their favorite stabilmento balneare. The literal translation, “beach establishment” – with a rather antiquated Jane Austen-flavored ring – defines the typical Italian coastal beach club or beach resort (“lido”) offering a full social life during seaside stays.

Once just providing umbrellas and beach lounger chairs for rent, the stabilmenti balneari now supplant the home piazza, transferring one’s village “piazza” life seaside.

And south of Rome, in Sperlonga’s popular stabilmento balneare Lido Grotta dei Delfini, owner Peppino is like an ebullient and benevolent town mayor, gleefully looking out for the needs of his populace. Other stablilmenti fan out along Sperlonga’s bay, just below the 16th – c imposing fortress, Torre Truglia, but if you rent your lounger chairs and umbrellas at Lido Grotta dei Delfini, you’ll soon understand why many clients return year after year.

As day gives up

Gregarious Peppino welcomes everyone with his booming voice, flanked by his young staff (this mayor’s “city council”). Almost all university students, the young staff is headed up by his brother, Fabio, in the office (and not only) and Peppino’s daughters, Francesca and Martina. But Peppino told me with a twinkle in his eye that each employee is a “figlio” or “figlia”. Some are in swimsuits and T-shirts on the beach, assigning umbrellas and beach lounge chairs to clients and keeping the beach clean. Others staff the food counter, serving up espressi, panini, yogurts, fresh fruits, gelati and icy drinks to swim-suited clients taking a pause from swims or sand-castle building on the beach.

Many beachgoers enjoy a tasty hot lunch served cafeteria-style on the veranda and the young staff clears tables, serves up espressi after lunch. At 1 pm tempting seafood – and not only – is prepared by cook Leone and assistants in the stabilmento kitchen. You can select oysters on the half shell or fresh fish on ice for grilling or grab a tray, slices of bread, a glass and your silverware and choose a few dishes from the tempting buffet set out.

For one lunch at our stabilmento, friend Silvana and I enjoyed pasta con scampi, shared a plate of swordfish “fishballs” and had grilled summer vegetables as a side dish, watermelon to follow. On another day, the pasta with a fresh tuna sauce was my choice, Silvana opting for a tasty cold dish, a couscous with minced vegetables and shrimp.

Before the buffet line opens, the little ones have lunch: at noon, Peppino offers (at no charge), pastina in brodo or simple pasta with tomato sauce to families with little ones. Walk around the umbrella-shaded tables just before 1 pm – when lunch service for all starts – and you’ll see mothers and grandmothers spooning the tasty soups to bibbed babies and toddlers. I watched one little boy putting a dash of olive oil and a sprinkle of Parmesan in his minestrina (“little soup”), under Mamma’s watchful eye. And under the shelf with all the awards merited by this prized stabilmento, there’s a microwave, too, for parents wishing to heat up their own baby foods.

Not only does Peppino think about the little ones’ appetites, he takes care for their other needs: there’s a changing room for them – and free diapers, in fact, “diapered swimsuits!”

The “older set” of children is entertained here, too: in the afternoon, a ludoteca (play group). staffed by young students, studying Early Childhood Education. The afternoon we were there, busy little hands molded flour-dough creations.

Feeling more active? Near the children’s play area, you’ll find beach soccer, beach volley, and beach tennis facilities, too, for those wishing a break from swims in the crystal-clear Mediterranean, bordered with umbrellas and lounge chairs.

As day gives up to night and a cooling sea breeze tones down summer heat, the beach staff at the Grotta dei Delfini closes the umbrellas over the now-empty lounge chairs – but the children’s play area and the veranda of the stabilmento fill up. It’s aperitivo time. You feel as if you’re in the main piazza of an Italian small town. But this is a sandy one.

It was time for us to leave Sperlonga – and the Delfini staff. The “arrivederci” was as thoughtful as the welcome on arrival: no bus nor taxi needed to get us to the Fondi-Sperlonga train station for Peppino asked cook, Leone, to drive us.

This was my second stay with days spent at Sperlonga’s “sandy” piazza, Peppino’s stabilmento balneare. A treasure found thanks to Rocco at Sperlonga Resort.
I’ll be back (and Silvana, too, I’m sure).

Pino’s seen my photos. He’s ready, too.

Read more about Peppino and Sperlonga here
Read more – see more! – on Sperlonga