Palermo/Agrigent/Syracuse (gro) When the swimming season comes to an end, the dog finally has its fun on the beach. In summer, it is usually just too hot in Sicily for the four-legged friends. No wonder that the local dogs hide in shady corners during the day. On many beaches, the four-legged friends, and neither local nor foreign, have little to look for during the season except before and after sunset. But more and more municipalities on the island of Sicily are discovering their heart for dogs and dog owners. And on some beaches the four-legged friends are also expressly welcome in the summer, and not only in the early morning or late evening, when the beaches are empty, but the whole long summer day.
Begging is done with restrained dignity.
In Palermo, the island’s capital, there are an estimated 10,000 stray dogs. They usually roam alone, calm as a cucumber, through their neighborhood, which they usually share with about a dozen conspecifics. The almost always medium-sized animals naturally prefer to roam past the numerous open-air restaurants, but never beg aggressively, but, when they deign to scrounge, with restrained dignity. For they know that at the end of the day they will get everything they need from the last remaining scraps of the pubs and restaurants. The dogs are therefore rarely chased away, even less so as they also assume certain guardian functions in the night hours at their respective favorite pubs.
Keep your own dog on a leash.
For dogs, or rather dog owners, in Italy muzzle and leash obligation applies. But apart from the fact that free-living dogs themselves do not put on such a thing: Muzzles are almost never seen, but you should always have at least a simple muzzle with you in case of a case, i.e. to avoid warnings that are subject to charges. You should always keep your dog on a leash in the city. The situation is different on the beaches. There you have to let the dog sometimes simply loose.
Who loves his dog, provides him shade.
Since a dog wants to be present in principle, no matter where mistress and master also go, he must also in the summer sometimes with in the vacation house or in the vacation apartment – and with on the beach, and be it still so hot. However, the four-legged friends are almost never allowed on managed beaches. So you almost always have to go to free beach sections – which means that you have to bring your own parasol and other utensils for beach life. All the more, as now especially the dog has to be protected from heat, flying sand, sunburn and eye damage. And even more important than during walks in urban areas is at the beach the disposal equipment for the admission of possible remainders of the four-legged family member.
The huge joy on the beach and in the water.
Whoever knows how to make his dog comfortable on the beach will reap the greatest gratitude. Because almost all barking four-legged friends are by nature enthusiastic swimmers and water sports friends, especially in the sea and by the sea, where it is in the surf wonderful to play and romp. Sicilians, by the way, recognize it very quickly when someone gets along well with his dog, and the chance that mistress, master, children and dog are welcome on the beach is then great.
A ban must be “qualified”.
Every year there are complaints, not only from vacationers, but more often from local beach vacationers, that uniformed municipal officials cash in when dogs are taken to the beach. One should inquire (for example in the city hall) whether dogs are allowed on the beach. A possible prohibition, with whose transgression up to 200 (!) euro are cashed, must be “qualified” and either of the mayor, a for it assigned Assessore or of the Capitano del Porto ordered and publicly indicated. Who nevertheless once into a prohibition trap falls, should not pay therefore simply, but first the legitimacy of the prohibition to show itself to let.
Mafia country seat becomes an asylum for stray dogs.
Italy is a dog-friendly country, and with L’AIDAA (the Associazione Italiana per la Difesa di Animali e Ambiente), the Association for the Defense of Animals and the Environment, the country between the African Sea and the Alps has a powerful organization that effectively takes care of the fate of dogs in the country. The Sicilian branch of L’AIDAA, for example, managed to turn a country estate seized from mafia ownership in Brancaccio, a suburb in the east of Palermo, into an asylum for stray dogs four years ago, where they are vaccinated and given other health care. A similar project was created in Parco della Favorita, a huge park area in the west of the island metropolis, at the foot of Monte Pellegrino, the Pilgrim’s Hill between the center of Palermo and the seaside suburb of Mondello.
A heart for dogs – not only in Castellammare del Golfo.
Also municipalities discover, as mentioned at the beginning, increasingly their heart for dogs and dog owners. Thus, Nicolò Coppola, the mayor of Castellammare del Golfo, and Claudia Regginelli, his councilwoman in charge of tourism, have decreed that the four-legged friends of vacationers are always welcome on the beautiful 240-meter-long stretch of beach between the confluence of the little river San Bartolomeo and the town’s family beach, even during the bathing season. No wonder that the picturesque small town in the province of Trapani with its old fishing port is now popular with dog lovers throughout western Sicily.
Fine water quality on black sandy beaches.
The finest water quality also awaits man and dog on the island of Vulcano off Milazzo, and without any restriction: all the almost consistently black-sand beaches of the island famous for its sulfurous fumaroles are also free for dogs all year round. Vulcano, with its 500-meter-high volcano, is especially popular with rheumatism sufferers. The warm and hot sulfur muds in the natural health pools provide lasting relief. Not too far from Vulcano and Milazzo, in Catania, the metropolis of Sicily’s east coast, dogs are welcome at Lido Azurro, a city beach in a prime location.
Better dodge to the peninsula.
Free for dog and man is 12 kilometers north of Syracuse also the beach of Proiolo Gargallo, ruled by Antonello Rizza, a decidedly eco-friendly-minded mayor. Designated as a dog beach is onomatopoeic the section Construction, a beach near the village. Nevertheless, it is recommended to drive (or hike) out to the offshore peninsula Magnisi, (the ancient Thapos, explanation in Italian!) with its long fine sandy beaches. For the beaches close to the village are often wreathed by the exhalations of large refineries in the nearby hinterland when the wind blows from the west..
Visiting Luigi Pirandello.
Four-legged friends are also expressly welcome on a beach in the south of of Palma di Montechiaro at Agrigent, in the municipality of Facciomare, where in the Casa Malerba for man and dog conveniently also suitable guest rooms are offered. Agrigento and the Valley of Temples are not far away, and for those interested in literature, a visit to Luigi Pirandello, one of Italy’s most important theater writers, who was born in 1867 in Caos near Agrigento, where his birthplace including his study can be visited. Pirandello was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934 before passing away two years later in Rome. Pirandello, who also wrote 7 novels and numerous novellas, became famous in this country also through some film adaptations of his mostly ironic to grotesque stories, which also provide much pleasure in German lands to this day.