Posted by matthewd on Monday, May 15, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

A typical beach day in the Cefalù has both many similarities and differences than a typical beach day in the US. The first thing that someone from the outside would notice is the physical appearance of the beach patrons. Women and teenage girls, for the most part, wear similar swimwear to those in the US, a standard bikini or one-piece suit. Men, however, wear drastically different swim suits than men in the US. Men and teenage boys in Cefalù either wear a speedo or very short swim trunks, as opposed to typical longer swim trunks in the US. Even old fat men can be seen wearing the underwear-like swim suits. Also, for babies and toddlers, it is socially acceptable for them to be nude, something that is not usually seen in the US.

Verbal behavior and interactions are also different here in Sicily. Overall, the beach seems to be quieter than it is in the US. Since the beach is mostly filled with families, these families seem to keep to themselves, and only speak as loud as they need to for the person next to them to hear. I believe this stems from the fact that the beach here is used for family relaxation time, not a place to play sports or have parties like many beaches of the US. On Saturday, a group of us went to the beach with a speaker, but decided it best not to play music as not to disturb the peace. I have only seen one person with a speaker thus far, but he was only playing music loud enough for him to hear. The one exception to the quietness are children, but children will be children no matter the culture.

Physical behavior is generally sunbathing, reading, and just relaxing. Beach games, such as paddle ball, soccer, volleyball, sand castles, etc. are not nearly as common in Sicily. The adults are generally laying on their beach towels or walking along the shore. The children play with each other on the shore or in the sand, but without as many beach games. The children also seem to be given a greater deal of independence than the children in the US. Personal space is less relevant here than in the US. The part of the beach nearest to the town is by far the most crowded, despite their being nearly empty beach just 5 min further away. When we had a big group go to the beach on Saturday, we were quite close to other groups of people despite their being plenty of space elsewhere. When observing groups of people interact with each other, it is evident that when speaking they use many hand gestures to convey different emotions. Cuddling between couples also seemed more acceptable, and I even saw one couple where the girl was laying directly on top of her boyfriend. It did not seem very comfortable, to say the least.

The traffic on the beach is significantly less than what it would be in the US with similar weather. Similar to back home, people seem to make a day out of going to the beach. I never saw a group that came after me leave before me. One reason that may explain why the beach is not as crowded as I would think may be because the locals are so used to it that it has become boring. People enter and leave from various staircases scattered along the boardwalk.

When I spent a significant portion of time on the beach, I began to notice people who stuck out. In particular, tourists stick out. Generally, they are old people who are fully clothed walking along the beach. Also, similar to in the US, there are vendors who stick out amongst others. However, here in Sicily, they were selling coconut, tapestry-like beach towels, and jewelry, unlike something refreshing like ice cream or lemonade in the US. What is interesting is that the vendors were the only people that were of an obviously different race and socioeconomic status. They tended to have darker skin and wore robe-like clothing, like the one seen in my picture.

All-in-all, the beach at Cefalù is a place for families to spend the day relaxing and sunbathing. The water is refreshing, but not as many people are swimming. It appears to be a fairly unifying area, as socioeconomic status, race, and gender were insignificant factors, with the exception of the vendors. I can’t help but relate this to the bath houses from Roman times, similar to the one we saw at Piazza Armerina, where people, despite their wealth, were welcome to come. A few follow up questions I have after spending time at the beach are:

1. Why are there not more people on the beach when the weather is in the 70s and sunny?
2. Why doesn’t someone clean up the trash by the boardwalk?
3. There are a lot of children at the beach, what may be a reason why there never seems to be as many children in town?