You'll park on the road above Procchio and descend through Mediterranean scrub that smells of immortelle and mastic, the path steep enough that you'll use the rope handrail on the final pitch. Then the cove reveals itself below: thirty meters of fine sand cupped between granite headlands, and just offshore, the Isola Paolina, a rounded boss of rock worn smooth by millennia of waves.
“The granite islet transforms this cove into a natural sculpture garden, offering both a swimming destination and a platform for photographing the beach from offshore.”
Credit: UnsplashLong-tail boats moored in clear water
The water glows turquoise in the shallows, electric against the dark rock and green scrub. You can wade nearly to the islet at low tide, the sandy bottom giving way to rock gardens where damselfish guard their territories and schools of bream drift past. Snorkelers circumnavigate Paolina's base, peering into crevices where scorpionfish freeze in perfect camouflage, following octopuses as they jet from rock to rock.
By afternoon, shade from the eastern cliff covers half the beach, and those who've claimed that side since morning feel smug in their coolness. The rest shift their towels or brave the climb back up to the road. Smart visitors bring a dry bag and swim across to the islet's far side, where flat rocks make perfect sunbathing platforms and you'll have the view of the empty coastline entirely to yourself.
