Best kitesurfing spots in Italy

Two of Europe's best learning lagoons, an alpine lake on a timetable, and a competition venue in the deep south.

Lo Stagnone, Marsala (Sicily)

A wide, shallow lagoon between Marsala and Trapani, sheltered by Isola Grande, with about 2 km of school frontage at Birgi Vecchi. Beginner You can touch the bottom over roughly 80% of it, in 15 cm to 1.5 m of water.

The engine is a thermal sea breeze from April through October: 12–25 knots covers most usable days, summer settles at 15–20, and the thermal adds 5–8 knots over a plain forecast. The rules are dated and enforced.

Ordinanza 01/2019 of the Marsala maritime office allows kiting in daylight only, for riders over 14, with a certified helmet and an approved flotation aid, and you body-drag out past the 200 m line inside the reserve before the board goes on; hydrofoils are banned there because the water is too shallow.

In summer the central shore is thick with lessons, and the same depth that makes it safe destroys fins, so walk a new sector before you ride it.

Punta Trettu (Sardinia)

Sardinia's south-west answer to Lo Stagnone: flat, knee-to-waist-deep water facing Sant'Antioco, near San Giovanni Suergiu. Beginner The Mistral from the north-west is the engine, 15–25 knots on an everyday session and 15–28 through summer; the Scirocco takes over in September and October. Season April to October. Beginners get standing depth inside a marked teaching zone; everyone else rides the far side of the sandbank.

Lake Garda

Northern Garda, meaning Torbole, Navene and Campione, runs on a clock. The Peler comes down from the north from dawn to mid-morning, 16–25 knots on a normal morning and 25–35 on a strong summer one; the Ora comes up from the south in the afternoon at 12–18. From mid-April to October one of them blows most days.

There is no beach launch in the ordinary sense: riding is boat- or lift-assisted from the clubs, the water is deep, the shore is cliff. Intermediate The paperwork is the surprise. The club launches at Campione and Navene want membership, third-party liability insurance and a level-3 kite licence, and one asks for a medical certificate, so bring the card or ride from the boat.

Talamone (Tuscany)

A walled town on a headland in the Maremma, working on a summer afternoon thermal: 14–18 knots on an ordinary session, 15–20 on a good one, with the Maestrale and the venturi off the promontory stacking on top.

Flat to light chop, one main launch, a couple of schools. The direction is the catch, because the Maestrale runs cross to cross-off here, so a beginner belongs with a school rather than alone on the sand.

Porto Botte (Sardinia)

Twenty minutes from Punta Trettu, the big brother. The Mistral arrives side-onshore over a wide, shallow bay with more chop and more room: 15–30 knots in May, June, September and October, usually 15–25 in high summer, and 40 has been recorded when the thermal stacks on the gradient. Advanced Every level rides here, but it is not a beginner lagoon.

Gizzeria, Hang Loose Beach (Calabria)

On the Tyrrhenian coast near Lamezia Terme, Gizzeria runs on a north-westerly thermal accelerated by a venturi between the mountains: 13–20 knots on the common day, 25–35 when a disturbed system takes over, smooth rather than gusty, April to September.

The Hang Loose Beach centre turned it into a competition venue with world-championship freestyle and hydrofoil racing on its record. Side-shore over chop, good foiling water, and deep from the first step in.