Panino police: packed lunch bans enrage Italians at pricey beach clubs

Child who ate smuggled-in homemade sandwich kicks off latest skirmish over private resorts As lunchtime approaches at Il Tirreno, a private beach club in Montalto di Castro on the Lazio coast, Beatrice Bordo, sitting in the shade of a blue umbrella, unwraps a slice of pizza. A pranzo al sacco, or packed lunch, has become the latest skirmish in Italy’s long-running beach disputes after a woman was confronted over the clandestine consumption of a homemade sandwich at a private establishment in Puglia. But Bordo, who has rented her two loungers and umbrella for the entire season and intends to make the most of her patch of sand every day, is unfazed. “I’ve paid €850 [£725] for the season and I spend money in the bar – on coffee, ice-cream, granita,” she said matter-of-factly. “So they can’t expect me to spend up to €50 a day to eat at their restaurant. It is not an obligation. They can do what they want in their resort, but I’ll do what I want beneath my umbrella.” Bordo is far from alone in bristling at the sandwich debacle that unfolded in Vieste, a town on Puglia’s Gargano peninsula, last weekend, reigniting debate over the resorts that dominate much of Italy’s coastline. The woman