'Tutti al mare Tutti al mare'
: Gabriella Ferri's song from the 70s, which has become a democratic holiday anthem that immediately makes us think of crowded beaches, hot, macaroni and watermelon omelette and also to update us on Sundays in Cocciadimorto as in the comedy with Antonio Albanese and Paola Cortellesi, is a vintage classic of the summer soundtrack - in a juke box that takes you back decades, indeed to the last century together with A summer at the sea by Giuni Russo, Sapore di sale by Gino Paoli, A roundabout on the sea by Fred Bongusto and retro singing.
But is everyone really everyone?
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST Listen to "The trend of the week: Everyone to the beach and the disabled? Only 4 jewels in Italy, accessibility still a mirage, by Alessandra Magliaro" on Spreaker.
The Terrazza Tutti al mare in San Foca (Lecce) created by the Io Can association
If I am in a wheelchair, young or old, over the years something has changed: the beaches throughout Italy are beginning to have, not all of us deceive ourselves
, accessibility with descents to the sea
, sometimes they make you find wheelchairs with high wheels of yellow rubber.
They are called Job and they allow you to be taken to the water's edge, where Job does not mean "work" in English but a very Neapolitan "Jamme O Bagne" (let's dive in) because Neapolitan is the company that created it a few years ago, Neatech , responding to the difficulties of the disabled to bathe in the sea independently.
With the Job you do not sink into the sand and you can get into the water.
A nice goal.
But how many are there?
Still very few despite some ordinances establish that beach concessionaires are obliged to make available to the disabled the special special aids or chairs for transport suitable for the sea, at least one, except in cases where the morphology of the coast does not allow it. .
How many beach prams have we ever seen on our shores?
Really few.
Yet even if disabled and even more so, how much would sick and handicapped people want to go to the sea, go to the beach and swim?
That all to the sea is an outstanding right.
Let's try to think from our normal ability how much suffering we would have if we were to deprive ourselves of going to the beach.
We talk a lot about
accessible and inclusive tourism but we are still really at the beginning of a journey
.
Then this is if we are not seriously disabled.
What if we have a more conditioning disease?
If we were quadriplegic or sick with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis for example.
How could we go to the beach?
In Italy, in the summer of 2022, there are only 4 places where patients of this severity have access to the sea
.
There is a beautiful beach full of descents to the sea, sunbeds, umbrellas, huge and very clean bathrooms where the person who is not self-sufficient and often connected to some machinery is cared for after a bath in crystal clear water: it is in San Foca (Lecce) in the Salento north of Otranto, then showered, refreshed and rearranged.
Just like an ordinary and skilled person, that is, that
minimum wage
who applied a magnificent mirage to a young quadriplegic.
In fact, the attraction for this beach area was precisely for the comfort, the beauty of this beach, an attraction to roll your eyes, just like for a mirage.
How is it possible?
We must not resign ourselves if we want to call ourselves civilians
.
Damiano, one of the four coordinators of the 'T
errazza Tutti al mare - free to be happy
' before telling the story of this was busy on the phone receiving bookings from all over Italy and even from abroad, people who will arrive in the area during the summer precisely for what this establishment managed by the association offers.
"Everything is completely free - underlines Damiano to ANSA - and we are all volunteers".
This outpost of civilization was born from a painful case, a story of sla and love for the sea.
Gaetano Fuso
, a young man from Salento, a lover of the sea, a policeman by profession and stationed in Rome, was hit at the age of 37 by the SLA.
With determination, seeing his neurodegenerative and disabling conditions worsen, he gathered a group of friends and committed them to realize the dream: to dive again in the sea despite the addiction to life-saving medical devices.
Thus was born the association I Can which brought tracheostomized people to the waters of San Foca and not just swim in the sea in complete safety.
"It is our eighth bathing season - continues Damiano proudly - Gaetano is dead but his dream has come true:
access to the sea free and equipped for the use of people with even very serious disabilities
. Here there is staff specialist, nursing box, super accessible stations, gazebo equipped with electricity columns for machinery. To help the volunteers there are policemen of the yellow flames in rotation, in honor of their former colleague. There is the support of the ASL of Lecce, the city of Melendugno and the Italian association of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ".
In addition to the Job there are other special aids such as the Sofao a bed for tetraplegics that goes from the beach into the water and allows bathing in the sea for people forced to live in bed, together with the bed a small boat also drops into the water where the machined and tubes for those who have to stay attached to breathe.
You can make donations, solidarity favors, 5 per thousand and other forms of support.
How many places are there in Italy like this?
"In Sant'Antioco in Sardinia with the Le Rondini association, in Punta Marina in Ravenna with the Insieme a te association and from this summer also in Gallipoli in Salento at the Le Sirenè ecoresort which has made available a space for duplicate the experience of San Foca ".
Four lidos throughout Italy for the severely disabled,
Is there a risk of a ghetto?
"Unfortunately, Damiano replies, we don't want it. In the establishment next door, holidaymakers have even asked to cover the space in some way so as not to see the sick".