Over a glass of cold white wine at a nice beach bar, we decided to develop a rating system to help decide which were our favorite beaches and why. Having developed a few of these rating systems as a social scientist, the project took on a life of its own. We devised an initial system, tested it, and added a few more items. Then we noticed that it still did not truly capture the differences, so we weighted two of the factors to develop a 100 point scale. Here it is. Comments are welcomes.
Over the next three days, I will provide the results. The areas covered include areas south of Rome, Sicily, and Sardinia. Sardinia was the real discovery for me and the highlight of the trip in terms of beaches not also overall.
Rating System (1-10 scale):
1. Quality of water: This refers to clarity, temperature, cleanliness, and color of the water, as well as the level of wave activity. We went for ease of swimming and wading over surfing capacity but this is personal.
2. Quality of sand: How fine is the sand? How easy to walk on it? Does the sand quality extend into the water? In some beaches in southern Italy, the beaches are small pebbles, hard on the feet while in Sardinia most beaches are pervasively fine sand.
3. Availability of natural shade: Most Italian beaches are under a very hot sun, which is a good thing, but relief is needed at times. Most Italians cover this need by brining their own beach umbrellas and many beaches have private beach clubs that charge for chairs and umbrella. This factor relates to natural shade provided by trees, caves, or shrubs.
4. Presence and quality of bars: This is does not over refer to the need to consume alcohol, but cold drinks and food as well. Also, since there are few public toilets at beaches, bars provide another useful function but their toilets appear open to everyone.
5. Parking: It is close and free?
6. Crowds: This is self-explanatory. I like a beach with some people but not too many that everyone cannot find their own space. We did reserve a 10 for a deserted beach but no beach we visited met this criteria.
7. Natural beauty: Are there islands, rocks, cliffs, and other things that provide interest beyond the sand and water?
8. Ambience: this refers to human activity in the area: building, architecture, paths, etc.
We doubled the weight of the last two factors as they seemed to be the big differentiators. This made for a total possible score of 100. Each category received a 1 as a starting point so 10 would be the lowest score. No beach received a 100 or a 10. The scores ranged from 34 to 85. We found that it became easy to quickly rate a beach. However, we had to do it quickly on site as it became hard to accurately remember the details after any time away. Comments on the scale are welcomed. The real test will be inter-rater reliability so this may be the next step for us. We hope to more apply it to some American beaches.
I welcome any paying opportunities to apply the scale to locations of your choice.
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