Kitewind Bay

Capalbio is the last town in Tuscany before the Lazio border, a hilltop borgo with Etruscan roots and a ring of medieval walls that are still mostly intact. The kiting happens down on the coast, on the long sandy beach in front of the Lago di Burano — a brackish coastal lagoon held back from the Tyrrhenian by a double line of dunes, and the first WWF reserve established in Italy. The spot is known for two things: open-sea riding off a wide, largely undeveloped beach, and the fact that almost nothing has been built on this stretch of coast. For decades the borgo itself has been an August fixture for Roman politicians, writers and assorted intelligentsia, which is why Italians still call it, half-joking, the radical-chic town. None of that reaches the water. What you get on the beach is wind off the Tyrrhenian, chop, and space.