In Italy, as it’s known, the nudity is generally not allowed by law. However there are many secluded spots where you can practice naturism without too much risk. One of these, and the nearest (12 km East) to the city where I live, Genoa, is a corner of the sea cliffs in the Comune of Pieve Ligure, called Scalo Fontanino. Here, there are only rocks, no beach, but the view from the promontory of Portofino is very nice and the water is clean. A high rocky cliff protects from unwanted viewers from the villas above. The “seats” available are not numerous, but still there is always enough space to lie down and sunbathe for all visitors. This is my favorite place where I usually spend my weekends, naked and happy!!
Here just a couple of pictures with me in one day with stormy sea.
Il nudismo in Italia non è legale ma qui è tollerato. E’ proibito il campeggio, accendere fuochi o usare droghe.
La spiaggia è raggiungibile dalla stazione ferroviaria di Corniglia. Si va in direzione del paese ma non si salgono le scale che portano al paese e si prende l’ex tunnel ferroviario in direzione Vernazza che sta sotto. Attualmente l’accesso al tunnel è libero anche se le ferrovie ritengono sia pericoloso attraversarlo, ci vuole un po’ di attenzione ed essendo completamente buio è indispensabile una torcia. Le informazioni su cancelli e pagamento di pedaggio sono riferite a qualche anno fa. La concessione è scaduta da anni.
Il tunnel resta l’unico modo per arrivare in spiaggia non essendo più praticabili i sentieri dopo l’alluvione dell’ottobre 2011. In 15 minuti si raggiunge questa incantevole spiaggia ben frequentata da italiani e stranieri, ma che resta sempre un posto assai tranquillo.
Finally, the New York City part of the World Naked Bike Ride is set up for running riding, and even in two parts!
It will take place on the 9th of June, next Saturday, together with most of the Northern Hemisphere cities participating in WNBR. As I wrote earlier, we do need this event in New York, there is a lot of room for improvement in terms of body freedom and biking, and with claims of being the capital of the world, this city should set an example in these issues.
I got an email from one of my readers about a hike that has become traditional on the summer solstice day on a stretch of Appalachian trail in Vermont. Although I am not sure I am joining this time, I would encourage to check it out. Here is the text that I got and a couple of pics:
Here are the directions to the hike. From Bennington, VT take US Rte 7 north to Danby. In Danby, turn right onto Mt Tabor Rd(Becomes USFS #10) and drive about 3.4 miles to the AT parking lot(on right). We meet there at 9 AM. From there we pile into some of the cars and head to Wallingford. In Wallingford we turn right onto VT Rte 140 and drive another AT parking lot( about 3.4 miles, parking lot is on left). From there we start hiking back to the other parking lot. The hike is approximately 10 miles. The first 2.5 – 3 miles is uphil after that it is a roling downhill There are plenty of ops for photos. About 2 miles from the end the is Little Rock Pond and is time for cooling off or doing some swimming. After that, it’s back to the cars. The hike is classified as moderate to easy.
In times when the Olympic torch has just been brought from Greece to London Olympics, it only makes more sense to post about one of my favorite places for camping, which bears the name of Marathon. That is where Persians attempted to invade Greece… and from where, allegedly, the courier ran all the way to Athens to tell the news of victory of the Greek army. This story, in turn, inspired the Marathon race! But I think not many people know that the beach where Persians once disembarked their warships is nowadays a perfect place for running. Given that even modern Greeks are quite easy with nudity and the beach is never crowded, you can run the way Ancient Greek athletes did – naked!
This is how this place looks from the plane:
Marathon is a little over 2-hour ride from buzzing Athens, but to get to the wilder part of the beach, you’ll have to walk from the bus station along the beach for more than an hour. (That is if you don’t have a car.) However, it is totally worth it. It’s a great weekend escape, and we often went there to camp overnight.
It’s easy to find a nice cozy spot for you tent.
So, there is not only a nice beach but also an old pine forest
with a pond
and numerous trails to wander around.
Scarcely growing old pines were perfect for hanging a hammock.
It was a lightweight variety, but still cozy enough to chill out, feeling the sea breeze all over body. I was learning Greek with a book, but not for too long as you can see…
Other “facilities” at the beach include a couple of metal platforms that are not in use anymore but are still stable and provide nice views over the beach.
But why stay on the beach all the time, if there is a forest next to it?
We were exploring whereabout of the ancient battleground in full tranquility and…
full nudity too 🙂
Haven’t I mentioned tranquility?
And of course we didn’t just walk and sit there. We also played beach bats during day,
and at night we tried a fast version of badminton, ‘Speedminton’, completed with glow sticks in the shuttlecocks. To see each other, we also decorated ourselves with glow sticks.
Then we also attached glow sticks to frisbee, which made it look like UFO in the night sky. Too bad our cameras couldn’t catch it, but it was quite a sight!
Another time, we ventured for a long run forth and back along the beach; wet sand was compact enough to run comfortably. Just a few patches have some colorful pebbles instead of sand.
If all that is not enough for your entertainment, there is also a bunch of friendly stray dogs that are happy to keep you company.
World Naked Bike Ride is a worldwide demonstration promoting cycling as an urban mode of transportation, as well as body acceptance. Riding naked is symbolic and effective way to draw attention to vulnerability of people against the traffic and pollution, and it also shows that being nude is not lewd. That is why we need WNBR so much in New York City, as well as probably any other big city, perhaps with the exception of Berlin, where you can ride your bike wherever you like, and you can be naked even in Tiergarten, Berlin’s equivalent of Central Park. There has a been a stunning improvement in making New York a bike-friendly city, but still, there is no cross-town bike lane in the entire Midtown Manhattan from the 20th to the 90th street, for example. Also, even though it is legal for women to be top-free in public in New York, Felicity from Young Naturists America was arrested for walking topless during an art performance on Wall Street!
This video that went viral a while ago, pretty much summarizes just some of the daily troubles of cyclists in New York City.
WNBR in New York was a big success in 2010.
It gained more momentum as a protest against oil-dependence – it was a year of bp oil spill – and the naked demonstrators did not miss a chance to stop by a bp gas station.
But last year, we did have some issues. First, we had unusually cold and foggy weather on the day of the ride, even though during the week the weather was fine. So the ride was postponed and we only had a after-party-turned-promoparty, which was actually fun.
Then when we had the second date set, there was too much police presence and no one dared to go totally naked for most of the ride.
I opted for a minimalistic jockstrap, as well as many others, and some body paint (it said ‘Green light to bikes’ on my back). I also had a tree fixed in my bike bag, as a symbol of Green.
That cherry bike painted on the back of one of my ride mates was my creation inspired by the logo of Pacha, my favorite dance club in New York. Actually, when I go out there, I do come on my bike 😉
We rode through most of Downtown and Midtown Manhattan,
and made a brief stop at Union Square for some dancing.
Only in the end, when police stopped following us, some finally disrobed totally on Williamsburg Bridge
and arrived to the after-party in Williamsburg just like that 😎
The after-party was at a bike shop, a perfect setting! I was spinning some upbeat electronica in the backyard.
I hope this year we’ll manage to cooperate with police more thoroughly, just like it was at the WNBR in Madrid when I was there in 2009, or as it happens regularly in London, which traditionally gathers the biggest number of naked riders. By the way, I wonder how WNBR will go in London this time, in the summer of the Olympics. But in any case, we need to organize the naked ride in New York, what kind of World Naked Bike Ride will it be without New York City partaking? And so far there is no certain information about WNBR NYC even regarding the date
To get there, walk from Corniglia train station in the direction of the village. Don’t go up the stairs, walk down, turn to the right and walk in the dark abandoned train tunnel. The access to the tunnel is free. Old information about the charge is no longer true.
But you will need a flashlight. After 15 minute walk you will find this gorgeous beach. It is usually very quiet and peaceful. Always nude, free and happy!!!
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[that sounds like a fun way to get to a beautiful beach!]
With this miserable weather in NYC in the last couple of days, I can’t help sharing that we actually opened the beach season two weeks ago at Fort Tilden.
I already mentioned that we went there on an unusually warm day last November, so it was only more pleasant to come there on an unusually warm day in April and enjoy the first rays of sun and awakening nature.
Although it is autumn that is usually acclaimed for diversity of color palette, the spring forest of Fort Tilden looked very multicolored too.
We first hid from the wind behind the dune but then ventured to the beach itself, but didn’t really dare to enter water.
… there wasn’t only awakening nature, though. That dried horseshoe crab found its new identity as mask 😎
A video with young guys from Fratpad showing all kinds of moves from shower dances to real break-dance, created a stir among several visitors of this website, but was eventually deleted by Vimeo for copyright infringement. I still keep this video on Dailymotion.
Another video with naked dancers, an advertisement from London’s super club and electronic music label Ministry of Sound, went somewhat unnoticed. But now it’s been deleted from Vimeo too, for another reason though:
Vimeo does not allow pornography or sexually explicit material.
I don’t think that they show sexual acts in any known to me form; I don’t think that they show anything else except several young people dancing energetically to dance anthems of early 2000’s. If someone doesn’t realize that some parts of human body may dangle and sway during dance, this is a good educational video. But it does not make it pornographic in my opinion. And I don’t buy the argument that someone might find it sexually arousing: most pop music videos have some ‘sexy moves’ in their choreography, and many dance styles incorporate moves that you can find similar to sexual acts…
Vimeo offers a possibility to appeal:
If you believe this was an error, please reply to this email in a civil manner with your reasoning (“I see other people do it” is not a valid reason).
If you have some ideas on what I should write them, please help me.
It looks like this year I am finally going to Burning Man!
I heard about it for the first time years ago from Los Angeles-based Ukrainian woman on a bus in Berlin. She first asked me for directions, and then we were talking about random stuff, and all of a sudden she said I should check out Burning Man. I don’t know how, but she knew I would love the idea of a festival that celebrates everything peaceful and artsy and where nudity is seen as a part of freedom of self-expression.
Needless to say, it’s been on my wish list ever since. Strangely enough, I was reminded about Burning Man once again by a random encounter at a subway station in New York, by a guy who asked for directions… and he happened to be from my native Ukraine as well. It was last September and he just got back from Burning Man, full of impressions.
Last year was the first time when the organizers had to limit the amount of tickets and it was quickly sold out. This year, they tried a new lottery system for selling tickets, and I was among the lucky ones who got the tickets! Yay!!! A lot of things will have to be organized in terms of logistics, but it will be a lot of fun 😎
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Active Naturists 