Beaches expensive and prices rising? No, wages stagnant.

In recent days, the issue of expensive beach prices has returned to the spotlight, thanks to the summer, social media, and a few celebrities who have decided to voice their discontent. Among them, actor Alessandro Gassman and other public figures have denounced insane prices for a beach umbrella and two lounge chairs in some Italian tourist destinations. Some are calling it scandalous, others are joking, and some say it's "a new discovery": in reality, price increases and high rates on Italian beaches are certainly nothing new.

Just go back a few years to see that the problem regularly recurs: high seasons, limited beach services, state-owned concessions that remain few and far between, and demand that exceeds supply . Price increases are almost natural, but the situation is becoming increasingly unsustainable for a large segment of families.

The high cost of beach holidays , however, is not an isolated case: just look at the high cost of restaurants . A pizza and a beer in the city center, especially in tourist destinations, can easily exceed 20–25 euros per person. In supermarkets , the high cost of food has never really let up: the quantity of your shopping cart has lightened, but not the final bill.

So the real question is: is it really all the fault of the "expensive" prices of goods and services? Or is the main problem that Italian wages have been stagnant for decades ?

Looking at the data, the average net salary in Italy hasn't grown significantly over the last twenty years, while the cost of living , albeit in waves, has continued to rise. This means that even moderate price increases become unbearable for those with stable incomes, especially in a context where rent, mortgages, utility bills, and fuel consume a large portion of monthly income.

The result is that the high cost of beach umbrellas makes the news because it's visible, because it triggers summer indignation, but the root of the problem is much deeper and less seasonal : a country where the real purchasing power of millions of people is slowly eroding, and where it's not so much the price of the umbrella that's off the scale, but the fact that their wallets always stay the same.

Perhaps, instead of being outraged only by the price tag at a beach resort, we should start looking at our pay slips with the same attention.