AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Varco 3 is one of the numbered beach gates that cut through the Tomboli di Follonica, the state nature reserve of pine-clad coastal dunes ringing the Maremma seaside town of Follonica. Here the word 'varco' means an opening in the dune ridge, and 'spiaggia libera' means a free public beach: pass under the stone pines on a boardwalk path and you step out onto a stretch of shoreline with no concession, no fenced loungers, just sand and a clean, shallow Tyrrhenian sea.↗↗
This is a quiet, nature-first alternative to the busy resort beaches of the Gulf of Follonica. The reserve was set up in 1977 to protect a fragile tombolo—a low sandy ridge of pine forest running from the town toward Puntone di Scarlino—so the beach gate is part of a wider protected landscape you can walk through, cycle to and swim off, free of charge.↗↗↗
A protected shoreline between pine forest and sea
The Tomboli di Follonica form a long green strip along the coast, a chain of separate woodland nuclei anchored in the sand spit that links Follonica to the Puntone. The dominant tree is the stone pine (pino domestico) with its umbrella-like canopy, mixed with patches of hardier maritime pine. Planting of these dune woods began back in the 1880s and the mature stands you walk beneath today have been shaping the shoreline for well over a century, slowing coastal erosion and sheltering the land behind them.
