‘Why don’t the inglesi come here any more?” The question was asked by a customer at Caffè Roma in the seaside town of Alassio, whose pre-second world war British population could reach 5,000.
There are several reasons, I think. From the late 19th century, wealthy Britons would arrive in October to escape the winter cold, stay until May, and then head home before the torrid Italian summer. These days, British people with that kind of wealth probably winter between Zermatt and the Caribbean. But neither has Alassio great appeal to more ordinary Britons wanting a summer holiday: August temperatures can hit the high 30s, crowds and prices surge and, as in so many Italian resorts, the sands are taken over by beach concessions from Easter to September.
