INTO THE BLUE

Our Top 10 guide to the best of Italy’s coastal wildlife

With a coastline of 7,600km (including islands), the sea has always been hugely important to Italy, helping the country maintain healthy trade links and providing vital sustenance through the ages. For wildlife lovers, the thriving coasts of the Italian peninsula also offer a bounty of wonderful sights, and their diverse habitats are home to myriad species. There are plenty of ways to enjoy the creatures that live around Italy’s shores, whether your tastes run to a boat trip looking for whales and dolphins, or you prefer getting up close and personal with the ocean on a diving expedition.

For this feature, we’ve focused on ten remarkable creatures of the Italian coast, having spoken to people with first-hand knowledge of these animals. The inescapable fact is that today many of these species face mounting threats to their populations. But by using ethical operators with a responsible ethos when we travel, and by learning more about the remarkable world below those crystal waters, we can take an important first