What is Silvi known for?

Nine kilometers of Adriatic beach awarded the Bandiera Blu since 2008 for water quality and beach management. Anchor of Abruzzo's first marine protected area, a 1568 Spanish watchtower now ringed by the region's last intact dunes. Home of Saila Liquirizia since 1937, the factory built inside a converted Kursaal theater on the Silvi Marina seafront.

Silvi is a comune in the province of Teramo, Abruzzo region of Italy, about 16 kilometers from Pescara.

Abruzzo · Teramo

Silvi

A split town on the Teramo coast, medieval Silvi Paeseabove a nine-kilometer beach that built itself on licorice in the 1930s.

16 km / 10 mi

Nearest hub (Pescara)

15,361

Population

May–Sep

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Silvi is two places held together by a hill. Silvi Paese, the medieval village, sits on a ridge overlooking the Adriatic, called Castrum Silvi in the Middle Ages and Matrinum in Roman times. Silvi Marina, nine kilometers of beach below, was a fishing strip until 1931, when the municipal seat moved down from the hill and the coast turned into a summer resort. The town runs on two industries that have nothing to do with each other. Saila Liquirizia, founded in 1937 in the converted Kursaal theater in Silvi Marina, still ships Italian licorice from here. The beach holds a Bandiera Blu and forms the northern half of the Torre del Cerrano marine reserve, the first protected sea zone in Abruzzo, established in 2010 around a Spanish anti-pirate watchtower built in 1568. Pescara is fifteen kilometers south.

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Gallery

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Known for

Silvi Paese
Medieval upper town at 242 meters, the original Castrum Silvi, with stone alleys and a panoramic ridge over the Adriatic coast.
Torre del Cerrano
Coastal watchtower built by the Spanish in 1568 against Saracen raids, now the heart of the marine protected area between Silvi and Pineto.
Area Marina Protetta Torre del Cerrano
The first marine protected area in Abruzzo, established in 2010, covering a seven-kilometer stretch of coastline with intact dunes.
Spiaggia di Silvi Marina
Nine kilometers of Adriatic sand, awarded the Bandiera Blu for water quality and beach management.
Saila Liquirizia
Historic licorice factory founded in 1937 in the former Kursaal theater, now part of LEAF Italia and still operating in Silvi Marina.

When to visit

Best months · May–Sep

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

May through September is when Silvi Marina fills, the lidos open, and the nine-kilometer beach works as advertised. July and August bring heat, Italian school holidays, and the maximum crowd density between Pescara and Teramo. June and September are the better months: the sea warms enough to swim, the lidos still run, and the inland breeze keeps the evenings tolerable. October through April the beach empties almost entirely, the marine reserve becomes a place for migrant birds rather than swimmers, and Silvi Paese on the hill carries on at its own pace, restaurants thinning to weekend openings and locals walking the ridge for the view.