Poetto, there aren't enough bathrooms: "Too few and dirty."

No toilet paper or soap, squat toilets, uneven floors, puddles, out-of-order bathrooms, shared showers, and spotless cleanliness. The bathrooms at Cagliari's Poetto beach could be better .

The seven municipal toilets, open from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., stretch from Marina Piccola to the Ottagono beach resort, and are strategically located along the approximately four kilometers of the waterfront. Not everything can be blamed on municipal organizational shortcomings; some people, after using them, "forget" to flush, with easily imaginable consequences. These unpleasant situations force bathers to retreat into the sea of the Golfo degli Angeli.

Yet it wouldn't take much to imitate the major European capitals that offer electronic payments, self-cleaning systems, and a one-euro fee for access. Just as it wouldn't be a bad idea to try to build more to meet the needs of the bathers on the "Beach of One Hundred Thousand."

Along the Poetto seafront, there is no shortage of illegal dumping sites at the entrance to the marina, waste bins along the walkways of the kiosks, and swathes of weed around the restrooms.

The full article by Andrea Artizzu in L'Unione Sarda, available on newsstands today and on the Digital App.