Bellavista Beach Club: Facing the Emperor’s Own Waterfront

Italy | Lazio | Roma | Roman Coast

Nero was born in Anzio on December 15, AD 37, and he went on to build one of the most extravagant private villas in the Roman world along this exact stretch of coast, a complex stretching roughly 800 meters along the beach and 300 meters inland, complete with a long porticoed terrace where he entertained guests and small waterfront pavilions where visitors could fish or swim directly from their own deck. I found it genuinely striking that a beach club offering sunbeds and beach volleyball today sits so close to what was once, by any measure, one of antiquity’s more genuinely opulent seaside resorts, built specifically for an emperor whose reputation has never fully recovered from his own excesses.

Anzio’s relationship with its most famous native son remains complicated even now. In 2009, the town’s mayor commissioned a statue of Nero specifically to honor him as Anzio’s favorite son, and the finished bronze, unveiled in 2010, now stands at the edge of the sea, the young emperor in his toga pointing out toward the water. Older guidebooks and tourism sources often credit this same stretch of coast with producing the famous Apollo Belvedere statue, discovered during the Renaissance and eventually installed in the Vatican, though more recent scholarship has revised that attribution toward a different site on Rome’s Viminal Hill instead, a genuine point of ongoing uncertainty in an otherwise well-documented history.

Wide, Raked Sand Between Two Historic Towns

Bellavista Beach Club offers fine, dark golden sand along Via Eolo, meticulously maintained each morning and spaced generously enough between umbrellas that I found genuine privacy even during a busy summer stretch. Facing toward both Nettuno’s medieval towers and Anzio’s own historic headland, the view here carried real weight once I understood how much imperial and medieval history sat just out of frame on either side.

Water Shallow Enough for a Genuinely Long, Easy Float

The seabed slopes away gently, keeping the water waist-deep for dozens of meters out, and I found the calm, current-free conditions here genuinely well suited to relaxed swimming rather than anything demanding, the sea holding pleasant aquamarine and jade tones on clear days.

A Beach Built for a Full, Active Day

Beach volleyball courts and inflatable water park games kept the club feeling genuinely lively, and given how organized this particular establishment is, I’d expect dogs to need explicit permission here, consistent with managed Italian beach clubs generally.

Getting There and Settling In

Bellavista sits on Via Eolo between Anzio and Nettuno, reached by direct regional train from Roma Termini to either station in about sixty to seventy minutes followed by a fifteen-minute walk or short taxi ride; drivers can take the SS148 Pontina highway south toward the Anzio/Nettuno exit, and the club’s own dedicated guest parking sits close to the main entrance, while Cotral regional buses connect Rome, Anzio, and Nettuno directly to nearby coastal stops. Anyone extending a stay along this coast will find Stabilimento Balneare Nettuno Beach a short walk away, sharing the same stretch of Roman coastline and its own layered history.

Standing Where an Emperor Once Entertained by the Water

By the time I left Bellavista on my last evening, Nero’s statue somewhere along the shore had settled into silhouette, and I thought about how strange it is that a town still debates how to feel about its most infamous resident, choosing in the end to honor him anyway, pointing an emperor’s bronze hand out toward the same sea that now simply hosts an ordinary beach club’s evening crowd.