The Italian sea resort of Jesolo has introduced solar-powered sun umbrellas – an innovation that is being presented as a first in Europe, as well as a peculiar tourist attraction.
Entrepreneur Christian Rampazzo, who has developed the technology, told dpa that beach attendants open up hundreds of sun umbrellas using an app on their smartphone, often catching the eyes of curious onlookers.
“It is like watching flowers bloom,” Rampazzo said in a telephone interview.
Beach attendants will probably rejoice; during a recent visit to Ostia, a beach near Rome, one of them told dpa it took him and his colleagues “between one to two hours” to open 300 umbrellas.
Jesolo is located on Italy‘s Adriatic coast, near Venice. The municipality says Rampazzo has been working on his project since 2000.
“It is a unique system for Italy (and probably also for Europe,)” Jesolo‘s official website says.
So far, one Jesolo beach resort has adopted the new technology for 1,600 sun umbrellas. Rampazzo said he received orders to automatize another 15,000 for next season, all around Italy.
Source: DPA
