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Water Detecting in Italy

B

brimo

New member
Hi, Been looking in on this forum for a long time and marvel at the finds made.

Has anyone been detecting in the beach surf or in the lakes of Italy? Have you been to Italy and seen anyone detecting in the water either at the seaside or at a inland lake edge.

Would be interested in knowing what the real score is with Italy? i.e. whether it is tolerated at the seaside or do the locals object to others doing it on their patch.

Any info you can give would be much appreciated.
 
Hello brimo. There used to be a guy, who posted here and lived in Italy, WAY back in the day. Do a search of posts, back around '06-'07 and see what comes up. I think he used a PI PRO, anyone who remembers his name, chime in!
 
Luca Ridarelli

lucar
 
Summer is not the best season to practice metal detecting on the beach in my country, however i PM you some advice.

Have a nice holiday!!!
 
Hi guys!
I 'm a novice in metal detecting recently settled in Italy. Could anybody advice me about the legality of metal detecting in Italy?
Well, of course I know that archeological sites are off limits, but what about places in general? Is it allowed to search in beaches, fields and forests, etc.?
Questions raised by Brimo in this topic are also very interesting. Any advice will be highly appreciated!
 
ujat said:
Summer is not the best season to practice metal detecting on the beach in my country, however i PM you some advice.

Have a nice holiday!!!
Click to expand...

Why not post it here for all to read? We could all benefit from new knowledge.
 
There was/is a link, that circulates from time to time, of a list of all the European countries, and their laws regarding metal detecting. I don't have the link handy, but perhaps someone else will link you to it.

Basically, in the link, it seemed that all but England had dire sounding things, if not supposedly out-right prohibited it. But I think you have to read between the lines in the link: because the laws they refer to, may only apply to federally owned, or publically owned, land. Thus you could work farmer's fields, with permission, to your heart's content, perhaps. Or to the extent it may sound like applies to all public land, yet casual beach detecting (where you are not going for ancient antiquities) seem to be excepted. That is to say, if you asked high enough up the chain of bureaucracy, you might find someone to tell you it applies. Yet detectors go un-bothered on the tourist beaches. In other words, the laws may be there to protect historical monuments type things (and shipwreck salvor and export of gold-bars type stuff), yet is not applied (in actual practice) to beach hunting.

For whatever reason, in some of the more dire sounding countries, there is no lack of hobbyists, and even dealers. If you were to talk to them, and ask them "how do you do it in-lieu of this link?", they'd say it doesn't apply to anything but federal sites, or "registered" sites anyhow. Or they hunt private land. Or quite frankly, they're so far back in the woods, no one's there to object.
 
Thanks for your answer, Tom!
Probably you meant this link: http://www.ncmd.co.uk/law.html
I found it in the very beginning of my search, but the info there seems to be outdated and not full.
Anyway, it's inspiring that you opinion on this matter is quite the same as mine.
Still, it would be very helpful to get some advice from local Italian colleagues...
 
Yes Serpent, that's it. As you can see, when you read country-by-country, the terms "archaeological", "historical", "antiquities", etc... come up again and again. And the dates of some of the sources go way back before metal detectors. So obviously, the terminology used to protect historic monuments, the pyramaids, and other such stuff. That would be no different, I suppose, than ARPA here in the USA, which has scary sounding stuff in it too. Yet we all know you can detect here till you're blue in the face.

In those countries with dire sounding things that people assume applies to md'ing, if you read it in the light on finding things that are not historic, antiques, and archaeological, then you be ok. So the simple solution would seem to be that you are only looking for modern change, tourist loss-jewelry, etc... ! Because I mean ..... seriously now: is anyone really standing over your shoulder, looking down at each coin date that you find? Do they have a calculator, figuring the age of each one? And my math never was that good anyhow! :)
 
Yo! I'm in Italy. I went out just once in the past two years... Too much work... Up on a hill in the woods, I found a Gander watch. I usually checked out beaches and countryside. Found a gold ring the first time out, then all the rest, just pocket change and a worn silver Austrian coin from around 1850. The very last time I hit the usual beach, after the bathing season was over, I found the sand dug up as if it was hit by a meteor shower... Holes all over the place... At least I covered up all the holes I dug up... sheesh...
You can find Italian Lira and rusty Euro coins, lots of tin cans and tin foil, some cheap chinese toy cars, lawn chair rings, and those beautiful aluminum pull-tabs... Grrrr....
Tinfoil is the easiest thing to discover before digging it out.
Fabio
 
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,while visiting from U.S. First of all Americans are not loved in Europe and if you are not very careful about where you detect....when you detect.....and what to say to the authorities..............you and your finds are "toast"!!! Only thing that saved him was his Italian relatives.....old grandpa had some old friends on the force. Enjoy the place and your vacation.......leave the detector at home..............it belongs in the land of the free!!! There's still a lot of Mussolini in Italian laws.
 
So you're saying that if a person was Italian (and not a visiting American) and used a little discretion (ie.: don't be tromping on sensitive spots with bored busy-bodies around), then those hunters would probably be ok? The reason I ask is, for some reason, persons are detecting there. Perhaps it's not American tourists that stick out like sore thumbs though?
 
I just posted this picture today to the Fisher classic site. Finding lots in 5 hours over 4 days in the Ticino part of Switzerland. Had a few folks come up to me, and they were friendly. Averaging about $16.00 an hour in coins, and found a small 18 kt ring. Looks like I was the first one there after the beach closed for the season, but also dug a lot deep. These are the coins that I needed to tumble to clean up, there were several more including Euros.
 
Thank God ! Someone with an I.Q.

I detect most of Europe from Spain to the Black sea. There's more places you can detect than not detect as long as you know what your doing.
This includes knowing the curfew times for the particular beach you want to detect on. Whether its classed as an S.S.S.I. (site of special scientific interest) this could mean rare plant/lizard or beetle etc, whether the coast is being eroded (detecting is allowed in theory) but no digging to protect marran type grasses. Depending on country this could mean just a ban at the top of the beach or down to the mean high water mark. Don't forget nearby military sites which can mean a ban on the whole area of adjoining beach.

There's almost always a small sign warning of the start of a prohibited area on a beach where the rest is open to the public or a note on a large sign at the entrance to a beach that details general regulations such as where dogs are allowed to be taken trouble is you need to be able to read the sign and the fact your from abroad does not save you from a fine or confiscation of equipment.

I wouldn't leave your detector at home but do check what the rules are for each area you detect. Notice that those who are happy to egg you on don't take the risk themselves.
 
Brian, using silver-coin-boys post, as an example, I went to the Switzerland section of the link. I see this verbage:

" ...... legislation exists to ban unauthorised search or excavation of antiquities. "

I suppose some md'rs, who are preparing to travel, might look at that verbage, and wonder "well gee, what if I find an old coin?" I'm not sure if any of silver-coin-boys coins are old (hard to tell from the pix), but let's say that some are. How then, did he do it? Or if none of his coins are old, what if he *had* found an old coin (by accident while searching for new ones)? Is he to alert someone? Would he have anyhow? Is someone watching over his shoulder checking dates?

I'm sure there's trouble lurking everywhere, for persons who show no discretion. I'll grant you that. So too have people been "roughed up" here in the USA for hunting a sandbox probably. I just wonder, when I read these rules for the other countries, why it wouldn't be analogous to the USA "ARPA" laws. I mean, perhaps a European hunter, considering a vacation to the USA, might read ARPA, and assume the country, in like manner, is also off-limits? Yet we all know you can hunt here, as long as you're not tromping on sacred sites.
 
A follow up to Tom in CA

If you find something that appears to be really old >200 years, or valuable in Switzerland, then you should take it to the police station or town hall to register it. Does not mean you will loose it, but complies with rules. The picture I posted are all current coins worth face value.

If I found a 16th century gold coin, I would take that in to register it. If I found a valuable diamond ring, then ditto for it.

Also, if you are unsure of you are allowed to hunt, don't hesitate to ask the local govt about permissions. The Police have much wider powers over things in the US we would consider administrative, but they are usually helpful. Show your detector and some finds, i.e coins and trash. They love when you remove trash from their beaches, especially sharp stuff.

What I have found about Swiss beaches, is that the trash is VERY limited, so that I dig about 1 good target for 2 pieces of trash, that is with my disc set on minimum.
 
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