World and people

ROME - Most Italians think nude sunbathing is
perfectly natural and don't mind crossing paths with bottomless
beach-goers -- even when those bottoms are unsightly, survey
results released Sunday said.

While topless sunbathing is widely practiced in Italy,
bottoms are usually required and nudists can face fines of more
than 500 euros on some beaches, the Italian Naturalist
Federation said.

But the federation said a poll it commissioned from a
mainstream media outlet found nearly 70 percent of those
surveyed said they would sunbath nude if everyone else did it.
More than 80 percent said nudism was not erotic, but natural.

Women were more frequently bothered by nude sunbathing than
men. Just over 40 percent of women said they did not like
seeing other naked females on the beach, while just 5 percent
of men shared their opinion about nude women.

The survey found nearly two-thirds of men said they weren't
bothered by nude male sunbathers.

When it came to unattractive or "brutto" sunbathers, most
of those surveyed in the country that champions physical beauty
said they didn't object to seeing them naked either.

Only about 16 percent said they were vexed by unattractive
women nudists and 9.7 percent objected to unsightly men.

The Federation said the survey would bolster their hopes of
getting more beaches set aside for nude sunbathing.

# posted by Mike @ 3:27 AM