Sandego.net – On Trieste’s waterfront, a modest strip of pebbles beside the port preserves a summer custom that has largely disappeared elsewhere in Europe. At La Lanterna, better known locally as El Pedocin, beachgoers do not simply choose a place to put down a towel. They first choose an entrance: one for women and one for men.

The city-run beach operates with striking simplicity. Visitors pay 1.20 euros, roughly $1.40, at a ticket window, then pass through separate doors. Corridors lead to changing rooms and then to two different sections of shore. The separation does not stop at the changing areas. A wall about 10 feet high runs across the beach itself, keeping the male and female sides apart.…