They are many and they are angry, Italy's more than 7,000 owners of the facilities on the country's beaches.

The places where people rent sunbeds and parasols and where there are kiosks, restaurants, showers and toilets.

75 percent of the facilities are run by families, who have often had the right to operate on their strip of beach for generations.

- We have been here for 96 years.

We have built everything here, says Simone Battistoni.

Since 1926, his family has run Bagno Milano in the seaside resort of Cesenatio on the Adriatic Sea, where 90 percent of the baths are run by families.

- That's the great thing, we receive people here from the cradle to the grave, says Simone Battistoni.

His mother Mara Maltroni, 82, agrees:

- We want this to be like a second home for our bathers.

Lowest bid wins

However, a new law means that the families' right to run the business will no longer be extended automatically.

Already within just over a year, all beach places will be put out to tender and the highest bidder will be allowed to take over the business.

The law is intended to increase competition and mobility, but has met with major protests.

- How should we small families be able to compete with fund companies and large companies, also from abroad?

This is like David against Goliath, says Simone Battistoni, who believes that new owners will raise prices.

- I have customers whom I have known for decades, I don't want to raise.

But a new owner sees numbers, not people.

Bather Fabiola from Bologna agrees.

- We always come back here because it is familiar, me and my daughter feel at home here.

We probably wouldn't do that in a large multinational business.

Mitigating promises

The Italian government now promises that family businesses will be treated differently when the bidding starts.

- We will make sure to take care of the places that are run by families, they have a better chance of keeping their places, says Tourism Minister Massimo Garavagna.

Simone Battistoni believes it when he sees it.

- I will fight all the way and if I lose I will never give all this away for free, I'd rather burn it to the ground.