The Italian health ministry on Friday gave its thumbs up to swimming along 91.3% of Italy's coastline, a marked improvement from 20 years ago.
A ministry report on 5,410 km of coastline was based on 52,7845 test made in 2006.
In the 1980s, more than one third of Italy's waters were unsuitable for swimming, compared to 8.7% today, the ministry said.
Friuli Venezia Giulia was the region with the cleanest waters, with 100% of its coast open for swimming, followed by Molise (98.1%), Tuscany (98%), Liguria (97.6%), Basilicata and Emilia Romagna (97.3%).
The regions with the highest percentage of coastline with polluted waters were Lazio with 21% and Campania with 19.9%.
These were followed by Veneto with 10.8% and Calabria with 10.1%.
The ministry added that the quality of Italy's waters was being monitored on a regular basis "and for this reason mayors can ban swimming in areas approved in this report but which which have worsened since our tests were made".
Last week, the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) upped the number of Italian environmentally top-notch beaches.
The FEE increased to 96 the number of so-called 'blue flag' beaches, from last year's tally of 90.
The Italian region with the most blue flags was Tuscany, with 16, followed by Liguria with 13.
