About us

LidoRank is an independent civic project: bringing transparency to beaches worldwide with structured reviews and verifiable data, useful to citizens and to the authorities overseeing the maritime public domain.

Giorgio Menicagli Pirina

Founder

Italian engineer specialized in advanced artificial-intelligence systems for the aerospace and defense sector. He holds a BSc in Computer Science and an MSc in Artificial Intelligence (with honors) from Northeastern University London, and has collaborated with DESY researchers on quantum convolutional neural networks. His interests go beyond engineering, touching the social implications of AI — economics, political philosophy, the history of technological change. He is the author of the book AMAKOM: A Perpetual Peace for the Age of Robots.

Francesco Mancuso

Founder

Italian Ph.D. researcher in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California, specializing in comparative politics, international relations, and analytical political theory. His research examines the implementation and local consequences of the Bolkestein Directive, focusing more broadly on how local social capital shapes community and institutional responses to market-liberalization policies within the European integration process. Drawing on fieldwork with public officials, beach operators, and beachgoers, he studies strategies of harmonization, adaptation, and institutional change. A native of Livorno, Francesco holds an MA in Legal and Political Theory from University College London and a BA in Economics and Finance from the University of Pisa.

How LidoRank was born

LidoRank started from a simple question: why is choosing a beach club still so opaque? Prices not always posted, sea access that should be free by law, family services and accessibility hard to compare. In the middle of the debate on concessions (the Bolkestein Directive), a neutral tool was missing.

The idea is to combine two worlds: the rigor of public data (maritime-domain concessions) and the real experience of people (vertical reviews across up to ten criteria). An information base useful to citizens for choosing and to authorities for oversight.

LidoRank was co-founded by Giorgio Menicagli Pirina and Francesco Mancuso. Giorgio leads product and engineering; Francesco leads policy analysis, research and institutional relations. Built also with the help of artificial-intelligence tools, under human supervision.

← Back to home