A fight broke out on a gender-segregated Italian beach after a woman tried to sunbathe on the male side.

The woman, who was with her partner, was confronted by another beachgoer after straying on to the male side of Alla Lanterna, better known as Pedocin, Europe's only gender-segregated beach which lies in Trieste, on Italy's north coast.

When she was politely asked to move on Saturday around 5pm, the young woman called the other beachgoer, who was also female and aged 50, 'sexist' and 'backward'.

She added Trieste was 'medieval' for its waterside segregation and added: 'If you have these customs, you're not Italian.'

The defiant woman and her partner had reportedly come from Milan.

'You're living in the Middle Ages,' she reportedly said.

'You're a bunch of sexist oafs... This is a form of discrimination. Shame on you.'

The woman who confronted her had come to the men's side of the beach, which is divided by a wall, to help her husband take their disabled son to the toilet.

After her angry outburst, the young woman approached the older mother 'threateningly' and raised her hand, according to Il Piccolo.

But the men on the beach were able to restore calm, though a female beach worker was shoved.

Following the altercation the tourist couple left the beach but demanded their entrance fee, worth €2.40, be refunded.

A wall divides the beach at Pedocin, where women and children up to the age of 12 are separated from the area reserved for men.

To meet with the opposite gender, beachgoers have to swim out to the buoys in the sea in a ritual that has lasted for more than a century.

Women reportedly value the separation because it makes topless bathing possible away from prying eyes.

'For the rest, just go to the buoys,' female beachgoers told La Repubblica.

Pedocin translates as louse or nit and it is thought the area was where travellers deloused horses, though mussels are called 'pedoci' in the Trieste dialect, with mussel farms nearby.

The beach has appeared in literature and film, with a 2016 documentary following the bay's regulars over the course of a year.

With more pebbles than sand, Pedocin is close to the city centre and attracts an older crowd who return often.

Cards are a popular pastime among the beachgoers and the entrance fee was just €1 until around the time of the pandemic.