We were having a great time at the famous Italian beach called "Maldive del Solento", relaxing and swimming in the turqouise waters when we started to see dark clouds approaching. With a few minutes, the sky was dark, there was thunder and we could see lightning in the distance. They made an announcement over the loudspeakers (in Italian) and when we saw everyone quickly packing their things and leaving, we understood that it was necessary to evacuate the beach due to the danger of a lightning strike. We started packing our things and we looked up and saw what seemed to be impossible--a tornado forming and moving in our direction. We started running for our lives, away from the tornado. While most of the Italians crowded into a little beach bar for safety, we kept running while some others on the beach were either unaware of were simply confused since no one expects that within half an hour, a sunny day will end up with a freak tornado hitting the beach. The tornado hit exactly the spot where we had been lying in beach chairs just minutes before. I stopped at one point to make two quick videos, but when it started moving towards us, we ran as fast as we could and made it to our car and escaped unharmed. Driving away, two ambulances were making their way towards the beach, so we knew that some people did not escape unharmed.