Viareggio, 'The pot', and Nutella

My beach trip and this entire weekend have been perfect! Early on Friday morning, (since we have no classes on Friday) Christy, Kellen, Julia, Chris, and I headed to Pisa. This is only about an hour train ride, (with stops) and the trains for it leave every half hour. The day actually started out pretty crummy because Christy and I got to the train station three minutes too late and missed the 8:27 train. The rest of the group had already gotten on this train, however, and left us. So, that left Christy and me, the two most directionally challenged people in the world, to try and navigate ourselves through the train station in our broken Italian and somehow onto a train to Pisa. Luckily we ran into a group of English speaking guys, who turned out to be in a study abroad group from A&M and UT, who were also going to Pisa. So, we sat with them on the train, which took away most of our stress, thankfully. Pisa is a cute, small, quaint little town. There isn’t really much to see there. Once you see the leaning tower and take the tacky tourist-y picture of you holding the tower up, (or kicking it over, if you are Chris) then you’ve pretty much seen Pisa. It was very amazing to see the leaning tower in person, I’m not saying that wasn’t an incredible experience, but when Mauro told us there wasn’t much to see in Pisa, he was right. We looked into climbing into to tower (yeah…they let you do that…) but it was going to cost more to climb the tower than the entire day’s trip would have cost. So, we nixed that idea and headed back to the train station to go to Viareggio.

Viareggio is the perfect little beach town. The ocean was pretty easy to find. You just get off the train and head straight for ten minutes. We had lunch at a small little beach front café, which was surprisingly reasonably priced, considering the location. We also bought granitas from them later in the day. Granitas are so much more incredible here than in the states. They are basically fresh fruit slushies, but the flavors are indescribable. Because they are a ‘summer time’ treat, they are going to stop selling them after next week, so we have to stock up now!!

They beach was perfect! The water wasn’t as blue as I expected from the Mediterranean, but it was a beautiful sand beach, and the water was so clear, you could see the bottom even when you couldn’t touch. There was nothing in the water either, not like the Texas coast where there’s seaweed, shells, and small ocean animals everywhere. We had to really search for shells on that beach. We did all the typical tourist beach things…sunbathed, read, relaxed, buried our friends in sand, swam, gawked at all the old topless Italian women. Oh yeah…so, it’s not really a nude beach, or even a topless beach for that matter, but all the old women like to sunbathe without their tops. (Everyone here is so tan…and they apparently don’t like tan lines…) And they all seem to have a different view of modesty here as well. These old, big women don’t seem to have ever heard of a one piece or tankini swimsuit. That’s a fashion statement that hasn’t reached Italy yet. These women all liked to wear string bikinis. Or thongs. And all the men wear speedos. And the little girls don’t wear tops either. It was really the most strange seeing that. I felt too covered up wearing my sports bra. Considering I didn’t bring a swimsuit…

Anyways, that was my beach trip. It was the most relaxing day. And we chose the best day to go, considering it hailed in Florence, but was sunny and ninety in Viareggio. It has been raining all weekend here. We have been staying inside mostly, going to museums and trying to work on our homework. It’s hard to be studying in Florence because there’s so much I want to see and do and homework is not one of these things.

Last night we had our first creepy Italian guy experience. We were standing in the middle of the Palazzo Republicca, trying to talk to our friends on the phone and give them directions of how to get there by looking at the map. This guy walks up and asks us if he can help and takes Christy’s phone to try to tell Chris where to go. We finally figure out where they are and decide to meet them there, so this guy offers to walk us over there. We thought that was kind of him, at first. I have learned my lesson with these Italian men. First he tells us he’s 29, but then later takes it back and says he’s only 26. Then he starts asking creepy questions like ‘are you single?’ I, for once, decide to be straight with him and say yes. Christy lies and says no. From then on, he would only talk to me. Although he had to first ask me three times if I was a lesbian. Looking back the answer to that question should have most definitely been yes. He told me at one point that he was in love with me because I made his heart go boom. You have to love the boom boom… So, he takes us half way to the location of the place before he starts asking me ‘if I smoke the pot?’ When I said no he started asking me why not, because according to him, “everyone in the US does drugs…you know, like the cocaine pills?” Then he just starts laughing uncontrollably. So, Christy gets mad and asks, “Are you high?” And he just said, “Well, yes.” Almost like, duh, why would you ask such a question? So, we managed to shake him off finally and decided we would never ask for help from another friendly Italian man because he will probably be high.

So, that was my weekend, in a nutshell, the highlights and lowlights. Oh, and I have found a new love…nutella. Mom, why have you never told me about the wonders of nutella?!