Day 6: May 11th

Today was an absolutely amazing day. We got to go to the beach!!

We woke up around 8am and headed downstairs for breakfast (sweet stuff and a hardboiled egg!). I was glad I finally got some protein with breakfast. I learned, during breakfast, that the white of the egg is the only part that actually holds protein and the yolk is just cholesterol and fat.

We left the hotel at about 9:30 for Viareggio to go check out the architecture, etc. On the way there we stopped at Cittadella del Carnevale, a place where they make giant floats. The Spell of Carnival is equivalent to Mardi Gras, except the floats are even bigger and are all about political stuff. We were there for only about an hour, but it seemed that all of us were just ready for the beach. The proof for that statement is that everyone was lying in the sun on the ground as often as possible. I was one of them J

We finally arrived at the boardwalk at about 11:30am and had tons of free time. We didn’t have to be back at a meeting spot until 3:30pm, which was just fantastic. There was a group of about 10 of us that ate at this crepe place. I ended up getting a crepe with mozzarella and parma ham (don’t ask what it is b/c I don’t know exactly what it is). While we were waiting on our food a couple of us females went into a shop right next door and I ended up getting two absolutely AMAZING dresses. They’re very cute and super soft and comfy. The food finally arrived and I liked my crepe at first, but after about half of it I lost my taste for it. After we all ate we wandered around looking for a place to find Danielle a swimsuit and she got one, thankfully.

Next stop, the beach!!    We got to the place where we were told would lead to the free beach, so we walked on down to the water and flung out our towels to bask in the sun. I made sure to reapply my spf 85 sunscreen and I’m very glad I did. After I flung out my towel I immediately sauntered down into the water only to be surprised at how freaking COLD it was. Courtney (one of the Memphian photographers) happened to be close by and laughed at my squealing at how cold the water was. I GOT TO TOUCH A JELLY FISH!!!! I was expecting the jelly fish to be super squishy, but it wasn’t. It jiggled, but it was hard to the touch, but it might’ve been because it was dead and on the beach for who knows how long. Either way it was really cool. The beach was awesome as a whole. After we were on that part of the beach for a good 45 minutes a guy in an official looking shirt came over and asked for our tickets (uh oh!) because apparently it was a private beach. We weren’t the only ones that didn’t know…we picked up all of our stuff and wandered on down the beach to find the free area. We found it and ran into several others from the group traveling with us. We laid out to get some sun (nothing got through my spf 85) and then we’d walk into the water to cool off. One thing I didn’t expect was all the topless women! After we were on the beach for a good 30 minutes, a couple of us decided to act like the locals and sun topless. Definitely an experience, but it was a very freeing experience. Right before we left a actually got all the way into the water and swam around for a bit, which was fun J

We left the beach at about 3:15pm and headed back to our hotel for some free time and then another group dinner at Bango Stefanella. Calamari and other fried seafood were offered. I tried it, but I just couldn’t stomach it…I ended up getting a pasta with a spicy tomato sauce (really yummy).