B&S Travels: Days 9 and 10

Italy 2011

Days 9 and 10

Day 9 We thought about taking the train to the beach, but the weather looked iffy. After our morning macchiato, cappuccino, and pastry, we rented bikes and rode three times around the wall. Lunch was outside at Ristorante da Francesco. On the way back to the apartment, we stopped at a small café’ for my daily espresso. An espresso in Italy is two swallows of very strong, pure coffee in a tiny cup on a tiny saucer. This is what the locals drink, and so do I. It keeps me awake all afternoon. When the locals get their espresso, they walk up to a bar, order it, and drink it standing up. It’s kind of like getting fuel for a car. Just like the locals, I add lots of sugar to it. Bob doesn’t order one, but he stands with me.

We fill our water bottle with water from the fountain. We love this Italian tradition. The water is always flowing from springs and is very pure. We even watched a woman with a walker filling her bottles. It’s so good that some forgo a bottle.

This afternoon we toured the cathedral and some excavated ruins under a church. We walked around and looked at possible places for dinner. We looked at, and made reservations at, Trattoria Gigi. It doesn’t open until 7:30 for dinner, and that’s the time we made our reservation for. It’s located in a piazza with pots of bushes/small trees surrounding the outside eating area. We arrived right at 7:30, and by 7:45 the place was filled! Our food was good, especially the tagliatelle with asparagus and pancetta. The weather was warm and perfect, and we strolled home to our apartment to relax some more.

Day 10

Life is even livelier in Italy on Saturdays. In and around town, there was the huge weekly outdoor market of fresh food, clothes, and artwork, a parade, and lots of foot and bike traffic on the wall. We also noticed there were several artists painting and lots of subjects worthy of capturing on canvas.

The weather looked good for a quick run to the beach. We are close to 40 miles from the beach town of Viareggio, but by train it takes 18 minutes as long as you get off and on when you’re supposed to. The trains run on time, which is a pleasant fact of Italian life.

This was our first visit to the beach in the town of Viareggio, and we had no idea it would be so enormous. It is a couple of miles long and at least as wide as a football field. Beyond the beach, there are eateries, bars, and shopping that line the length of the beach area.

There must be about 8,000 beach umbrellas! The entire beach is soft sand, and the water is warm and clean. We’ve been to beaches in France, Greece, Croatia, and other parts of Italy, and most are pebbled or rocky. We walked for a long time along the shore while carrying our shoes.

The water was ‘perfetto’ even for the guy with the bumble-bee swimming suite.

Finding public restrooms is an aspect of Italian travel that requires sharp eyes. We’ve learned that the railroad station is usually accommodating. “Public” doesn’t mean free in Italy, so having coins can turn out to be very important. In years past, we got used to a bathroom attendant that collects the money and hands out paper towels. Nowadays, they have started to automate the bathroom, as is the case below. You put your money into a machine and push a button, the door opens, and you’re given 5 minutes. The door opens automatically after 5 minutes, so lingering is not advised since there most likely will be people standing in line outside your door.

You leave, the door closes, and the entire bathroom is automatically washed for the next patron. That’s why when you walk into it everything is covered with water. It washes but doesn’t dry. What can you expect for 50 cents?