Part 2
It ended up only being Cinzia, Giulio and me that went to the beach house for the second part of my break. I thought that the grandparents were coming too, but either they decided not to or it was lost in translation.
It was very beautiful there. The house was actually an apartment about 5 minute walk from the beach and it had a decent sized garden/yard area. Cinzia has small lime, orange and mandarin trees growing out there. They also have three turtles that just live in the garden. Its completely enclosed by a fence and I guess they can't fit through because they just hang out in there all year round. We bought lettuce at the store one day and when Cinzia was washing it she hands some of it to me and points to outside. I'm like, I don't understand… So she makes me follow her and she starts throwing the lettuce in the garden. At first I'm like what is this lady doing? She was throwing them where the sun was so I thought maybe she was drying them? kinda weird. But then the turtles start coming for it! Its like feeding cows, except Oh, ya know, just out feeding the turtles.
The ocean was beautiful, very turbulent though. Cinzia said its that way year round. The only ocean beach I really remember being to was way up in the Gulf of Mexico where the water hardly makes waves, but here the waves were probably 5-8ft tall. There were a couple guys out wind surfing which gave me a perspective as to how big they really were. Burr… I'm bundled up in a coat scarf and sweater and they're playing in the water.
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| Giulio Climbing on the Lifeguard Stand |
We were going out for pizza that night and thats all they told me about dinner. So we get in the car and next thing I know we're parking in what looks like a residential area. Then we just kinda walk into this house. I'm thinking are we eating here? We stopped by to see some of Cinzia and Giulio's friends, but she sorta failed to mention that to me. Thats where sometimes I wonder if I just didn't understand her earlier or if she decides she doesn't want to explain everything. Anyway she introduced me and everything and the kids tried speaking little bits of english to me which was cute, but I'm still not sure if we're staying for dinner or just chatting or whats exactly going on. I'm getting good at just going with the flow. That kinda seems to be how things are when I hang out with my host family. I think we're doing one thing and next thing I know we've stopped somewhere else for a while, and then they're like "ok, we're going now" and then on the way we end up somewhere else haha who knows. Somedays I think I understand Italian and then other days I wonder if I really have any idea what they're talking about.
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| View of the Mediterranean from the Hills |
We did go to pizza, but not until we walked to this other restaurant and picked up some little girl who for about 10-15 minutes I had no idea who she was. Italians like to talk. A lot. So getting a word in edgewise just to ask, "who the heck is the 6 year old?" is rather difficult. I don't remember her name now but she was the daughter of the family we had just seen. Her brother was with us too, but him and Giulio were so busy goofing off he didn't really acknowledge his sister at first. By this point I'm just all kinds of confused.
We ended up having delicious pizza at a restaurant where Cinzia knew just about everyone. Small town. Kinda felt like home. She told me a story about this one time when she was eating there in the summer, she recognized this guy sitting at the table across from her, but she just couldn't figure out how she would know him. She didn't realize it until he was paying, but it was Harrison Ford.
The next day we went for a little bike ride. They asked me if I knew how to ride a bike and I was like, Yeah, Of course. Well, I should have specified that I know how to ride a mountain bike with the tires full of air. I had my purse with me, the kind you just have to hold on your shoulder, which is something I am very capable of holding while biking. Normally. Well… I've never ridden a road bike before. And to make matters more interesting the tires seemed to be a bit low. Leaning over that far to reach the handlebars is very awkward for me, and also made it impossible to keep my bag on my shoulder. It was a good thing they went ahead of me, cuz it probably looked like I had never seen a bike in my life. I kinda thought I was going to run into a tree. We veered off onto this dirt path thing that is rather bumpy and I discover how incredibly uncomfortable the seat is. Might as well have been a triangular shaped block of wood… Eventually I kinda got my shit together and stopped almost falling over just trying to turn and was kinda able to enjoy how incredibly beautiful it was. The path was enclosed on both sides by rows of HUGE trees. Then we veer off again and we're riding through the middle of an olive grove! So beautiful. But I'm still secretly praying I don't end up getting a closer look at one of these olive trees.
Again with the lack of information given out, the bike ride is an adventure to the grocery store. Didn't know that. We bought stuff for the spaghetti carbonara Cinzia was going to teach me to make. Spaghetti carbonara is made with eggs. Cinzia hands me the bag with the eggs in it to bike home with. Well shit. My pride is too big to tell her we may have scrambled eggs before we get there. Oh boy. And instead of taking the quiet way home that we came from, we take the busiest street she can find in town. Of course without a sidewalk.
I made it. I didn't die, I didn't hit a tree, I didn't even break the eggs (miraculously), but I may never touch a road bike again in my life.
Cinzia taught me to make the spaghetti carbonara because I told her that hers was the best I'd ever eaten. It was amazing. Again. I think I could eat that for every meal.
The last day we went around and saw a bunch of the little towns tucked up in the hills near the ocean. They were all really neat and full of character. They're all little walled cities like Siena, just much much smaller.
Overall it was a pretty fun time, but after three days with them I was ready to get back to Siena to relax and just take a day off of traveling. I really do get along with the Grandpa much easier than the rest of the family. He just really knows how to explain things to me so that I understand, so it was nice to come back to him and Carla where I felt like I could talk easier.
