Fun In The Sun. Saturday 26th September, 2009.

We stopped at Paninoteca-Birreria Pizzeria for pizza by the slice on our way to the beach. This was the place Claudia says is her favourite, where she took us for lunch the day we first arrived in Castiglione. We understand why, it is ours too. It is a rather unassuming place. To be honest, if it wasn’t recommended to us we probably would never have tried it, it looks a little bit unkept from the road side, but inside is a pizza nirvana. We ordered simple Margarita pizza, two slices each at 1.20 euro a slice.

We spent the afternoon at Castiglione’s beach, it was pretty busy being a weekend. Castiglione is a popular holiday/weekender for Italian families as it pretty easy to travel to from Rome, Florence and Milan. We waded out into the depths, the water was pretty clear. I was doing well until I saw a jelly-fish swimming towards me. That was it, I screamed like a big girl’s blouse and high tailed it into shore. With encouragement from the boys I returned to try again. Now there were things touching me. I would stand waist deep in water, look down and all I could see were my toes and the ripples of sand on the sea bottom. The next minute I would be screaming my head off after feeling something touching me. I yelled and screamed and the boys laughed and laughed at me. Again we returned to shore. JR did the next stint alone with AJ. I watched from the safety of the sand. They went out so deep and I longed to be with them so I had a little talk to myself and decided that everyone out there swimming was just fine, if no harm was coming to them, no harm would come to me. When the boys came back and AJ begged me to join them again I did just that. I had a little cry this time giving the boys more fodder for laughs. Once we got out deep enough and we could not touch the bottom, I calmed myself and had a lovely time. In fact, when the boys were ready to come back to shore, I was the one that wanted to stay in the water. The African dudes tried to sell us everything but the kitchen sink as we lay on our beach towels in the warm sun, we waived them on firmly but politely.

We cooked a lovely dinner at home, spinach and ricotta tortelli with a tomato and garlic sauce, and after, we got dolled up and wandered the streets, taking in the wonderful summer, seaside feel that is Castiglione. Everyone was out to enjoy Saturday night. We strolled slowly (I am teaching JR how to stroll and he is doing rather well) enjoying a gelato. JR couldn’t resist dropping into Dal Buchaniere for a late night snack of Margarita pizza, no one resisted of course although I must admit to only having a sliver.

I was ready for bed when my head hit the pillow tonight. My skin had become thirsty after the salt water and I had a little bit of colour to my usually pale complexion. Don’t you always feel exhausted and exhilarated at the same time after a day at the beach?