Our Last Day in Italy...

May 28, 2010

It was our last non-travel day in Italy.  Saturday we would travel by train to Milan, and then from Milan back to Geneva.  I had warned the kids that this would be just a packing-up-and-getting-ready-to-go day, lowering their expectations.  I was tired of staying up until 2 a.m. to pack and clean up each time we were ready to leave a place.  Or maybe I was simply tired.  We had scrambled eggs and fresh bread with jam and butter for breakfast, and I did a final load of laundry and hung the wet, clean clothes on the racks to dry.  By the time I finished packing up the girls’ things, it was noon… and I was realizing that it would be an absolute travesty to spend our last full day in Italy sitting around the apartment packing suitcases!  So I told the kids to grab their swimsuits: we were going back to Sestri Levante for a real afternoon at the beach, followed by a trip back to Cinque Terre to check out Monterosso (the last of the 5 CT towns and only one we missed exploring) and to see Vernazza (our favorite!) one last time.  We stopped at the travel office to get all of the requisite train tickets for the entire day to avoid ticket stress and then we were off. 

It was festival time in Sestri Levante, and the mood was relaxed.  As we headed for the pristine beach on the bay where we’d been just two days before, we discovered that it was now cluttered with garbage and white and blue jelly fish carcasses. Beachfront shopkeepers and bar owners were diligently raking up the mess, which seemed oddly confined to one side of the bay.

  

There was a net set up on the beach and some teens were playing paddleball.  There were people stretched out on the sand next to their piles of street clothes, leading me to believe that people must just wander over during a work or school siesta and strip down to their underwear for sunbathing, then reclothe and return to life.  People here just don’t seem to take life that seriously.  I could use a little bit of that.  J

I recognized a very tan older Italian woman; it was the same woman we had seen sunbathing there before.  As she stood to gather her things, I couldn’t help noticing with horrified fascination that when she bent over, she was striped – she was mostly very brown, but her sagging, aging skin was white in and under the creases and folds. I wondered if she was aware of the gravity-induced stripes.  Probably not.  And that was probably for the best.

The kids were fairly oblivious to the debris on the beach – they jumped over and around it but didn’t let it deter them.  They headed for the water in their swimsuits, splashing around, laughing and having fun.  They were joyfully living in the moment… but also joyful because they knew these moments were coming to an end, and they were soon going to be back home. 

After a few hours, it was time to move on.  I had looked for our friend Amir on the beach, but did not see him.  We stopped for some farewell gelato at Ice Cream’s Angels, and then headed back to the train station… and en route, we ran into Amir walking down the sidewalk.  Seriously?!  It was nice to be able to thank him in person for saving us from missing our train the night before, and to say a final goodbye before we left Italy the next morning.

We took the train to Monterosso, and walked down the beach, enjoying the gorgeous views of the CT coastline.  We went back up to street level and I told the kids that it was time for dinner.  They were all expecting to find our usual takeout kind of place, but I told them it was our last night and we could splurge a bit.  We stopped in at a restaurant with a back deck that extended out over the water, and ordered a few plates of pasta, a caprese salad and a small pizza.  Our kind and attentive waiter generously refilled our bread basket a couple of times as the kids happily mopped up olive oil and balsamic vinegar while we waited for our entrees.  An American couple from Oregon at the next table observed us for a while, and then engaged us in conversation.  It was nice to visit with adults and hear them marvel at what the four of us had accomplished on the travel front over the preceding three months.  Truth be told, it WAS a pretty fun story to tell.  At dusk, we left Monterosso and caught a train to Vernazza… and enjoyed a final stroll and some nighttime photos before saying “ciao” to Cinque Terre and returning to our short-term home in Deiva Marina.

View of Vernazza from Monterosso

This was our first table, but we scored a better one moments later.

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Vernazza

 

It was a spectacular and relaxing day -- the ideal ending to our stay in Italy.  And we left lots of things undone on the “to do” list for an eventual return trip.  I tucked the kids in their beds and then resumed my packing and prepping for the morning check-out and departure.