In my first
year of high school I took up rowing, a commitment that followed me through the
entire 5 years. As much as I loved the sport it did rob me of one thing – my
summers. As a summer sport I had to continue training through the holidays so
was never able to take particularly long trips and was often too tired to do so
anyway! When I finally finished school, and rowing, I thought I would finally
get a summer, however with my greater desire to travel the world I ended up
working as much as possible and before I knew it the New Zealand summer was
over. Basically what I am saying is I had not had a summer* in five years and
was naturally very excited to finally get one in Italy of all places!
Now I better
quickly say, as I am not sure if I have mentioned, but I am currently living long-ish
term in Italy working as an au pair for an absolutely fantastic family. With
the children's long summer holiday, we spend about 10 day periods at the
children’s grandparents on the east coast of Italy, in Cesenatico. It is an
absolutely amazing beach and holiday location, the exact type of place people
go to have the real summer experience, and I couldn’t wait to go myself – a
proper beach summer holiday at long last!
Because we
are lucky enough to live relatively close to the beach, every morning after
breakfast we all head down to the garage, grab our bikes and cycle to the
beach. And let me tell you, since doing this, I have fallen in love with
biking. I never hated it, and I definitely loved it as a kid, but up until now
I had not truly appreciated the simple beauty, freedom and joy of the humble
bike. I would hardly ride in New Zealand except for training purposes, and definitely
not as a method of transport. Firstly I had my car, and secondly I hated
getting ‘helmet hair’. However, a blessing of European law is that here I do
not have to wear a helmet and thus my hair is saved that monstrosity, and as I
don’t have a car here biking did become a particularly useful means of
transport. Cesenatico also happens to be an absolutely stunning area of
Italian with not only the beautiful beach, but also gorgeous country side. The
countryside here is not all crazy wild bush like New Zealand, but well
maintained fields of all colours and shapes growing all manner of different
plants. On the left and right are fields
of corn, sunflowers of freshly ploughed earth that looks as though a giant baby
decided to sprinkle crumbs of his giant cake in tidy rows. Dotted sporadically about
are old abandoned brick/stone farm houses or barns. The windows are little more
than holes in the wall, and the roofs dip comically in the centre just waiting for
the day that it will finally fall in. And just to put the cherry on top, the
whole area is incredibly flat (naturally.. being a coastal area and all). The
only ‘hill’ you will come across is on the way up a bridge or flyover.
Though, as I
said, it is not far to the beach, with the children it does take some time as
little Beatrice can only pedal so fast. However, it is incredibly cute to
watch. She sits up tall on her little bike, her mini pink helmet sitting
slightly off centre and her tiny little legs going full boar, her speed only
that of a good power walk. Giacomo has taken to riding behind her. He sits more
relaxed and pedals lazily, taking in the surroundings, experimenting with
holding the handles with only one hand (which often leads to a rather dangerous
wobble!) and only speeding up if he feels the need to prove that he can
actually beat his little sister if he wants to. The ride is always peaceful for
the first half with a safe bike path and very few other bikers/pedestrians. But
then we arrive in Cesenatico Centre. Though the path we take is still not open
for cars, it is open for pedestrians who seem ever abundant. Mothers with
pushchairs and fathers on bikes with kids on the back or the front or sometimes
both! There are grandparents with grandchildren, young blissfully in love
couples and teenagers making their way lazily down the cobbled street, gelato in
hand. And then you have Beatrice and Giacomo, not quite at expert level at
biking in a straight line. They zigzag back and forwards, just missing some
poor ladies foot here or a pram there. Every time I think there will be crash,
with my heart beating rapidly from fear rather than any exertion from biking.
But somehow, every time we make it through without a crash or fall.
As previously
stated, my summers since the age of 13 have been full to say the least, and now
at 18 I finally have the opportunity to do naught but lie on a sun bed, tan and
relax. However, it turns out I am not very good at this summer activity (or
lack of?) and usually only last for about 5 minutes before I get fidgety.
Sometimes I read (I have read more books this summer than I read all last
year!) but even that has its limits. And that was when I began people watching
which has turned into my greatest source of entertainment on this perfect
summer holiday. It is amazing how many strange habits people seem to have…
However I
will not get into that, but rather explain that the beaches here rather
different to the ones I was used to in New Zealand. While the actual beaches
are pretty similar, there is sea and then white sand (except for the fact that
there are absolutely NO waves here – but not something I want to get into right!)
In New Zealand you can just rock up to the beach, find a prime spot with a good
distance from other people and if you’re lucky a large drift wood log to sit on
before setting out your towel and maybe even a sun umbrella. However, here that
only applies to public beaches and those are so crammed you can’t even do the ‘spot
with a good distance from other people’ bit. All the rest of the beaches are
privately owned by different bars/cafes which line the beaches edge. Walking past
the bar toward the sea you may pass a few kids playground or beach volleyball
courts before you hit the part that makes it so very different. Rows of umbrella’s
and beach chairs run all the way down to the water’s edge, leaving only about 2
metres between this last chair and the small, lapping waves. Each bar has its
own colour and shape umbrella which creates large blocks of colour along the
shore. I always think the bird’s eye view would look amazing!
So there you
have it, after 5 years of waiting I am finally having the typical summer experience
which for me consists mainly of beautiful bike rides, plentiful reading, impatient
tanning and of course, people watching!
*by summer I mean an entire few months with
few or no commitments in the summer season
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