BLOGYSSEY: A Spectacular Sunrise

More often than not, when I travel to wherever it is that I am travelling to, I don't truly believe I am there until I get home and look at the photos. At this point I get super excited thinking, "Oh my gosh, I was actually in London! Look it's me in front of the London Eye!" This is not to say that at the time I am not incredibly excited, but it never usually sinks in until afterwards. Or similar to how you don’t quite appreciate your summer holidays as much while you are having them as when you are in the middle of an annoyingly difficult test in the middle of your first term back and you think back to those long, hot days and wonder why you didn’t enjoy them just that little bit more at the time. However, one very fine morning last week I had a moment where I truly realised the beauty of that moment in the moment itself. This occurred whilst watching a spectacular sunrise over the Adriatic Sea.

Just a reference for those of you who don't actually know where the Adriatic Sea is (or like me didn't know what sea it was between Italy and Croatia!)

For as many days (or rather mornings) I have been in Censenatico I have told myself I simply MUST get up early one morning to watch the sunrise. In our holiday location, on the east coast of Italy, the sun rises over the sea (rather than setting on it as it does on the Tuscan coat, closer to where I live). I had seen the setting sun on the sea and it was gorgeous, but I wanted to add a sunrise over the sea to my collection of beautiful things I have seen in Italy, and I was sure it would be a worthy addition. Finally, on the third to last morning I would be there in the summer of 2014, I got up before even an inkling of light had touched the sky, hopped on my bike and rode off toward the sea. With a chilly breeze reminding me it was almost autumn, I sped along trying to keep warm resulting in my arrival time rather earlier than predicted, but giving me unexpected time to sit and enjoy the slow and gorgeous colour changes on the horizon. And had I been prophetic, I could not have chosen a better morning!

My first view of the sunrise

Distant rain on that vast sea

Once seated on one of the vacant sun beds, ignoring that fact that my toes were beginning to ache with the cold, I took a proper look at what I was seeing. Above the still dark sea was about an inch of clear, coloured sky above which was a line of abstract clouds, flat bottomed with fluffy tops, before the clear sky continued on above. In that inch of clear sky above the sea, pinks, oranges, reds and yellows swam together for miles in both directions making it almost impossible to decide at what exact point the sun would appear. The clouds above were dark greys, almost black in parts with the top ‘fluffy’ part whose outlines matched the warm hues below. Under the largest of these dark clouds I could just make out slanted lines of grey giving away the fact that despite the clear sky above my head, somewhere in the distant sea there was a heavy rain fall. Distant enough not to affect me, but close enough that I could see its natural beauty. That morning the sun rose like Hazel Grace fell in love, slowly and then all at once. That stunning scene remained in front of me, unchanged for over 10 minutes when all of a sudden within the space of a couple minutes the colour that stretched so far seemed to be pulled into a centre point, right in front of me, and it was there that the sun broke over the edge of the world (almost blinding me in the process!) heralding that the day had begun.

Outlines on the 'fluffy' clouds

Sun breaking over the sea

Once the sun had cleared the sea and was heading up through the layer of cloud, I headed off, walking down the beach a little ways. Watching the men raking the sand into tidy lines, looking over the empty sunbeds that would soon be occupied by thousands of holiday makers. Passing or being passed by other early morning risers who were likewise enjoying the beauty of this little daily miracle we so often forget to appreciate.