La Nostra Giornata Alla Spiaggia (Our Day at the Beach)

Finally, yesterday, all of the elements combined to create the perfect beach day:  It was sunny (actually, there wasn't a single cloud in the sky), it was warm (but not overwhelmingly hot), and it was a Saturday (so that Tom didn't have to feel too guilty about not working).  So, when we saw that the beach gods were smiling down on us, we did what any good Romans would do and made a bee-line for the coast.

(slightly artistically (?) blurred) Scene from our Beach Day

It's funny, even though Tom and I were most recently Californians, being able to go the beach is quite the novelty for us.  Or, at least, I should say that being able to actually hang out and suntan at the beach is a novelty.  Although there's a lot of beautiful coastline around San Francisco, it's generally way too cold (we're talking sweatshirts and winter hats) and often too rocky to have the sort of beach experience that you can have here in the Mediterranean.

For those of you who aren't real familiar with the geography, Rome isn't quite on the coast itself, but it's only a quick trip away by car (slightly longer by public transportation, as we found out), and so going to the beach is a very popular thing for Romans to do on hot summer days. There are a lot of different beaches to explore within an hour or so from Rome, but another fellow (who also lived here last year) gave us a tip for a particular beach, which she felt best balanced quality with travel distance/time.

At the Pyramid near Piramide Station

So, at around 10 AM we grabbed our "picnic" lunches from the bar here at the Academy and headed out to the Piramide metro station, which was about a 30 minute walk. We could have taken a bus to the metro station, but, in our experience, it often takes longer to wait for and ride the bus than just to walk.  Plus, this way, we were able to stop and buy our much needed (but ridiculously expensive and tiny) bottle of European sunscreen on our way over.

We then took a train to the end of the Lido line, which runs southwest from Rome, to a town called Ostia.  I'm sure there are a lot of other interesting things to see in Ostia (including an archeological site), but this day was all about the beach!  It is possible to get off at an earlier beach stop on this line, but we've heard that beach is not nearly as nice.  So, from the end of the line, we then took a city bus along the coast.  This bus stops at about ten different beaches, and we basically just chose the the third or fourth stop at random.  In all (including the walking) the trip cost us only 1.5 Euros (each), and took about 2 hours.  Not too terrible (although it probably would only be about 30 minutes by car!)

Wading in the Chilly Water

In any case, it was absolutely worth it!  The beach was absolutely beautiful, with lots of sandy areas to spread our towels, relax in the sun, and watch the passing sailboats. The water was a dark blue and at least appeared relatively clear so that we didn't feel like we'd get dirty (or contract some strange bacterial disease) swimming in it. The water temperature felt very cold at first, but once you were in, it was great (and, with the hot sun, it would only take a few minutes to dry off afterward).

Of course, another fun aspect of being at the beach was walking along the water's edge and doing some people watching along the way.  The beach didn't seem to be very touristy at all, and so it was a good chance to see some Italians in their natural habitat.  Since (as you'll read below) these Italians were in various states of dress, it didn't quite seem appropriate to take many pictures.  So, you'll have to just trust me on the three main takeaways from our observations:

1)  Fashion of the late 80s/early 90s is back in full force.  Sure, you do still see a mix of modern things too, but there was definitely an abundance of hot pink and hot green beachwear.  And, when these colors appeared on men, it was often in the form of tight fitting bike-short like apparel.  As was done in the 90s, these colors were often set against or paired with black for that extra "pop."  There was no way you'd miss these folks on the beach!  

Me (not wearing fashion boots) at the Beach

2)  Many Italians "dress up" just to travel to the beach.  Like most Americans would, I headed out for my beach day wearing nylon (running) shorts,  a somewhat ratty old tank top, and flip flops (with my swimsuit underneath).  Clearly, though, I wasn't doing things correctly, because many of the young women on our train were wearing dresses (or at least very stylish shorts and fancy tank tops), big hooped earrings, and fashion boots/sandals.  I had initially assumed that they were getting off at an earlier stop and were heading out for a day on the town, but most of them ended up on the beach bus with us!  I still don't personally see the point of doing this (especially given my observation in point 3, below), but perhaps the idea is that you can never be seen looking less than great in public (even if you are just on the beach bus).

Tom (wearing way too much clothing by Italian standards)

3)  Once Italians actually get to the beach, they tend to wear very little clothing. Italians clearly don't have the same hang-ups about their bodies or nudity as most Americans do. Most of the men wear tiny speedos (rather than long swim trunks), and there were a decent number of women (of ALL ages) who went topless. Of course, here this is all very normal/expected, so it's not like the women (or men) have to worry about receiving any unwanted attention. Another interesting point was how many kids lacked any sort of bathing suit whatsoever Of course, in the US, I have  seen really little kids (maybe under the age of 2) running around naked in public, but even that's not super common.  Here, I don't think I saw a single kid under the age of two with a swimsuit, and it also seemed to be acceptable practice for kids up to the age of 4 or 5 or so.  Also, for girls, it seemed to be completely normal to wear only swimsuit bottoms (but no top) through about age 8 or 9 (something you would never see in the US).  At first, all of these practices seemed a bit strange to me, but, after a while, it did just seem normal- and perhaps somewhat liberating since no one seemed self-conscious or embarrassed about their own bodies.  

We stayed at the beach a good 3 to 4 hours, and by the time we finally made it back home (a bit before 6), we were completely and totally exhausted (or, at least, I was- Tom had to spend about 30 minutes talking me into leaving the room to get some pizza for dinner).  We're not sure if we'll be able to get any more beach days in this fall (the weather should start turning colder and rainier this time of year), but we'll definitely put another trip on our must-do list for this spring!  We've also heard that there are a few lakes near Rome, and so we're also looking forward to checking out some lake beaches (Minnesota style!) this spring/summer, too!

Alla Prossima,
Erin

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Sunday, Oct. 7:  yesterday was warm (80 degrees) and sunny, but today is a bit more fall-like (upper 60s and overcast)