Speaking of Celsius, it's odd to have swimming pools under your arms and feel the moist drip of sweat slide down your back when the thermometer says 35. Thirty-five? Shouldn't it be snowing instead of the tarmac turning soft? While the temperature conversion continues to confuse me, I have made peace with the rest of the metric system. Sort of.
For distance, I've just decided that kilometers and miles, for all intents and purposes, will now be the the same thing. This works in my favor when a trip is, say, 500 kilometers, but only takes 3.5 hours. It's frankly terrifying though when you see the speedometer and you're doing 150 per hour in a Panda.
The metric system is fun in the kitchen. Most people have never heard of a measuring cup here as everyone has a scale and goes by weight. A quarter cup of sugar - using what size cup? I like it though. Makes me feel scientific. It also makes cooking pasta a breeze. Just weigh it. A typical serving is 80-110 grams per person. Done. But how much Parmesan should I add to the pesto? About a handful. And how much water should I add to the bean soup mix? A good amount, you know, enough.
Where was I? Oh yes, we were talking about my trip to the beach last weekend, or we were going to.
That's San Michele in Sirolo which is just a few kilometers/miles from Ancona. Going to the beach on the weekend is almost a formal requirement during the summer. I'm becoming more of a fan although I am not crazy about it which means it's just one more thing to be added at the bottom of the now quite long list of things my friends think are wrong with me. I'm trying hard to get more into the spirit but while they can spend six or seven hours at a stretch, the novelty wears off for me after a couple of hours. They are beach camels. Or whatever is something that is a good example of something that can do something for a long time. I am a fan of the rock beaches over the sand ones because I thought it would solve the whole "sand in the you know what" problem. Turns out you can also have a "small rocks in the you know what" problem which is kind of bizarre.
Sirolo is part of the Italian Riviera and survives mainly by what it earns from tourists in the summer. It's also a Blue Flag beach which is a cool program that started in Europe and is now spreading globally and basically means the beach is clean, accommodating to all, organized and well-run.
The government owns the land but in the more popular spots, they lease it to companies who then rent the beach to visitors. You pay by the hour for a beach chair and/or umbrella and if you don't you can't stay in those areas. Not everywhere is like this and there are still places where you can drop towel and enjoy the beach for free.
To reach San Michele, we parked in the city center (and we found free parking!) and then hiked a couple of kilometers down a cliff through woods filled with pine trees.
It was unsettling to smell pine in warm weather instead of Christmas but it was amazing. It's a rather steep, dusty track down to the beach, and there were cicadas in the trees making their racket. It was hot but in the trees there was a constant breeze that made it lovely. It all just screamed summer and by the time we made it down to the beach our feet were filthy, we were hot and a little winded and there was nothing to do but plunk down our kit and dash into the water. Most of the day was spent in the water floating and wrinkling. We had a picnic for lunch and then walked down the beach in the late afternoon for gelato. I got burnt but good. Being that I am brilliant, the night before I had frozen a bottle of water so I had that to drink all day as it melted. Delicious cold water.
They say nothing makes you as hungry or as tired as a day spent at the beach. "They" in this case being Valentina. For dinner we went to a pizzaria in Sirolo that only has outdoor tables. Just the bar and kitchen are inside. It's opens for the summer tourist season and does all the business it can before shuttering the rest of the year. There is a covered patio and a huge garden with tables nestled in amongst the shrubbery. It's really a very nice setting. The pizza was divine too. Thick, like Naples, and cooked in a wood oven. It's a party every weekend night as the town works to get as much money as they can during the season. Stores are open late, the piazza is full of entertainers, outdoor bars, vendors, etc. It's an amazing scene.
No comments:
Post a Comment