The Beach!

Yesterday, I went to the beach for the first time by myself. I had attempted this once before but when I stepped off of the bus, it started storming and it didnt seem like a good idea to tackle the waves. So, I decided to try out a new beach yesterday, Viareggio, and I really loved it. The sky was amazing and the clouds were some of the fluffiest white I have ever seen. From the shore (as is true on most Italian beaches) you can turn around and look into the mountains, and that is also breathtaking. I took some pictures of surfers (yes, there are surfers - I was surprised to see them in Italy though) and of the jetty and the kids making sandcastles. Viareggio is actually a fairly substantial town, unlike most beach areas around here, and I found the boardwalk to be much more like a Texas boardwalk than anywhere else Ive been in Italy.
I walked up to get some food from the bar and there was a girl there trying to order in very broken Italian. When she had finished I asked her what state in America she was from and she said Florida. Perhaps that was presumptuous of me, but I had a pretty good inkling. It turns out she had an umbrella next to mine with a friend of hers who was also from Florida and studying at Florence for the summer. They got me really excited about the coming school year because of how much they had enjoyed having classes and roommates and traveling in Italy. I can see how, when youre surrounded by new people to meet and new information to learn, things move so much faster. They leave soon but it was nice to meet people my age who had encouraging words about the coming year and said that they would "definitely do it again." Wahoo! Rome here I come...3 weeks and counting...