Anzio

Last weekend, Anna and I intended on taking a Saturday morning train to Orvieto for the day.  I looked at the schedule and it said there was a 8:45am train that got in at 10:15am.  We left our apartment at 8am to get to Termini (the main train station), went to the kiosk to buy our ticket, and discovered that the first train to Orvieto doesn't leave until 11am.  I had been looking at the weekday schedule and didn't even think that the Saturday times would be different...oops! We knew that we didn't want to wait, nor did we want to go all the way home to come back in 2.5 hours, so we looked at the list of upcoming departures and picked a random, cheap city to visit: Anzio.

Anzio is a small town one hour south of Rome that lies on the mediterannean sea. We found our way, no problem, from the train station to the center of town. We stopped for a cappuccino and cornetto at a local bar.  There were tons of cute clothing and trinket shops that we went in and out of and were both on our best behavior and didn't buy a thing! We walked up and down the street along the beach. We stopped in the piazza to people watch and soak up the sun by the fountain for a while. Next thing we knew, it was time for lunch.  We checked out all the menus of the restaurants that were on the beach to find a place that wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg for lunch and decided on a very cute restaurant that had a patio overlooking the sea.  It was very beautiful!! We split a bottle of wine and had gnocchi with prawns and zucchini.  This is what I call an ideal day!

We loved Anzio so much that we decided to go back again last Sunday.  Giuseppe and Francesco's mom was visiting for a few days and the boys both had to work on Sunday, so she came to the beach with us. A full day of practicing my Italian! We found an 11:07am train to take because we were still a bit exhausted from waking up so early the day before. We got a late start leaving the apartment and were cutting it very close to catch the train.  I was at the kiosk trying to buy my ticket and this particular one didn't accept cash and I tried 3 times to use my credit card, but it didn't work.  We were about to miss the train.  We literally stepped on the train and the doors closed behind us...it was far too close for my liking!!

The water in Anzio is MUCH cleaner than the water near Rome.  At first, there weren't many people on the beach, but by mid-afternoon, it was packed. It's amazing that it's October and it's still 85 and sunny here. It has only rained one day since i've been here...I know that more rain is on the way in the next couple months. We decided we wanted to take the 5:37pm train back to Rome.  We got to the station with 20 minutes to spare this time, but of course, the next train didn't leave until 6:37.  It usually leaves every hour.  Why this day it didn't? No reason. The town was too far to walk back to, so we just hung out at the train station for 1.5 hours. It never fails to be an adventure here!

Anna and I have decided that we want to do things like this more often.  Perhaps on an upcoming Saturday, we'll go back to Termini an pick another city to visit for the day.