Just a day at the beach

Sorry, no pictures, they disappeared from my camera!

June 27th-28th

After a long week of touring, we decided to get out of the city for a day, and go to the beach. It took a while to get us all gathered together (there were 14 of us going) but we finally left. It was a bit tricky figuring out the Metro system at the main train station, and we even had to transfer once, but we made it to the Mediterranean. We went to the city of Ostia, which was only about an hour's metro ride from the city. It was perfect weather. I was surprised, though, when we got to the beach edge, and found gates! Every foot of the sea's edge was private property, owned by resorts and clubs. We ended up paying 10 euros at the place we went, which is the cheapest you can find. Thankfully, it also turned out to be one of the nicest places in that area (I'm not sure how that works out). We spent the day jumping in the waves (the water was cool, and very salty) and lying on our lounge chairs reading good books (or Dante).

On our way back into town, we stopped in Ostia Antica, which is supposed to have ruins that rival Pompeii. However, the place was closed, so we just walked around the town. At the center was this old castle (which didn't look open to the public), and right next to it was a church. I don't know if it was National Day of Weddings in Italy or something, but the church had four wedding groups outside of it taking pictures. It was a pretty nice church (and there was a castle next door) but it was still confusing...

As for Sunday, I went on my own little exploration of Rome outside the walls. I was actually looking for an LDS church, but it was so far out of the city, it wasn't on any of the maps I had. I only had a street address and general directions to it, but apparently that wasn't good enough. I just kept getting on bus after bus (I would get off when the bus started going the wrong way). I actually got pretty close to it, then bought a bigger map and walked the rest of the way there. It was a pretty small building, but it was full. I guess I looked Italian or something, because no one gave me the English-translation headphones for the first talk. It was quite different, and yet the people acted so similarly to people in the US. For example, I had two little brothers sitting in front of me, and the older one kept sprinkling cracker crumbs in his younger brother's hair (I don't think he ever figured it out). I'm going to be out of town for many of the next weekends, so I'm glad I got to experience the church in Rome at least once. After an eventful hour long bus ride back into the city, I spent the rest of the day finishing homework (it was just drawing - not that bad) but it still wasn't the most relaxing of days. I can't wait to see what this week has to offer!