Forte Dei Marmi

On Saturday, the parents of the family I'm staying with decided to go to the beach at Forte Dei Marmi, where they usually vacation in the summer.  I was a little hesitant at first.  For one thing, I've never really liked the beach (read, always hated), but I felt like being shown Italy by locals was too good and opportunity to pass up, so I said I'd go.

Forte Dei Marmi, to give a little context, is a gorgeous town on the seaside in northern Tuscany.  The area is known not only for its beautiful beaches but also for its marble-work (the name literally means "fort of the marbles").  Over the years it has boasted many famous residents, including Paola Ruffo di Calabria (Queen of the Belgians), Italian singer Zucchero, Andrea Bocelli, and Giorgio Armani.  Fun fact: Forte Dei Marmi's field hockey team is in the Italian A-league.  Thanks wiki.

Here's a picture:

Forte Dei Marmi is about an hour away from Florence.  An hour's drive through gorgeous mountains (in fact, one of the cool things about the beach is that what you see from the water is the mountainous landscape).  We got there by early afternoon, and I got to meet a bunch of this family's friends who were also at the beach for the day.  Most of them spoke Italian, which I do not, but it was still fun to see what every-day life is like for people who actually live here.

Here are four things I learned at the beach:

1. I dont really hate the beach.  I hate PUBLIC beaches.  Private ones, like this one, are awesome!
2. I'm white.  I don't think I've ever been the whitest person on a beach before, but here I was, bar none.  It turns out it is kind of embarrassing to be pale among all these dark italians.  If I've ever made fun of someone for being pale and getting sunburned, I now apologize.
3. Which brings me to number three.  Sunburns suck.  I got the first ever ever ever of my life at the beach, and it was pretty sad. : (
4. Italian children like silly bandz as much as American children.  I saw a girl with silly bandz from her wrist to her elbow.

Other than that, my day at the beach was wonderful and relaxing.  It reminded me that I'm on vacation, and even though there is a ton I want to do in Florence, I could sit at the beach for two weeks and still have accomplished what I came here for!