Sun, cars and pizza!

We are still suffering from jet lag but after a good night's sleep and a great day out the long trip seems worth the pain. I have to admit that yesterday I felt so bad it made me wonder if it was worthwhile.

It was another beautiful sunny day with a high temperature around 80 degrees and a tad too much humidity. Dom watched Formula 1 qualifying at 7 am and I took a short walk. Afterwards we took off for Marina di Massa and another auto/moto mostra scambio (car/bike swap meet). It was not a large event and the bulk of it was held on covered clay tennis courts--hence the red dirt floor in the second picture above. We spent about half an hour looking at the goods. There were some interesting old Fiats but I thought the most interesting vehicle was the old Fiat 600 Multipla out front. The first picture above is me checking it out. It seats six but four of those seats look like lawn chairs. They fold down to make a clear area in back for cargo. On the whole the vehicle reminded me of a shrunken classic VW bus.

After the swap meet we drove along the Versilian coast. There are many miles of sand beach there but you can hardly see it from the street. All along that stretch is one pay-to-play beach establishment after another. Mostly one sees the water when crossing over the bridges spanning the rivers and streams that empty into the Mediterranean along there. Occasionally there is a public beach but they are rare and a bit scruffy. In our experience it is worthwhile paying to use one of the private establishments. For Euros5-10 one gets a beach chair and umbrella plus the use of the facilities including changing rooms, showers, bathrooms, and the snack bar.

However, even though the day was warm there were not a lot of people around. It is October now and as far as the Italians are concerned summer is over. We stopped to eat at a restaurant in Lido di Camaiore. As is usually the case, the seating area faced the street rather than the beach. We sat outside and enjoyed really good pizza (our first since we arrived) and a lovely salad with lettuce, tomato, corn and carrot.

Afterwards we headed back to the house. It was time for naps. Later in the evening we met our friends Mary and Orlando for dinner. It was great spending time with them and we had a lovely visit.

We intend to continue to ignore the list of chores that need to be done around the house until Monday. Tomorrow it is off to a marcia podistica, the Formula 1 race and a little more relaxation before we attack the spiders, grass and dirt.