8- L'Italie

Yesterday, I went to Italy for the first time! The group took a bus at 11:30 am and we arrived at Sanremo, a cute town on the far west coast of Italy, at around 1:00 pm. After a hurried lunch (we were all so ready to explore Italy!) me and a few others headed out to shop and explore the town. Of course, the first thing I wanted to do was order a gelato. I got 3 flavors: Nocciola (Hazelnut), Stracciatella, and Creme Brulee. The prices in Italy, especially for ice cream, were much cheaper than those in France, so I had to take full advantage of it)! Besides the prices, I was surprised by how different Italy was from France; I was expecting the two to be very similar. I can't quite grasp what the differences were, but Italy had a very different feeling. Not surprisingly, it was extremely hard communicating with the Italians, considering I know about two Italian words. But I was proud of how much I could understand and how well I could communicate, all thanks to having studied French for several years. Once we were tired of shopping, we went to the beach to swim and tan. The water was so calm and peaceful, and swimming was enjoyable. It was nice to spend time on a sand beach for a change- for the past few weeks in the Cote d'Azur, I've been spending time on plages a galets (pebble beaches) which are not nearly as comfortable to walk on, as you can imagine. After a good few hours of beach time, we had a classic Italian dinner as a group: pesto pasta and tiramisu. Overall, my experience in Italy was fantastic! I'm really glad I got the chance to go to Sanremo and experience a different culture.