Beach Life

 Yesterday I jumped on Tracey's bike and headed for the beach - towel, togs, something to read, a bottle of water....

She said to find the  passway under the train lines and then the avenue of trees and then head straight down - easy. 


She mentioned that you could pay for a sun-lounger but that there were free beaches there too. So here's the thing. People are granted a permit, like a peppercorn rental for a particular area of beach, which they then cover with sun-loungers, umbrellas etc for renting out. What I didn't fully understand is that it is not possible at all to sit anywhere on the beach apart from those sun-loungers (let's call them resorts, these areas). The rental guy has an obligation to provide a restaurant, games area, swimming pool,  showers to rinse off after being in the sea and even, in some cases, a catwalk to get you to the water without getting  really sandy feet. The ones I was looking at were 35 euro and for that money you got two loungers, a picnic table and two chairs and either a sun umbrella or a canopy thing. Most of these were empty given that it is the end of the season. I still wasn't tempted in the slightest - even the sea wasn't tempting.

I cycled out onto a pier to try to fully grasp the extent of this place (and to see if I could see any other New Zealanders on their towels) - I reckon that statue guy is looking sad because of the state of this beach life.








Some people pay for a season's rent and as the years go by if you keep coming back to the same place, you gradually move closer to the sea in terms of the rank of your placement. Wow - let that sink in.

I spoke to a woman (me standing there with my little back pack of towel etc) to see whether I could in fact just sit on the sand (the signs said 'no littering the beach with towels or personal belongings' at risk of a fine) and she said sure, just sit here for a while. I sat for 5 minutes and felt so conspicuous that I decided to move on. It felt as though every person who walked by was looking at me. I went in search of the free beach (a mythical thing) but didn't find it. The beach goes on for miles, merging into the area called Forte dei Marmi (more on that next time) and as far as the eye can see, there are these defined resort areas. It was incredible in a really tragic way. We are incredibly lucky in NZ. In so many ways.

I must have cycled for about two hours and it was flat and pleasant, all on bike paths. There's a lot to be said for getting around a town on a bike when there are no hills.

I did of course have bike envy, so many pretty bikes on the paths. All very ladylike and elegant, no rushing, just pedalling those pavement cruisers.







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