A DAY AT THE BEACH

It seems the rains have really stopped. Wow. This was a loooong Winter, which seems to have changed instantly into Summer. No Spring, and while that's a bit sad, i'll take these sunny blue skies and beach filled days over the cold any day.

This weekend we headed North into Tuscany to our weekend home. It was the first time this year that the weather permitted us to live it like it should be done. Flip flops, bikinis, sand in the toes and sea water in the hair. Late nights with friends around the pizza oven and kids running with fireflies in the garden. My poor babies are COVERED in bug bites, but aside from that there was nothing but goodness.

Excuse my gritty blackberry pictures, they are worse than the iphone but it's all I had with me at the time (yes, I know I just did a post on my new Leica, shame on me!).

This is the beach you find directly under our house. Its what our kids call 'the rocky beach' for obvious reasons. While the rocks pose certain challenges for little toes, the water is crystal clear and the restaurant behind these beds serves up the best food of the area, hands down.

I might have mentioned in past posts how much I love this little beach. It's literally like stepping back in time, back to the fifties. I'm pretty sure it's frequented by mostly 'original clients'. Actually a waiter last year told us the locals call it L'Utima Spiaggia, which translated means the last beach... you get where I'm going with this?

So while many of the fellow patrons are members of the original La Dolce Vita era, we have no problem blending right in as a young family. It's not polished in the classic sense. The beds don't match, the flowers pots are random, if it had a style, shabby chic, would be an understatement! But therein lies it's true beauty. It's a tiny slice of life left untouched. It's a little sliver of the world where it really is only about the sun, the sand, the water, the beauty, and the food.

Stella applying sun cream herself! Phew, I am so glad we have reached this point. I'm hoping this will make the Summer treks to the beach all the less stressful. It's no fun creaming up 2 wiggly kids who don't want to sit still.

The first swim. The water was A LOT more beautiful than my icky picture lets on. The kids were beyond happy and I went for a chilly dip myself.

Now we are back in the city, tanned and decidedly more relaxed than last week. Just two more weeks of school to go and then days like this can become the norm... at least until September rolls around!