For the third day the weather has been cooperating. We decided with 18 degrees Celsius it was a good idea to go touch the Med. Viarreggio is a popular beach town in Tuscany. In summer it is abuzz with vacationers, but at this time the beaches are practically empty. The road was mostly flat, with only a few undulating hills. When we arrived at the beach, we walked the bike a few hundred feet on the boardwalk leading to the water edge. To the north we had a stunning view of the Apuane Alps. The water was too cold to swim, so we just sat on the send, all to ourselves and had our lunch. On the way back we enjoyed a different angles on forts, small hill towns, and beautiful forests. Riding over rivers, canals, and on narrow streets, we passed through lovely small hamlets with the usual churches, villas, and clock towers.
We did see an interesting roadside site and confirmed our thoughts with Carmine tonight. On one stretch of road were many scattered young African girls sitting with small fires, or buckets, cups, etc. We did not see that they were selling merchandise, but later learned that they were the merchandise, prostitution of which is legal in Italy. They were positioned on this side street, which paralleled a major highway. It is sad that this is their seemingly only option to make ends meet.
We had dinner at Carmine's apartment ( Carmine is a SERVAS host we had stayed with for four days here). Carmine had his daugher and two of her friends all giggling happily and involved in an art project of making soap. We tried our broken Italian with the girls, who were eager to teach us a few new words. Mauny did a couple of magic tricks, but none was as good as the magic of pasta cooked by Carmine. After a few glasses of wine, and limoncello, we walked back to our apartment for the night. We will cherish the great hospitality and friendship of Carmine forever!
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