To the beach

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Not mentioned in my last two blogs is that Lindsay has a bad cold which we thought might have improved by today. To some extent it had but he wasn't well and needed to go to bed for the day. No beach for him.

Yet another lovely day weatherwise. Perfect for the beach where we were to join Diego and family who had gone ahead yesterday with their campervan.
Since we were now four and not five we were able to pick up Elisa's Mum from Pierina and Piero's house in Portogruaro and head for the beach south of Bibione and north of Caorle. It's an extremely popular area for locals, campers and beach bunnies. The camping area was full of Campervans and parked cars but no beach was to be seen. Because of trees covering the large flat terrain, you cannot see the sea until you get to the actual beach which is reached via a bush track. Umbrellas were erected all along a huge beach with people in swimming, walking or lying about. The sand is soft and warm and is very pleasant to walk on. It's like a powder. If you're into people watching, this is the perfect place. Beautiful beach babes with very little left in their bikinis to leave to your imagination or maybe just babes with minute bikini bottoms and no tops. Then there were the large lumps of lard who should not even be see in bathing togs! Whew! So, eye candy for everyone.

We walked for about a kilometre along the beach paddling in and out of the water, checking out shells and any interesting beach bits. We eventually reached the cafe that Diego had booked us into for a seafood lunch. And what a lunch it was! - a starter of crostini's of different fishes, huge bowls of clams and mussels followed by quick fried baby octopus, calamari, small white fish, red fish and flounder. Lastly we had espresso coffee with grapa. All in all a very unique experience for we Kiwis and a fitting end to our Italian visit.

BUT, wait, there's more! Pierina dropped us back at the farm where we warmed up the remains of the huge pizzas from last night and the seafood from lunch. Pierina arrived back with Piero and yet more food. This included tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, lettuce, mozzarella, wine, beer and to top it all off, a birthday cake for Kevin whose birthday is Tuesday. We set up a table for nine in our apartment dining room and enjoyed our last get together.

What a wonderful few days we've had with our Italian cousins. They have been incredibly generous and we're so lucky to have this family connection. They can now get back to normality and relax.

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Photos

The long sandy beach stretching towards Caorle
This stretch of beach was soon festooned with colourful umbrellas and hundreds of people but there was lot's of space for everyone

A huge bowl of clams
Two large bowls were left on the table to throw shells into

Under cover for lunch
A shady place for lunch on a warm, sunny day.