Day 7 - June 9th, Saturday, 2012

Day 7 - June 9^th, Saturday, 2012

Woke up around 10, and it was our Sabbath. We had just had a crazy week, so we were by no means going to rush around. So we sat around the house reading till about 12:30 and then went to La Via, to eat some leftovers that we had in the fridge there for lunch (save some money). Then we headed down to the Passetto to relax down by the beach. We laid out some towels and were there for about four hours. Took a nap in the sun, tanned, I went and skipped rocks, climbed out on the rocks (these giant wave breaker rocks are everywhere to protect the Pasetto and the rest of the beach from being destroyed), people watched, got in the freezing cold water for a bit, and the waves got really choppy, so I went to watch the waves on one side, until the waves got so crazy that they would crash over and get me soaking wet with cold salty water. Kelley was with us guys and she was going to go with her host parents to their daughters volleyball game, so we went up and waited on the steps of the Pasetto for them to arrive. We were going to go with her too but there wasn’t enough room for us in the car, so we went back to Marcus’ to think of what to do. Well Marcus was there and he reminded us that there was a fireworks show in a town to the north called “Senegalia”, which is right on the coast as well, so the beach is visible there too. We didn’t have anything planned so we decided to go. So we had some downtime before the show then we headed out. We had to take a bus to the train station, and the bus we were supposed to catch came earlier than it was supposed to, so when we go to the train station we had to hurry. Next we were buying the tickets and had about 8 minutes to spare. We turned and went down some stairs that go below the tracks and come up on all sides of each track. It was a long hallway that goes down quite a ways and had tracks 12 to the right 11 on the left then about 20 feet down 10 to the right and 9 to the left, and so on. We got to the end and realized that we had gone down the wrong one and had only a few minutes to spare! So we started walking fast, the jogging, then running, then sprinting! Up the stairs across the platform, and down some other stairs, down another set of stairs and to the end and then over and up some other stairs and we found out train waiting there. It was a close one, but we boarded and they said they had 6 minutes before departure! Nothing ever leaves on time in Italy, good for us though. So we were on our way to Senegalia. There were three towns in between Ancona and Senegalia, which, for this train, meant three stops. We were at one stop when another train from the other direction came zooming by and scared us, and I was in the seat right by the window, so I nearly jumped out of my seat. The thing went by in less than half a second, and it was crazy loud. After that we just chatted until we arrived in Senegalia. We got off the “Treno” and walked through Senegalia which was teeming with people, thousands, literally. So we followed Marcus through the city to a restaurant, but the restaurant was so busy that we just waited outside while Marcus ordered and waiting for take out Pizzas, which were delicious. We sat on a low wall near where the fireworks were to go off and ate before the fireworks show. We walked back to the main Piazza. By this time there was already a huge crowd, probably close to 8,000 people were there. In front of the Piazza there was a dome shaped building with a  balcony encircling it toward the top. On the balcony were all pyrotechnics. The lights in all the city shut off and the show began. The first song was Frank Sinatra’s “Luck, be a lady” with fireworks synced to the song in special parts, shooting all sorts of colors in all different directions, this song and show was my favorite by far. Then they played a song by “Queen” and another song that I’m not sure, all syncopated with fireworks. I found out that they were all companies that were putting on the display and it was a competition to show off who had the best show, and it was two days of fireworks each set from a different companies. So all the songs with displays that we had just seen were from just one company, at about €400 per shell, which is about 500 U.S. Dollars. Basically it was a very expensive show. The next company was about to start so we went down by the beach which is a sand beach, not a stone one like the one in Ancona below the Pasetto. So I took my flip flops off to enjoy the sand and chilled and chatted for a bit before the next show which went off on one of the large concrete piers. They were shooting the fireworks from back where they were originally, everything was done through some sort of switchboard so they shot three test shots that simply exploded, very loudly, you could feel it in your chest. Then the show started, no music this time, but it was still great. They had special shells that they shot into the water and they exploded from out of the water and looked amazing. They had several more that were great and for the end they just barraged the sky with as much as possible, it was amazing, better than any show I’ve seen in the U.S. After that we went around town for about forty minutes looking at a fort built some 300 or 400 years ago. After that we boarded our train and headed home, this train was a bit different, and it just sped straight to Ancona, no stops. After we got off the train Marcus let us know that we had a bit of a walk ahead of us. It took about 40-50 minutes to get back to his apartment, so we chatted as we walked back. And we all crashed as soon as we got there. Not a bad end to a week if you ask me.