Buon Pasqua Da Italia!

I have this new jogging spot in Rome. It's in a huge park full of greenery with a big pond filled with ducks swimming in the middle. It's a 10 minute tram ride away from Largo Argentina.
Easter in Rome is the holiest of days, and is packed with tourists galore. The other day, a friend and I went to the Vatican just to sit back and watch the lineup. We were perched 

on top of some steps and spent the whole day watching the thousands of people who were 

trying to squeeze their way into the centre of the Roman Catholic church. A lot of these tourists were missionaries and it is Easter after all. Of course the Vatican is worth seeing when coming to Rome, but these people were lined up all day. In my opinion, there is so much that Rome has to offer, and that you're wasting your time by standing in line for five hours just to say, "I went to the Vatican at Easter." 
So how exactly did I spend my Easter, you ask? In Tuscany! On Thursday, the family and I drove to the Tuscan region to spend Easter on the seaside. 
I fell in love with the house immediately. The whole interior had white washed walls and open windows to let the warm sun shine through. The dining room was simple, with a large wooden table and iron black chairs. All the doors were arched and the whole house had accents of blue from paintings, books and throw rugs everywhere, giving it a Greek vibe. The living room had plush white couches with blue and orange cushions on the floor to sit on Indian style. Books about art, wooden sailboat models and photos of the family occupied the bookshelves while a floor length window beckoned on the opposite side with a view of the sea.
Tiny shops and homes dotted the street below and there were dozens of house and sailing boats parked in the harbour. I saw an old couple together on a rowboat, and it kind of reminded me of that scene from The Notebook. A grassy, steep hill (volcano?) was off to one side of the town, where a proud castle was perched on top. There were palm trees everywhere, and I couldn't possibly think of a better place to spend my Easter holiday. On Friday, we went to the beach. For lunch I had a pomodoro e mozzarella panini on a beautiful deck with white wicker and purple cushions overlooking the Mediterranean. The kids were preoccupied playing with their cousins, so all I really did was listen to the waves crash and read one of the English novels I stole from one of the bookshelves. There's nothing I love more in life than a good beach read.
After a while, my host dad came running over and was very excited about something. "This is perfect!" he says. "I found another Canadian." He was dragging this tall, red headed
girl over to me whose name was Esther, and she was currently living in London. I even had my small guidebook on London in my beach purse, and so she recommended some things to do and helped me understand the map a little better. I asked her where she was from in Canada, and guess what? She's from Nova Scotia! I don't remember the name of the city she's from because it's really small, but what a small world it is after all. Of course I told her how I'm moving there in September and that I'm going to King's for journalism. Well, it turns out that she has a friend who goes to King's, and she's going to give me her name as soon as she gets a chance to get on the computer. We got on really well and it was really refreshing to talk to someone from home. She told me how she's hoping to backpack through Asia and eventually wants to buy a boat to sail around the world. In other words, this girl is super cool and I found myself getting a bit jealous. I want to go to Asia! I want to sail around the world on my own in a boat! Everything about this holiday was perfect, except for one teensy tiny little thing... I am constantly lecturing my friends and family about the importance of wearing sun screen, and I completely forgot to bring a bottle with me when we went to the beach. Italians hardly ever wear sunscreen, so it was no surprise that no one had any. Of course, as we spent the entire day there, I could a terrible burn. I feel like such a hypocrite, not to mention I'm in pain. Besides that, it was a fantastic Easter.