the Tyrrhenian Sea

After drying out from yesterday's deluge, and seeing that today's forecast was no better than yesterday's, the counter-intuitive option of going to the sea suddenly rose to the top.  Within a few weeks of my arrival in Rome, I've been wanting to go - mostly to get my geographic bearings calibrated.  A train ride seemed like a good idea regardless of the weather.

The Tyrrhenian Sea is the body of water directly west of the central section of Italy's 'boot'.  The islands of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily form a loose boundary to the west and south of the sea.  These details are new to me.  My ignorance of European geography in general, and Italian geography specifically, is a daily embarrassment these last two months.  The same could be said for European/Roman history.  I am often huddling with the Georgina Masson/ John Fort book Gitta and Bliss gave me before this trip, trying to fill in the huge gaps.

Checking only to see what train was required - and with no greater plan than to see the sea and have lunch - I headed out. The train was a normal metro car - in fact it was just another line on the Roman metro system, requiring no additional fare.

Arrived in the coastal city of Lido di Ostia shortly after noon and began walking westward figuring, as Lawrence of Arabia did,  that I'd eventually get to the sea.  I did - but found it initially inaccessible due to beachfront buildings.  So this was my first glimpse of the Tyrrhenian Sea...

When I finally got to an open area, the wind was so powerful that within seconds the beach sand was under my contact lenses and it was impossible to continue.   So I backed away from the beach and sought a restaurant for lunch.  I found a place that was empty - it was still early for lunch by Italian standards - and ordered an arugula and tomato pizza.  By the time the pizza arrived, the place was filling up with locals - or at least folks familiar to the staff.  After paying the bill, I walked out on the street and wrapped my head in scarf and decided to try the sea again.  When I neared the area where the sand was blowing up from the beach, I turned my back to the wind and walked backwards until I was past the dryer part of the beach.      

Diving and fishing are prohibited

It isn't often that I fear dropping my camera, but the wind was so ferocious, I put the strap around my neck as a precaution.  When rain drops started appearing- my little travel umbrella was no match for this wind - it seemed a good idea to head back.

Back to the Metro and switching trains to get off at the Colosseo.  The wild weather was in full force there and my umbrella was pulled inside out several times.

A rainy evening in my warm apartment going through the photos.  Now for guitar practice and then bedtime...