June 5, 2013
Editor’s note: Internet access was hard to come by after the Commodores departed Rome. Apologies for the delay on relaying details of the team’s trip to Italy.
DAY SIX – From the sophomore class:
Today we had nothing planned until around 2 p.m., but all decided to wake up early anyway to get to the beach. By 10 a.m. almost the entire team had woken up, worked out, and was lounging beach-side in the Riviera. We spent our day relaxing going in and out of the water and for walks. Despite the overcast weather it was an optimal beach day.
The jetties that surrounded our beach provided entertainment for exploring. Some girls walked out to the very end of the rocks while others braved the cold waters and swam. At one point junior Abby Wheeler had quite the encounter with a large rodent that had gone for a swim and decided to exit the water onto rocks a little too close for comfort. We were all a little freaked out because, to our knowledge, there are no ocean swimming rodents in America.
Other girls grabbed their cameras and headed out to explore the scenic beach town. We were convinced that this would be the most beautiful and photographic place we would visit, that is until later that night. We boarded the bus at 2 p.m. for a three-hour bus ride to Lake Como. As we exited the bus we were quick to learn that we had greatly under estimated the beauty of Italy by assuming we had seen the best.
Lake Como is a rather large lake surrounded by the Alps where unique buildings are nestled into crevices in the mountainside. From small apartments to giant mansions, each house was completely different than the rest. Our tour guide explained that small, two-bedroom apartments near the lake are sold for roughly 800,000 euros (about $1,000,000)!
We dispersed for dinner, where once again most of us ended up at the same restaurant. Ordering dinner and figuring out checks was significantly harder in this smaller village because very few servers spoke English. Seafood was this area’s specialty because most of it was caught directly in the lake making it extra fresh! After dinner we all retired to our rooms after a long day in the sun.
