Riccione Monday

Monday morning we all had breakfast together at the hotel. I loaded up on sweets as usual! And then Gerri and Linda were off to the train station and Aurore and Kamal were off to the airport. We smiled at the sign on the way out of the hotel parking lot.



Chris and I hit the beach one last time and did a little street shopping before we headed to the train station. We changed trains in Bologna. As a major train station, it has the control tower bridges that you see at a lot of those stations. I love the way they look, and they state of disuse they are in. They are cool relics!

Riccione Sunday

Kamal and I rode bikes up from the hotel to the pool center to see the ladies compete! Thank goodness they were early in the morning schedule, as it was pretty sunny out there. Here's Gerri and Linda leaping in!



And Chris and Aurore posing after their swim. What glamour girls!



We had lunch at the hotel, which was pretty awesome. While we were just hanging out in the lobby, they started us off with peanuts, olives, and juicy aperitivo drinks, and then they had a salad bar out there with lots of yummy stuff. I had the spinach ravioli with the butter and sage, and fresh made tiramisu for dessert. That was really good!

We hit the beach, and then got ready again for dinner. We drove all six of us over through Rimini to an organic restaurant, Bio's Cafe. The food ended up being delicious. I had a pizza with spicy slightly sweet sauce, vegan sausage rounds, and really creamy soy cheese. I just loved it. Everyone was pretty pleased with what they had!

I should mention that I was the noble one who volunteered to ride in the cargo area of the group vehicle, since their weren't enough seats for everyone!

Riccione Souvenir

OK, I got a pair of cute flea market earrings too, but this is my little real Riccione souvenir. It's a tiny shell I picked up from the beach... It's not a lot, but I just liked it.

Riccione Saturday aka Lemoncello

Saturday was a good day! In the morning I went with the ladies to the pool, where they were practicing. I got to watch the older group routines, some of which were pretty cool. The costumes are always fun! After the ladies got in their afternoon rest, we headed out to the beach. But, I would have to say that our day was really about dinner and lemoncello. We saw some cool souvenir bottles in the touristy shops.



We had dinner at La Fattoria del Mare, right on the beach. We were there so early that the place seemed pretty deserted, but we were lucky to get a table since they were booked up full for the night! We basically came in for the pre-dinner shift. I had a yummy pizza with eggplant, parmesan, and asparagus. But apparently we were done with plenty early because they brought over a complementary bottle of lemoncello to our table! Chris and Linda were not so familiar with it, but Gerri knew what we were getting into.



No, Linda didn't drink it all down! We actually didn't come close to finishing it!

Riccione, Friday

I arrived in Riccione Friday night. The ladies picked me up at the train station, and we headed back to the hotel to get me checked in! We were staying at Hotel Pigalle. I give it high marks! It's a few blocks back from the beach, so it's a little more quiet. There's parking and free bike rental. The included breakfast had a big selection, too. We had dinner at the hotel as soon as I got in, and it was pretty good! The cream of asparagus soup was great.

After, we took a walk on the beach. The sunset was just gorgeous!



Linda, Gerri, and I took off our sandals to enjoy the water and sand barefoot. The water felt pretty warm at night, and the sand on that beach is really fine and soft.



And of course I made the ladies pose for some group pictures!

14th FINA World Masters - Riccione

I just got back from Riccione! I was there for fun and sun, but also to support the Redwood Empire team at the FINA World Masters. This year's delegation was Linda, Gerri, Aurore, and Chris. (Chris, thanks for the photos!)



They were each competing in solo, and paired Linda/Gerri, Aurore/Chris for the duets. We have some medalists here! Chris and Aurore's free duet to the "Palladio" suite was well received. (The song is the one from the De Beers ads, a great choice, really.)



And Chris nailed the gold in her solo. Congratulations on that awesome showing!



The synchronized swimming was just a small part of this big event. I was told there were around 250 synchro ladies. (At the international level, men cannot participate in synchro currently. In the US, they can swim!) The whole championships, which included speed swim, open water, water polo, and diving, was supposedly close to 15000 swimmers strong. The facility was huge, and that beach you saw in yesterday's photos had some of the open water swimming go past it! Tomorrow I will put up some photos of the facility, too.

Riccione Preview

Having a blast in Riccione. The beach is beautiful. Here's a few preview photos from my first night here. The Adriatic stretching on over the horizon...



And the umbrellas as well!

Riccione

This weekend I am in Riccione with Linda, Chris, and Gerri! It's a pretty typical tourist spot here in Italy. I first heard of it when the Jersey Shore kids went during the season they visited Italy... It's sort of like the Cancun of Italy!



Hopefully my pictures will be a little classier than theirs!