a winter day

This afternoon a two-hour lesson got cancelled at the last minute. With the unexpected free time I thought, well, maybe I should go into school and get caught up on some work. Then I had a much better idea. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and I was right near the train station, so I decided to take a train down the coast to try and find a new gelateria!

It was highly recommended by one of my students, and the path he described to get there was the best kind of treasure hunt. "Follow Corso Italia [the wide pedestrian walkway beside the sea] until the end, where you'll find a little church. Don't follow the road up, but take the path that goes down. There will be some stairs, and then just before the beach you'll find a tiny little gelateria on the left. If you go a bit further, you'll see another, bigger one, but DON'T go there because it's not as good!"

Shockingly, I was able to find the place without any difficulty (practically a first for an Italian address!). I got myself three scoops (cinnamon, a special Sicilian pastry-flavour and something called pancetta -- I don't know what it is either). Then I found a nice spot in the sun on the nearby, tiny beach. I shrugged off my heavy coat and sat in my shirt-sleeves for an hour with a book and not the most amazing gelato in Italy, but it isn't really that important if it brings you to this kind of perfect experience.