Our last day was spent on a beach about an hour west of Rome. We took a train that cost a whole 4 euro. We wandered down to the warm, uncrowded beach and swam in the ocean and tanned to our heart's content.
At home I am considered the white one in my family, but in Finland I am dark. I was asked repeatedly if I was part Spanish, this was super annoying. I am also dark compared to my three travel mates who were quite crispy after our day in the sun.
Being on a beach in Italy was kind of surreal, when I really thought about it it just made me giddy. I walked up and down the shoreline and found pretty shells and a hermit crab. We laughed and played and got covered in the caramel colored sand. Eventually we washed off, got some gelato and headed back to our little square for our final dinner.
Dinner was good as always, with free bread and complementary champagne. We toasted to our amazing adventure before buying some wine and toasting some more in the apartment. In the morning we all left for our new countries at different times, Adam at 2:00 am (he didn't pay attention when booking that ticket either), Elizabeth at 6:00 am, me at 8:30 am and Natasha later that evening.
We all look forward to meeting again at the debriefing in December back on American soil!
