Day 22 – Acqui Terme

I woke up and opened the shutters to the countryside, hit by the sun’s rays coming over the tree line. There was a smell of coffee and croissants from downstairs and the faint sounds of BBC news on television. This was literally my idea of an Italian getaway. As everyone else woke up to the same experience, we gathered outside for breakfast and decided what we would do today. The top option was to go to the public swimming pool for a dip and a tan.

The pool was reasonable empty with only another half-a-dozen people there. We found the best seats by the pool to catch the rays and spent the day lying in the sun, or diving into the pool when it was hiding behind the clouds. We tried running on water and those water fights with someone on your back, swimming races and synchronised diving. We stayed for quite a while and then it got really busy. School was finished and it seemed that everyone goes here after it. There were children doing flips and silly jumps off the diving boards and boys playing football in between the two pools. Of course you had the girls who kept walking laps around the pool so all the boys would look at them and then laugh because they got noticed.

We left as it got busier, not because it turned into a day care centre for children, but because we were hungry and wanted lunch. Walking into town, our host actually drove past us in his car, signalling to where was best to eat. We followed his orders and found a place that did sandwiches. My girlfriend ordered a sandwich that usually comes cold and the rest of us ordered hot toasties. She wanted hers warm too and because of this, we had to swap our meals. Women.

After lunch, we got collected and went back to the house. This was the perfect time to wash everything, and when I say everything, I mean everything. The only things that I had not put in the washing machine were swimming shorts and a shirt. This would have to be my attire tonight. The girls basically did the same as we couldn’t turn down a chance to do free washing.

Instead of eating in tonight, we ate out in the nearest town of Visone. It wasn’t really a restaurant but an aperitivo. We all ordered a drink and with it came 7 normal sized Margherita pizza’s, a couple of boards of selected ham, meat and cheese, and some bread. We felt bad that we had only got one drink each for all of this, so we all had another. Even still, 2 drinks each for all that food was perfect and we were all full. As we staying in their house for free, we thought it would be best if we got them dinner. I went in to pay at the till and they kept saying no to me, but could’t explain in English why I couldn’t pay. Finally, someone who could speak English said that we had already paid. My friend’s uncle had paid when he went to the toilet, which displeased everyone. As he was slightly drunk however, when he was paying, he gave them €25 and told them to keep the change. They kept saying no and his Italian wasn’t good enough to understand either. Finally it was pointed out that the actual bill was €100 or so and that he was looking at the time – 22.34. He did wonder why it was so cheap.

On the journey to dinner, we saw fields and fields of corn and jokingly said we had never gone running in a corn field, maybe we should? On the way back, we eyed it up and thought we should do it, sure why not? We all got changed into long trousers and hoodies, equipped ourselves with torches and some with hats and walked over to the start of the field. It was pitch dark and the only sound was from the crickets surrounding us. We counted down and all ran in. I had ended up running down a path that wasn’t really fun, so I instantly checked left and headed through the corn. Nobody else had the same idea and one of the girls crashed right into me. We had completely disorientated ourselves but managed to get back out without any injuries. We can tick that off the bucket list now anyway.

The remainder of the night was sat by the table outside, talking about name meanings from urban dictionary, some of which are remarkable correct, more stories and interesting facts, as well as everyone asking me to sing, which of course I politely declined. As people got drunker and drunker, the stories were pushing the boundary of comedy and controversy so we ended the night on a high with no plans for tomorrow.