A breath of fresh (sea) air in Sperlonga

I’ve already written about our post-lockdown travel.

After months of lockdown during what was an absolutely perfect, gorgeous Rome spring, it’s not that surprising to note that the first trip out of Rome my family and I decided to take was to the seaside.

We travelled to the beautiful beach town of Sperlonga on the first day of summer.

After having been confined for so long to our home and then to Rome, it seemed almost surreal to be at the train station on our way to this coastal town in southern Lazio.

Sperlonga is one of our favorite beach getaways, and we generally try to get there for an early beach outing as soon as the first spring rays arrive, but this outing must have been one of our best.

After months closed inside, it was fabulous to walk around the medieval town, and to walk along the beach and breathe the fresh, sea air.

I usually like going before the season, before the whole beach is occupied by the umbrellas that are given to concessions – as you see in the photo above.

Too little of the beach is open to the free beach I favor, but this year it was better late than never, and we were happy to squeeze into the tiny sliver of available free beach (socially distanced, off course).

The water was perfect, and we loved having our first dive in to the sea on the first day of summer.

We even managed another rite of summer – the first plate of spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti with clams). I adore this dish year round, but it always tastes so much better beachside…

We returned home that evening tanned and happy, exhausted from swimming in the Mediterranean waves.

It came later than we would have liked due to circumstances we never in a million years could have imagined, but we were thrilled for the perfect seaside day.