Boats. That must mean that we are near water. Maybe most of the time this logic is true, but I am beginning to doubt my senses after having wandered in circles around Fano, which I had understood was a small beach town. An hour and a half away from Cagli, we got off the bus knowing little about Fano except that there is a rock beach somewhere. And it is on the Adriatic. Apparently, our sense of direction is pretty far off. The Adriatic is huge, if I remember correctly from labeling maps in middle school, it can't be easy to miss. Yet it has eluded us thus far. Signs around the city have a small picture of water and an arrow pointing us in the direction that we will now go. These signs only get you so far. Little and no language skills makes asking for directions a hurdle.

Problems like this make being lost in a foreign country so much more difficult. We will all have a greater appreciation for the ability to turn into a gas station and ask directions when we return home. The sign points us towards a bridge, yet when we try walking over it, we find a dead end. Now what? The only other possibility, which we barely consider an option, is to walk under the bridge, along a speeding highway that cannot be safe for pedestrians. We stand and wonder what to do until a young Italian girl comes along. We pool our Italian vocabulary to come up with "Dove la Spiagga?" /"Where is the beach?" She too points towards the bridge and we follow as she leads us under the dead end bridge with seemingly no fear. We walk single file, clutching ourselves to the wall to avoid the cars that whiz by us and to try to make up for the fact that there is no sidewalk. We finally emerge and find safety on the side of the road. Suddenly, shockingly enough, a canal appears and boats begin to pop up all around us and it finally begins to feel like we are at the beach. The Adriatic.

We start to feel very accomplished, but I know that we are not there yet. Still, this is a good sign. Seeing boats here, actually getting close to our destination makes us feel relieved and we celebrate our achievement. We had so many things working against us, most obviously the language differences, but we have managed to get this far. We press on, following the boats until we eventually get to the beach. We cross a bridge and turn right to see the stunning Adriatic staring back at us. Now we know we have made it. We walk towards the huge mass of blue water to find our place on the beach- and what a pleasant surprise- there isn't a rock in sight. We sprawl out on the beach, just the beginning of the day, but already the end of an adventure.