Hello,

This past Saturday morning we joined a Beach Clean-up in Santo Stefano al Mare. After a few inspiring words from Monica, the organizer, we began to search for plastic debris and other trash polluting the beach. Unfortunately it didn’t take long at all to find… within the first minute or two I already had collected a handful of cigarette butts!

Li-ann, Anna, Enrico, and I continued to collect trash around the beach along with the other volunteers, and after just 30 minutes we had most of our bags completely full. As sad as it was to see the trash we had collected laid out before us, I think it was a very rewarding experience and it felt good to make a difference, however small it might be. It was great to see even the sunbathers on the beach join in and clean up their individual areas, even if they were not there for the beach clean-up.

Afterwards, the four of us decided to go west to Bordighera. It was a beautiful day in an equally beautiful town. We were lucky to have Enrico with us because he lives in the area and was able to show us around to so many cool places, including the museum where he used to work where we saw huge ficus trees that were over 150 years old! We also went to a super lush and green park with an amazing overlook to the sea and marina below, and then ended the day with a sunset dinner on the lungomare. I hope to return some day!

Until next time!

Francesca