I think Italy will always have such a special place in my heart. It was the first country I had ever been to in Europe, way back in 2014. So it only made sense it’d be the last country I would visit this semester (the next time I’ll be on a plane is to go home in the US!!).
I flew out to Milan, met up with Mackenzie, and then we took a train to Forte dei Marmi. Mackenzie had actually been hired to work for a bar mitzvah by a family friend who was an event planner, and was told she could invite a friend (me). Nadine, the event planner, was the coolest. Even if she did yell a lot (haha), she was incredibly good at her job and getting shit done.
Although I had been told we were going to be babysitting the kids, we ended up being Nadine’s assistants. We pumped up pool floaters, moved boxes, brought dishes to the kitchen, supervised the kids’ tennis tournament, brought the beach toys to the beach, packed bags of food, etc. Anything that needed to be done, we probably did it honestly.
So. About this family. They were from New York City, but came to Italy for the weekend. They bought out not one but TWO entire hotels - one for the family (the Byron, a fancy 5-Star hotel) and one behind the Byron, the Bellonda (where just Nadine, Mackenzie, myself, and the decorators stayed) for 4 days (Friday-Monday). The Byron has a yard, then a pool deck to eat at, and then the pool. These decorators decorated the yard twice a day - once for breakfast and once for dinner. And 3 times for the day of the actual bar mitzvah (this whole weekend was for a 13 year old’s bday!!! - and he was the oldest of 4 kids which means this all will be done 3 more times!!!). And they rented out a place at the beach right across the street for 2 days, which also had to be decorated a couple of times. The family used 28 rooms (some families had split up parents from the kids + a babysitter) (plus a 29th room for the makeup people hired). There were almost 30 kids there, all cousins, and they all owned like Gucci slides and Coach bags and I don’t even know what other name brand stuff. It was INSANE. Absolutely insane.Â
I ran on the beach almost day in the morning before work (I’ve missed it SO MUCH), and then would bike into town after work to explore some and get dinner. Honestly loved the simple life - waking up early, running, showering and getting ready, going to work, biking and exploring and getting dinner, and then passing the heck out and doing it all over again.
Forte dei Marmi is the cutest beach town!!! It reminded me a lot of the beach towns in America (like Hilton Head Island or Virginia Beach or the Outer Banks), but it was fancier. Like there were palm trees and bike paths everywhere, but there was also reaaaaally nice high-brand stores and marble sidewalks into town. But you could face the crystal clear water in front of you or turn your back to the water, and have an incredible view of the mountains. It was just so so beautiful.
And overall the job was super fun!!! We made friends with the chefs, the decorators, the bartenders/servers, and the receptionists. Despite the long hours (there were a couple of days where we would work 14 hours), the being yelling at, the lifting heavy boxes..... it was worth it!! It was an awesome experience. And the parents of this family were super sweet. They thanked Mackenzie and I multiple times the last few days. And the dad even offered to pay for a fancy dinner and a bottle of wine by the beach. It was sooo much fun getting all dressed up (we had to wear jeans, a green polo, and our hair in a bun everyday) and going out to dinner. Such a good ending to our weeklong trip!!!
From Forte dei Marmi, we took a train into Florence (we were only about 2 hours away). Our intention was to spend the next day exploring Florence, but we honestly crashed from working and never left the campsite (!!!) that day. I felt bad about wasting my time in florence, but really needed a day to just do nothing. Plus I had been in florence a few years ago with my family, soooo I felt like I had already seen all the super popular tourist spots anyways. And yes, we stayed at a cute campsite about 20 minutes (driving) from the city. But on Friday, we walked around and explored some before getting on a train to head to Milan. And from there, we took an hour long bus ride to our hotel (which was close to the airport) and headed back to Brussels early Saturday morning.
Check out all the pictures from Forte dei Marmi and Florence here.