Cinque Terre

Wednesday was a national holiday in Italy so we didn't have classes or anything scheduled, so Mary Charles, Jessica, Kate and I decided to adventure to Cinque Terre, meaning five lands, along the rocky coast of the Italian Rivera. Some of the most beautiful sights I've seen in all of Italy, over the centuries, people have build terraces along the mountains from village to village, and you can hike them, or take a Cinque Terre train, or take a boat. Anyway we decided that this is what we want to do with our free day, yet never bought the train ticket in advance or even knew what time the train left--kinda decided to wing it. I ended up being the only one who was nervous about our unplanned adventure, so I woke up early and went to the train station to get the tickets. It all ended up working out better than planned but it was an eventful process. After getting the tickets, Mary Charles and I had a delicious breakfast of an omelet sandwich, and chocolate croissant while waiting for the slower half of our group to make it to the train station.

We took the train to La Spezia--not quite sure if that was how to get to Cinque Terre. Once we got there we realized that we needed to take another, smaller train to the first land in Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore. As soon as the train stopped and we got off in Riomaggiore the skies opened up and it started pouring rain! Pissed that we just got a taste of the beautiful coast line, we decided to wait it out over lunch at this really nice restaurant. We ended up meeting three recent graduates from Cleveland, Ohio who we had talked to at La Spezia while buying our Cinque Terre passes. All 7 of us decided to have lunch and a bottle of wine together. It was so much fun, Kyle, Brianna and Jerel ended up hiking to the second land, Manarola with us. We took like a million pictures along the way. Oh my god the views we're breath-taking and the hike only took about 20 mins. We then decided it was best to take the train to the last land since that one had the most stuff to do and travel backward from there. So we took the train to Monterosso al Mare. There we ended up going to the beach, climbing up this huge rock over looking the bright blue water and exploring a bit. Since it rained earlier we didn't have a ton of time, so Mary Charles, Jessica, Kate and I decided to part ways with our new friends and take a boat to the 4th land, Vernazza. Oh the islands/villages are so amazing and so different than the fast pace of the city of Florence. Actually different than anywhere we have traveled to so far, which made it even more special.

From Vernazza we, actually Kate and I insisted we hike to the 3rd land, Corniglia. The hike was 3 kilometers mostly up the mountain. It took about an hour and 45 mins--including lots of break and pictures. I also managed to add in a strip tease! haha Really I was wearing this cute top but it wasn't the most comfortable and also very hot so I decided t change into a tshirt about midway through. ;) I really enjoyed the hike--a really good workout! From Corniglia we took a train back to La Spezia and met up with our new friends. We bought a ticket back to Florence using the self service machines which are very confusing. We thought we bought the right ticket and got on the right train but turned out we got on a nicer train, the inner city one. The ticket lady on the train stopped up and made us pay an extra 3.10 euros. Then we had to get off in Pisa and which to the correct train to take us to Florence. By this time it was after 10pm and we hadn't really had a chance to eat dinner. Kate and I decided to run to McDonald's to grab something real quick, but as we were paying the train had arrived so we have to run through the Pisa Central train station at 10:30pm trying to catch the train. We made it, but just barely. Didn't get back to our apartment till around 12:15am and took a nice, "emotional" shower before passing out. But after all that, it was still an amazing, excited day :)