We must take advetures.

We must take advetures.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Cinque Terre

I have been waiting to visit Cinque Terre since I found out I was going to Italy. I really just wanted to visit so I can take pictures like the ones I've seen online. Luckily, I discovered a company called Bus2alps that allows study abroad students to come together and travel throughout Europe, one of their destinations being Cinque Terre!

Cinque Terre is region of 5 really cute, colorful villages on the coast;  Riomaggiore, Manarola,  Corniglia, Vernazza, & Monterosso al Mare. There is a train that you can take between each village or you can hike to get to each village. The total hiking time to get from the first village to the fifth village is 9 hours.


Again, it was a cold, rainy day, but at least this time we were with 30 other college students. We had to wake up at 5:30 am, but we were able to sleep on the 2 hour bus ride. When we arrived we split up into a couple of groups, the group who wanted to explore town and go shopping & the group who wanted to hike a muddy trail (obviously we went into town).

The trail between the first village (Riomaggiore) & the second village (Manarola) is called the Via Dell'Amore, which means the way of love. The trail is covered with locks; couple bring them as a sign that their love is locked forever (too bad my roommates and I forgot our locks, maybe next time). The wall along the Via Dell'Amore is covered in graffiti, drawings, and people's signatures. Good thing I brought a pen so we were able to leave our mark.

Cinque Terre is known for its pesto sauce and focaccia bread, so of course we had to try them both. While we were in Vernazza we went to the cutest family owned restaurant. All of us ordered the same meal, Trofie al Pesto, and of course we ate it all. We then tried the focaccia bread in the next village, Monterosso al Mare. Pomodori e formaggi (tomato & cheese) focaccia bread was sooo good! 


Even though it was raining, we made the most of it. I was able to take pretty pictures, eat yummy food, try the best hot chocolate, and meet some cool people. I even managed to find my future husband (give him about 10 years).


Siena & San Gimignano

We took our first tour outside of Florence to experience more of the Tuscany region.  When we arrived at the meeting point for the tour we soon realized that there was  a bit of an age difference between us and the rest of the tour (Picture 9 college aged boys and girls with 30 of the cutest couples over the age of 70). Despite the age difference the tour was exactly what we wanted. 


Our first stop was to Siena, a medieval city surrounded by a defensive wall. We took a tour around the city, which is divided into 17 areas. While in Siena the Mille Miglia was passing through. The Mille Miglia is a 1000 mile car race that happens once a year and travels all throughout Italy. While we were getting lunch we met a man who was taking a short break from driving in the race. He explained to us how only about 300 cars (ferraris and other italian classics) are eligible to enter the race and he had to charter a car from Milan in order to enter it. I'm not really into cars, but it was pretty cool. We ended our tour in one of the most beautiful churches I have ever been in, the Duomo di Siena. Everything was stunning; the floors, walls, ceilings. 


San Gimignano was our next stop. Unfortunately, it was very rainy so we didn't really go site seeing, BUT we did go to the Gelateria di Piazza, which was voted the world champions of gelato in 2006.  I wish it was sunny because the view from the city was a gorgeous country side.



That night was the championship "football" game, Bayern Munich vs. Chelsea. We decided to embrace the Italian culture and experience the atmosphere of a soccer championship. Not one person noticed when we walked into the bar. Everyone's face was glued to the television screen. I expected the atmosphere the be like that of a Superbowl party in America. A bunch of obnoxious fans screaming at the t.v. Nope. I guess Italians are much classier than us while watching sports. The only time anyone made a noise or moved their head was when a goal was scored. The game was intense; it went into double overtime and penalty kicks.

The highlight of my night was running into one of my friends who went to CLTC with me and haven't seen in 4 years. While him and his UGA friends gave me a hard time for being a Gator, he saved me from some creepy Italians.