Cinque Terre

Saturday, March 11th, the school planed a day trip to the Cinque Terre. This little group of towns along the northwest coast of Italy is known for the pesto and olive oil. Another favorite from this region is their house made foccacia, which is to die for! What an amazing part of Italy is, truly a treasure of this country. Taylor, Alex and I all went on this day trip, and met the rest of the group at the train station at 7:30am. The train ride to La Spetzia, which is the main town outside of the Cinque Terre, was about 2 hours, where we switched trains and took another train into the town of Monterosso. We stopped at the café, enjoyed a cappuccino and some famous Foccacia, and started our day’s hike through the towns. The weather was beautiful; the perfect temperature for hiking.

After the café and bathroom break, we began the hike. It was about two hours to the next town over, Vernazza, which is quite a sweet and quaint little town. Here, the group split up to wander the main street, filled with shops and gelaterias. I had a nice lunch, some tasty pesto pasta. I topped the meal off with a gelato cone, mint and chocolate, my favorite! After a few hours in the town, we got on a boat that took us to the town of Manarolo, which is smaller and also very cute! Each of these towns has many different colored buildings, all built into the cliffs over looking the Ligurian Sea. Very beautiful! In Manorolo, we walked through via dell Amore, which is a bridge/tunnel that is filled with graffiti from lovers! The concept goes as follows: Before the towns had trains between them, the people would walk these hiking trails to get from town to town. This made it very rare that people would marry outside of the town they lived in, and until people started making there way from town to town, it was hard to meet people. This bridge is said to have been a meeting place for lovers, and for many years, visitors and locals have been writing their names on the walls with hearts and love poems. Very sweet <3

The last town we ended in, was the town of Riomaggiore. This is where Alex and I had booked a hostel to stay the night. We had decided earlier in the month that we wanted to stay the night instead of come back with the school, so we found a place to stay for Easter weekend. As the rest of the school group left, we checked into our hostel and dropped our bags. What a cute little place we stayed in, out own private bathroom and full kitchen along with a large bed and a smaller twin size. Very clean also, which is a plus when it comes to booking hostels. You just never know!!

We found a little café to enjoy some dinner, and both of us wanted seafood because we have been missing it in Florence, and wanted to take advantage of being so close to the ocean. I ordered some shrimp risotto, and Alex enjoyed some penne pasta with salmon. We also shared a salad, it was all so yummy! After dinner we walked down to the water, and sat on some rocks, sharing more stories about our lives before Italy. We have really become close, and I am so grateful to have her as a part of my life. Its like we have been friends for much longer then a few months! I collected some sea glass, and we hiked back up from the water to our rooms. After some quick showers, it was bedtime. Both of us were exhausted!

Ciao Bella