So not this weekend, but the last Meghan, Macy, Bri, and I went to Cinque Terre which is in northern Italy near Florence and Pisa in the Italian Riviera. We knew our train was leaving at 345 so we left at around 315 for the train station. This obviously didn't go well. We were rushing and running and sprinting because we knew that time was almost out, and sure enough we got to the station right as our train was leaving. Without us. So we buy the next ticket for a 6PM train two hours later. There was a coffee shop around the corner and we decided to get some caffe lattes, which are heaven compared to American coffee, and wait for the next train. After it got really close to 6PM we walk over to find our platform and realize we only five minutes till the train leaves. Sure enough, we run around screaming the number 18 thinking that is the platform our train is on. But, no, that was what time it was leaving...6PM in military time. Our train leaves our stupid butts behind and we have to wait another two hours for the 8PM train to La Spezia. Fortunately, we are all optimists and just laughed and laughed about how we jinxed ourselves and how silly we were for missing two trains. We got to La Spezia around 1AM, starved, so we found the only open establishment, a pub. We walk in the pub and sit down to order some burgers and hot dogs. Apparently in Italy, burgers and hotdogs are just like paninis, but with the meat that Americans use. After eating we get to our hotel and pass out.
We woke up the next morning at 11AM and ready to hike! We took a short and very, very cheap train to the first town of Cinque Terre called Riomaggiare. Cinque Terre consists of five small villages on the coast, in the mountains, and on the beach. There is beauty EVERYWHERE. We started the hike called Via Del Amore, which made miss Ray very much and left me wishing he was there to experience of all this with me. But, no worries, I will be going back to CT. We hiked to the second town, where we got an amazing seafood lunch and took some gorgeous pictures. The next part of the hike was to climb 368 stairs to the third village and then after that hike up a 2 mile mountain. This was much more rigorous than we could ever have imagined. We finally got to the fourth town, Vernazza, where we took a break, grabbed some nutella gelato, some water, and just enjoyed the quaint little town. It was around 5PM when I was dying to go swim in the ocean. We took the train to the fifth town, which is the biggest, the busiest, and has the best beach. Monterosso was everything I wanted for my Italian swim. I immediately jumped in the ocean, which is still to this day my favorite moment of my study abroad trip. Floating in the Mediterranean sea and looking at all the lush green mountains and clear, bright blue water, made me appreciate the precious opportunity that was given to me. Traveling is my favorite thing in the whole wide world.
The next day we went back home to Rome, which is weird to say, but it was nice having some place familiar to come back to. Our apartment is surprisingly "homey" and something nice to come back to from a weekend getaway. On Monday, we went to buy some Tiesto tickets for the next day from some random guy who couldn't speak English. We were just hoping and wishing that the 11 tickets we bought for almost 400 euro would turn out to be legitimate. We were right! On June 1st, a group of us got together to go to a concert in Rome to see the most famous DJ in the entire world, TIESTO! Ever since Ray and I have been dating, Tiesto has become one of my favorite artists and it was just an amazing chance to be able to see him live and for that matter in Europe, his very own home. To put it simply, he was absolutely incredible live. It was nothing like an American type of rave, but much more of a concert and everyone wore jeans and t-shirts, not slutty neon outfits!
Another highlight of this week was an interesting meal that Natalie, Macy, Meghan, and I had. On Wednesday we decided we were growing tired of the Italian meals and we remembered we saw a mexican restaurant when we were out a pub one night. We went to go get dinner there and realized it was actually a Spanish restaurant. Pleased with listing of tortillas and nachos on the menu we decided to eat there. We ordered the nachos, tortillas, and the traditional Spanish delicacy chicken and fish Paella. Shortly, the nachos turned out to be chips and salsa, the tortillas turned out to be cornbread, and the "fish" paella was actually full of shrimp, mussels, and other live looking creatures. Don't get us wrong...all of it was delicious and it left us feeling especially curious about what else we could order and be surprised. In fact, we ordered the chocolate and cream biscuit for dessert which turned out to be pudding and finally we ordered churros, which turned out to be just delicious churros. Anyways, it was definitely a cultural experience and one thing learned is that nothing is what it seems and it is always better to look at your food before you order it! Which, fortunately, Italians LOVE to do.
Tomorrow morning, our LMU study abroad group will be jetting off to Florence for the weekend! CIAO!!!!
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