Cinque Terre: Hike of a Lifetime

Moving on from Venice, we had high hopes for our next city: Cinque Terre. I had never heard much about this place before, so wasn't exactly sure what to expect... But after our travels through the pouring rain, getting fined for not "stamping" our ticket correctly, and being cramped on a train, we arrive to Cinque Terre five hours later... Almost.

Ok... so Cinque Terre means "The Five Lands" and comprises itself of five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. We were staying in Riomaggiore, so after much confusion we eventually grab another train to take us there. Well these trains were not the most informative and we had no clue which stop was ours and ended up passing it.... Not a good start to finding this place. So then we get on a train going BACK the other way hoping for the best but got off a stop too soon. We realized this just in time and ran to get back on the train. Marie and myself made it... TK was not so lucky... Fortunately someone saw TK's distressed look on her face and let her back on in the first train. So now we are seperated and don't know where we are going. This was frightening since we didn't have any tickets either, and did not want to receive any more fines. But we made it. No more fines, no more rain, and no more travel for another day!!

So in Riomaggiore we walk up the one street in the village that led to what we thought was our hostel. Ok... when I say street I mean MOUNTAIN. it was basically walking up a 90 degree angle. it was intense with all of our bags... but it was good because we were greeted by the friendliest little Italian man. Had nothing but a smile on his face.

So he took us to our place which ended up being a little apartment down the alley through a couple back alleys and eventually right on the edge of the sea. It had two bathrooms, 3 bunks, a full bed, and a full kitchen all covered by a warm coral color on the walls with beautiful Italian oil paintings. So nice!

But we were exhausted at this point and just wanted to grab a bite to eat before bed; too bad we arrived during siesta, and everyone was napping. No worries, we grabbed some gelato before grabbing some pizza and then met some australians before hitting the sack. (I swear I have met more people from Australia than England!)

Ok so today we wake up bright and early to get a move on what Cinque Terre is famous for: hiking the five villages. Now I am sure many of you think of hiking as walking a couple miles through a forest, etc.... But you could not be more wrong. Because of our lack of research we basically started the hike backwards. Many begin in the other town, Manarola, and work their way back to Riomaggiore because then you work from hardest to easiest. We did it opposite. bad idea.

But we begin and it is absolutely breath taking. We had amazing weather and began our walk on the edges of the Cliffs over looking the Mediterranean. There is no way one could put into words the scenery. The paths started with flowers growing from the cliffs of every color, surrounded by different graffiti of all the passerbys throughout the years. And as you continued on; this scenery began to continually change.

The nice smooth walks turned into walking uphill, both ways, across boulders portruding in the middle of the "paths" which were barely big enough to fit one person. Wow. It was intense. It was roughly 9KM long, but felt like longer through the rocky terrain. Many times we thought it was never going to end. It literally took us all day... roughly 8 hours?

We had a couple close calls a few times as well. VERY intense because whether it was up or downhill, the rocks were sharp, jagged, narrow, slippery, and the paths were so sketch and small. Crazy experience.

Along the way though, we discovered a little outlet to the Sea with the waves crashing 15ft. in the air, different old "villages," a couple little street vendors, fishermen hanging off a cliff, playgrounds, and some old abandoned buildings. It was beautiful. But what made it really neat was to stop in every village and see the different surroundings.

Although they all seemed similiar with their rustic Italian architecture of houses built on top of one another, scattered about the cliffs, made in every shape and color; each had its own personality. They also had their own tastes in gelato! (We decided to do a tour de gelato with our hike. We deserved it. Don't judge us.)

In one of the villages, Corniglia, we stopped to eat at a classic italian restaurant which had amazing gnocchi, and while we were checking out, the owner presumably, stopped us. Although, this was uncomfortable since he didn't speak english. The only thing we got out of it was that he liked TK's blue eyes and thought I was cute? But then he offered us some champagne...

Note to everyone: NEVER take champagne from an Italian. It is NOT champagne; more-so a bitter mix of tequila and everclear. Ouch.

Needless to say, we left with a bitter taste in our mouth (YES. Play on words!)

So we continued our hike, and after 3 more gelatos, one point at which we had to climb 386 steps, and finding a beach; we headed home on the train where we then passed out, preparing to meet up in Florence with Kelley the next day!

Cinque Terre - breathtaking. What can Italy offer next?

Venice: The Beginning of 16 days in Paradise

As Arthur Symons wrote, "A realist, in Venice, would become a romantic by mere faithfulness to what he saw before him."

Words so true. This place.... it is beyond words. Everywhere you look you are mesmerized by what is before you. The streets, the canals, the architecture; no comparison to anywhere else in the world. No matter how grand and beautiful you picture it in your head, it will never do true justice.

But beyond that, lets get to the beginning of my 16 day Spring Break Journey across Italy and Greece!

So obviously, we began in Venice. We arrived there pretty late on a Sunday night and grabbed the last bus into "town" where we were supposed to then get on a water bus to our hostel. Yes. Everything literally is transported in this city by boat or donkeys. Ambulances, police, ice cream vendors, taxis: everything is done on boats via the canals! Unreal.

Well we didn't seem to think our hostel would be that far away and didn't know how to work the water boat maps so we decided to just walk. Well everyone.... welcome to the most confusing city in the world. Everywhere leads to a dead end or another canal. I am pretty sure at one point I was just getting sea sick from walking all around and over all this water. It was intense. and their lack of street signs proved another difficulty for us to find out hostel; A Venice Museum.

Eventually we began to give up hope because it is almost midnight and we end up right back where we started.... Oh no. This must have been very apparent because we were stopped by 4 different people in attempts to help us. The first was a couple from California who led us to an Italian man that only knew the word for bridge, who then led us to a couple who were probably just as lost as us, who evenually led us to man with not a single hair on his head, but a beard bushier than that of Santa's and his blonde... "lady friend." Thankfully they were the winning ticket and led us straight to our hostel!!! Thank goodness!!

So we ring the bell and all of a sudden hear a voice from above... a girl no older then I greeted us and buzzed us in... Hmmmm this could be interesting. So we walk up to the hostel itself and are greeted by an obnoxiously loud group of people all just hanging out and having a good time. This place seems pretty fun already!

So we are checked in by a guy, Matt, who probably was not in the right state of mind to be working at computer and money exchanges, but not to worry - everything got settled and he led us to our room of 10 other girls and 1 bathroom. Oh that was not enjoyable. Constantly a race in the morning to get in there... Besides that he hands us our sheets.... well, not sheets... I would say more so a weak excuse for a dish clothe. And each blanket was different; as if they went and raided a Goodwill bin... Later we find out this might have been the case because it turned out the place had bed bugs.

Now I know I am making it sound like a horrible place to sleep and stay; but this hostel was probably one of my favorites! We met so many people and made so many friends and just hung out with everyone there. We were like a small family... we even all ate together some of the most amazing food from all the trip - a homemade potato gnocci with meat sauce paired with a freshly baked cake filled with a raspberry jelly and to top it off homemade sangria. The food was out of this world; and the hostel was in a great location! Turns out we were right across the canal from Brad and Angelina Jolie's apartment they are currently residing in. Although we didn't see them, we kept our eyes peeled.

Ok back to Venice itself; the second day we went off exploring. We really had no clear sight of where to go outside of seeing the Riolto Bridge, St. Mark's Basillica, the Grand Canal, and whatever else we stumbled upon. Lucky for us we had amazing weather! Sunny and warm with the perfect breeze blowing. Ahhhhh Heaven. So we walked and walked and just tried to take everything in. The architecture was unreal... just like the food. We stopped for some gelato of course (the first of our 16 day gelato binge), and pizza twice as big as my face. YUM.

After lunch we continue exploring when all of a sudden I hear my name being called out.... Turns out our friends also studying in London were in Venice and we just "happened" to bump into them? Small world... but we continue our journey and head into a couple shops and fall in love. Venice is known for their glass and their masks for Carnaval.

It's no wonder cause never have I seen anything like this before. Each mask was handmade and different from the last and each one was so beautiful!!! It would have been amazing to see them actually in use during Carnaval, but just seeing them everywhere you turned was unreal. The shapes, colors, designs, embellishments; amazing. Of course the prices reflected these, but so worth it!

With this we found ourselves exhausted and decided it was time to head back for dinner. A good day all in all. Throughout the night we just made new friends and then we said our goodbyes before heading out to Cinque Terre... Goodbye Venice... You will be missed.