Roma e Cinque Terre

Ok, wow. Sorry it has been a while. I get so caught up here in every day life, that it takes real concentration to work in blog time! Where to start—March 6 I left Florence for Rome. Sorry, this is going to be a real long one!

We took a train at 8:19 pm to Rome, and when we arrived we went straight to our hostel. The hostel wasn’t around the parts of Rome we were interested in touring, but it was right next to a Metro stop, which was perfect. The hostel ended up being a fairly good setup, and a really good first hostel experience. Eight of us went on the trip; Me, Allee, Kelly, Courtney, Lena, Eric, Will, and Erin. We ended up (after some finagling) all getting in to an 8 person mixed room, with bunk beds and a bathroom. So, we avoided sharing with any sketchy people, and it was clean and that’s all we could ask for! We went and got a late dinner at a Chinese food place (yes you read that right!) It wasn’t half bad! We went to bed relatively early (12 or so) in order to be rested for our busy day.

We woke up in the morning and took the metro to get into Vatican City for our 10:00 tour of the Vatican museums. We got in without any problems, and we had a tour of about 20-30 people with an English-speaking tour guide. She spent some time going over the Sistine Ceiling paintings (since no talking is allowed in there!) and then we went on our way. She took us through the highlights of the museums (Map gallery, Raphael rooms, sculpture galleries etc) and there were some amazing things in that collection. I was so happy to get to see it, after missing out when I came here in high school. The last stop on our tour was the Sistine Chapel, and I think it was well worth it. It wasn’t as big or quite as grand (scale wise) as I think you are led to believe when you learn about it, but the paintings are so amazing. Thinking about the process behind them as well really adds to their affect. We spent some time in there just staring at all of the paintings, and then left and went to St. Peter’s. St. Peter’s Basilica was absolutely breathtaking—I can’t imagine it being built by human hands. It was so monumental, and every inch was covered with decoration. My favorite part though was La Pieta, the statue of Jesus and Mary by Michelangelo. I truly think that that is the most beautiful statue in the world, and I could have looked at it for hours. After we left the basilica, we continued on our tour of Rome!

Me in the Vatican museum courtyard

OH MY GOSH!

Allee and I outside the Vatican Museums

After spending some time playing around in St. Peter’s Square, we ate lunch at a very sketch touristy restaurant...many inside jokes were spawned there, because all we could do was laugh about everything.  We then headed off to see the famous Four Rivers fountain, and then the Trevi Fountain. Along the way, we also looked at some of the big columns in Rome.  Both were amazing! I threw my coin into the Trevi fountain, supposedly ensuring my return to Rome ☺ (It worked last time, right?!) After that, we headed over to the Parthenon, which was unfortunately closed for mass. We got to peek inside though, but I had already been there a few years ago so I wasn’t too upset. After we walked around for a little bit, we went to the Spanish Steps and climbed up to the top. The sunset was absolutely amazing! There was a church at the very top that we peered into, and nuns were singing inside. It was a really great evening. We went and got wine and appetizers at a little restaurant after the Steps, and then went back to the Chinese Restaurant for dinner (don’t ask me why….I just went along with it!) By the time we got back, most people were beat and we ended up going to bed at midnight or so.

The next morning we woke up early and checked out of the hostel, leaving our bags to pick up later. We went to the Coliseum from there, and that was truly amazing. You can’t comprehend how huge it is until you are inside, and you can just feel the history oozing from every brick. We all walked around on our own in there for about an hour, and then got some lunch at a cute buffet/sandwich place. After that we headed over to the Roman Forum/Palatine hill where we spent about an hour, which was not nearly enough time! That was one of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve ever seen. The whole area was lush green, with flowers and trees like a park; but then there were ancient ruins scattered throughout the whole place! I really recommend going there and spending hours just sitting in there reading or relaxing, which I think a lot of Romans do. After we left the Forum, we got on a train and headed back to Florence, arriving late afternoon. It was a really awesome weekend, and the weather was perfect—couldn’t ask for a better time in Rome!

 Me and Allee in the Coliseum

 See what I mean? Forum/Palatine

The rest of the week went by as per usual, with classes and such. Friday we left after Italian class for Cinque Terre, and we got there by train in the late afternoon. It was me, Brittney, Allee, Kelly, Kalin, and Rebecca. When we got off the train, the first thing we saw was the ocean. It was absolutely breathtaking—clear blue water, cloudless skies and huge mountains. We stayed in Riomaggiore, the first of the five villages. We went to check into the hostel and found a tiny office—the check-in man walked us out and back down the hill where we had just come from, seemingly taking us out into the boonies. We emerged from a tunnel and BAM there was the ocean. At this point we’re getting really excited, and then he brings us into a building, takes us up really treacherous steps (there were ropes on the wall to help pull you up) and bought us into a set-up with three rooms—each with bunk beds, as there were six of us. We open the window and we are literally RIGHT on the ocean. If I had fallen out of my window, I would have fallen right into the ocean. I was so excited, I can’t even tell you. Perfetto! We had to climb some more stairs to get to the bathroom, but we didn’t mind—and we didn’t see a single other soul in the building while we were there. So that first night we walked around a little bit, and went into a restaurant right by the rooms. We all got huge seafood meals and dessert, and it was really delicious. It was so amazing to be lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves outside my window.

The view outside of my window—amazing! Be jealous ☺


Me before the treacherous hike!

 From left-Allee, Kelly, Rebecca, Kalin, Brittney, Me

Saturday morning we woke up rather leisurely, and got ready to explore the villages. We took a trail from the first village to the second, and it was a nice, relaxing walk along the cliffs. I went camera crazy and took over 400 pictures that weekend, if that gives you an indication of how beautiful it was! So we get to the second village, and walk around for a little bit. The buildings are all so colorful, and the ocean is right there. The day was perfect and cloudless. The path from the second village to the third was closed down, so we took a quick train ride to get around to the fourth village. At the fourth village, we sat on some rocks on the ocean and ate pesto pizza, which was amazing. Cinque Terre was the birthplace of pesto! It was so relaxing to sit on the rocks, and we had a lot of fun just being there. From the fourth village we took the path to the fifth village, and here’s where it got interesting—this was a legitimate HIKE. Like, thousands of feet in the air, teeny tiny path high in the mountains, constant incline hike. We all know how out of shape I am, so after the first five minutes I thought I was going to die. But it was SO worth it…after a little while I got used to the pace, and was fine the rest of the way. I felt like I was in Ireland, it was so lush and green, with flowers everywhere up in the cliffs. We even passed lemon and orange groves, and saw some lemons being harvested! The view from up there was so fabulous. By the time we reached the fifth village, though, we were definitely ready for a break. There was a black sand beach there that we stopped on for a few minutes, and just took a breather. We walked around a bit, and then took the train back to our village. We had dinner at a local place, and I got a great pesto pasta dish. Afterwards, we went back to our hostel.

We had a lot of fun hanging out in the hostel, and we also saw something really funny—a bunch of (very drunk) Americans were skinny dipping right outside our window in the little harbor area…they kept falling and trying to get out and into the water, all the while yelling at us to come down (which we refused). It was quite funny though, but it also gives you an idea of why sometimes Americans are given a bad rep…In the morning we got on a train and headed back to Florence, back by early afternoon. We took that time to do some homework and relax a little bit, but it was the perfect weekend. I would go back to Cinque Terre in a heartbeat, and I wish you could all come with me!

As for this week, nothing too out of the usual. Today we were supposed to go to a big park with our Italian class, but the teachers took us on the wrong bus and we got all confused—we ended up just getting out early. Everyone has been busy working on school stuff this week, and this weekend I think almost everyone is staying in Florence to get work done before spring break. More on that later! I think that’s it for now (big breath!) so CIAO!

A presto.

Please check out my facebook album—even then, I can’t capture how amazing this place was!!!!