Pisa + Cinque Terre

Modes of transportation used this weekend: Feet, Bus, Train, and Boat

Low points: it rained.

High points:

On Saturday, all 120+ of us boarded 3 buses and headed up to Pisa. Pisa was interesting. I imagined that the leaning tower was much larger, and much skinnier... boy, pictures are deceiving! Then again, things are never the same when you see them in person as opposed to when you see them in pictures... we took a tour of the city, and of course I zoned out. Let's be honest here, when you are in a beautiful place for the first time, with a ton of beautiful sites around you, how likely is it that you are going to listen to EVERY word that the tour guide says. yeah, can't do it. I rather experience everything and just take it all in, and then look up info on it on the internet. It was nice to walk around Pisa for a bit though, and it was nice to go, but I'm not so sure I would go back a second time...

You can't go to pisa and not do the "typical" pisa poses....

After that we went to some cute little beachy town called Versilia. It reminded me a lot of home with the beach and the boardwalk... but it was still nice to just lounge around and relax.

Last night we stayed at a hotel called Versilia Holidays. The shower in my room did not work. It was so weird. And then the air conditioning? yeah that didn't work either. However, last night, we had a full 5 course meal that DEFINITELY made up for it...

We had...

-Spelt Salad

-Pasta

-Vegetable Soup

-Chicken (and they made me a delicious omelette instead since I told them I'm a vegetarian)

-Spinich and Potatoes 

- And a dessert cake/pie thing

We probably all gained at least 10 lbs by just looking at the food and another 10 from eating it! It was so good. 

And then last night we went into the town right by the hotel... not sure what it was called, but we were there! There was a live concert to raise money for people who were killed in a train accident a few months back... or something like that. It was really fun to listen to the jams and dance to it. 

This morning we woke up at the crack of dawn: 6:30 AM. And for me, that's a huge struggle. I am NOT a morning person. We had breakfast at 7 AM and then took the bus to a town called 'La Spezia'. From there we took a boat to an island called 'Porto Venere' which was a little town with lots of beautiful colored buildings and a massive church right on the water which a lot of people decide to get married at, for obvious reasons...

Curtains made out of Penne noodles!

From there we took a boat to Monterosso. We were supposed to visit a couple more of the towns in cinque terre, but because it rained, it was hard for the boat to dock, so we had to skip out on those towns. And since we found out yesterday that we were going to be on a boat today, I decided to stop at a farmacia to get the italian version of dramamine. And goodness, I'm glad I did! The stretch from Porto Venere to Monterosso was quite rocky. The motion sickness pills unfortunately made me drowsy, so at one point today, it was a struggle to keep my eyes open, however I didn't feel sick! :) The town of Monterosso was also beautiful. There were churches, cute little walkways, streets, cafes, and restaurants. You know a place is truly beautiful when even if the weather is really crummy, the place still glows with beauty. And wow, it definitely was glowin'!!

We all then walked to a train station and took the train to Manarola. There, we walked on a path called "Lover's Lane" that winds around the cliffs. It was definitely a romantic place to be and the sights were incredible. After we finished the stroll, of course the sun came out because we were getting ready to leave... We then took the train back to La Spezia and headed on home to Firenze. It feels so good to be home!

It's amazing how you can go 2 hours away from Florence and everything is different. The people, the culture, the scenery. Everything. People seemed really rude in some parts that we visited, whereas around here in Firenze, the majority of people are pretty friendly. Of course Florence is a lot more touristy, but still. A few of my friends went out to lunch and one of them was trying to talk to the waitress in Italian, but the waitress refused to talk back in Italian and just replied in English. Whereas, here, if you show that you are trying to say something in Italian, then the Italians help you out and love that you are trying to speak Italian. 

ITALY

2009

Ciao!