Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Cinque Terre (chink-qu-way – tear-ay) – 5 Lands….or the 5 cities on the coast

            …ahhh finally we get our spring break, well easter break here in italy….its funny that even though we are basically living on vacation here on semester in Torino, we were still living for our easter break….we got off Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and some people even skipped the few classes this weekend and started their breaks last weekend….we were all off somewhere, because lets be honest I think this is the only time we will be able to take off to Greece, Amsterdam, Paris or Nice for spring break…..so everyone took full advantage of it all J….

            ..myself, Kaitlyn and Natalie were off to see 4 different Italian cities in 5 days….it was a packed weekend but so so much fun….Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence and Siena…with our backpacks on we were off to the train station early on Thursday and that’s when the adventure really began…..lets see maybe I should have named this post, lost….because that’s how it started….when we got the train station we have about 20 minutes so natalie and I went to get a cappuccino and her a ticket, while Kaitlyn went to pull some money out of the atm….we must have just missed her as we walked to the ticket machine from the bar because after we got the ticket, we didn’t see Kait, so we went to the platform, still couldn’t see her….then the train left…..we waited around, scared to death desperately trying to find her…..we finally decided she wasn’t in the station so she must have gotten on the train thinking we were on it…..so we tried to figure out what we would have done if we were in her place….especially since she was the only one of us without an Italian phone, so we had no way of getting a hold of her….we finally decided to find wifi, send her a facebook message and tell her we were taking the next train and to wait for us in Genova…..we got on the train, and sat completely worried and stressed for the next couple hours until we arrived……no Kaitlyn…..walked around to find some wifi and couldn’t….decided since the tickets she had only had a 7 minute train change, she must have continued….so we did…..and right before our train left for Levanto, I got a call from Paolo that she had facebook messaged him and she was ok and waiting for us there……and from that point on we decided we were buying Kaitlyn a leash J…..
 



           …after that exciting start to the weekend, we settled in for our train to Levanto and crashed hard for a good hour nap….when we got there and finally saw her…it was time for the relaxing to start….we dropped our stuff off at the hostel and were off to the city that was the most south….first item of business was lunch….since its getting to the end of our semester and everyone is running out of money, we were just looking to grab something small and cheap, and have a good dinner later….we ended up finding a pizza place with a giant pizza for 4-6 people for like 10 euro….it was awesome and perfect, get a lot of food in our bellies and we were off…..

            …after exploring that city a bit more after lunch we hopped back on the train and took it to Vernazza, had an awesome gelato, explored a bit and took TONS of pictures…after a bit we decided we were done with this city and wanted to go on a hike, so at about 5 we took off hiking from Vernazza to Monterosso and it was one of my most favorite things that we did this weekend!...you hiked all the way up over the mountain with amazing views behind you of Vernazza, and to the side of you of the Sea….definently a workout for sure, but we brought the box wine so it was ok J….we had so so so much fun…..it took us a good couple hours, so we also got to watch the sun start to set from our hike, which was just beautiful J

            ….when we got to Monterosso, we needed a good sit J….so we just sat on the beach and soaked up the last few rays of sun before it sank beneath the sea’s horizon….after relaxing a bit we walked around for a little while, got our cinque terre souviners, and headed to the train to head back to Levanto for dinner and bed…..

            …our hostel was about a 20 minute walk from the train station (which happened to be right next to the field that we played on with the team from my trip to Europe 3 years ago, that was really really cool) and part was right on the water, under the moonlight it was sooo pretty….we ended up finding a great little restaurant right near our hotel….we all got something different and shared them all it was sooo delicious and really fun J …after dinner it was back to the hostel, a few minutes of wifi use in the lobby and up stairs to bed….
            …..the next morning we were up literally before the sun….we had a train to pisa at 10:30 and breakfast at the hostel at 8, so we got up and were out of the hostel by 6, and on a train to the middle city (and the one that is always photographed) for the sunrise…..we were literally the only tourists in the town and it was awesome J….we just wandered a bit….found our way down to the water…..and then continued to take tons and tons of pictures…..


            ….after the sun came up and about an hour in the city, we were back on a train to Levanto, to the hostel for breakfast, grabbed our bags and then were right back at the train station to hurry and go to the last of the five cities….unfortunatly this was the city with the 376 stairs from the train station to the city…so that was fun lol…..we literally walked up, and across the town to the view of the sea, took some pictures and then had to head back down in order to catch the train that would take us back to the main station to catch our next train to pisa….but we were able to say we went to all 5 cities in our short time……it was literally one of the most packed visits ive done anywhere but it was somehow still relaxing and wicked fun….love Cinque Terre…..:) so so much….and its pretty fun to be able to see them all J…..as nat says, we were “cinque per cinque terre” J J  one city down, 3 to go…..

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