Cinque Terre

Last weekend I stayed in Florence and took a day trip to Cinque Terre on Sunday.  The weekend was busy as usual. I met up with friends, celebrated my roommates 21st birthday and toured Santa Croce (famous church near where I live). Wednesday we went to a Florence Soccer Game with our program and we celebrated my roommate Ashley's 21st b-day.  We hosted a party at our place and served sprinkles cupcakes as dessert along with a lot of alcohol.  (Thanks to Mel's visit we were able to freeze lots of sprinkles Cupcakes) On Thursday my friend and I met for an American breakfast at the Diner and then made our way to visit Santa Croce. The church had an ornate decor and was massive.  Additionally, Santa Croce also holds Michaelangelo's grave inside. On Sunday I traveled to Cinque Terre with a friend from school.  We took a day trip with a company organizer.  After a 2 hour bus ride we arrived in Cinque Terre and hiked from the 1st city through to the 4th city.  We were warned that the hike was difficult but I figured I would be fine.  I should have given that a second thought before eagerly volunteering to hike. The hike was extremely difficult and had an vertical uphill climb for the first hour.  Not to mention it was pouring rain! I thought I was going to pass out on the way up but finally managed to catch my breath on the flat part.   By then the rain had cleared up but I was soaking wet and worst of all so was the trail! The path had tiny winding trails without fences or rails. (Even worse with rain...and now that I think about it...very dangerous) We literally were overlooking extreme heights and staring straight down into the water. The views were incredible and breathtaking.  We hiked around the mountain and got great candid photos of the city below. Finally after 2.5 hours we reached the fourth town. I must have burned at least 800 calories during the hike. Each town had a different atmosphere to it.  All of them had great views of the ocean and mountains.  In the fourth town we sat down and ate lunch overlooking the ocean on a lookout point. We were about 10 feet away from the ocean! It was amazing! I scoured down my pesto pizza (a Cinque Terre specialty).  The pizza was delicious! Then it began to shower and thankfully cleared up as we moved on to the fifth and final town.  We were able to take the train to the final town and when we arrived it was back to sunshine! We walked the strip of restaurants and shops and devoured gelato.  We then hung out on the beach and managed to grab a postcard before departing.  Later we traveled back to Florence and I was eager to return to shower and sleep :)

That is all for now!

Ciao!