Cinque Terre

Sunday morning, Madeline and I got up bright and early to meet the Florence for Fun group going to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre translates literally to "five lands." It is in the region of Liguria, and is composed of five different towns: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso. What makes Cinque Terre so special is that the towns are built into the cliffs along the southern coast of Liguria. The towns are famous for their colorfully-painted homes--we learned that the reason for this was so that the fishermen and farmers that lived in these villages could easily locate their homes and families from the sea or fields while they were out working during the day. The region is famous for their grapes, basil, honey, olive oil, lemons, seafood, pesto, white wine, and focaccia bread. Cinque Terre is absolutely beautiful, and we were lucky enough to explore the area by hiking from town to town.

It took about two hours by bus to get to Cinque Terre. We weren't able to see Riomaggiore due to weather conditions, so we went straight to Manarola and hung out in that town for awhile. I was amazed by all of the different types of flowers, plants and trees that they grew there. There were hydrangeas everywhere, but we also saw bamboo-like shoots, cherry trees, lemon and lime trees, pansies and all different types of wildflowers. There was a rocky area just off the coast where we went to get a good view of the town and the sea--a perfect photo opp. We saw a few brave divers jumping off the rocks and into the sea.

Terraces carved into the land to grow crops

Carts for transporting grapes and olives up the hills

Town clock tower

Kaylin and her new rock-climbing friend, Jeremy

KU girls! Kaylin, me, Catie, Madeline and Haley

After our extensive photo shoot, we explored Manarola. As always, we were hungry and wanted to try some of the food that Cinque Terre is famous for. We found a focacceria, where we tried our first Ligurian focaccia bread. I'm not kidding when I say it was by far the best bread I've tasted in my entire life. I could eat just this bread every single day for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy with that.. SO GOOD. After we ordered, we took our bread, sat in the town square, and watched some little Italian boys play soccer with our tour guides.

 

The next town we went to was Corniglia. We had a couple of hours here, so we picked a cute outdoor cafe to eat lunch at. I ordered the gnocchi pesto--a specialty of Cinque Terre. It was really good, but also very rich. We explored the town for a bit. There were a lot of areas with amazing views of the sea and the coast. And of course, we didn't forget to get our daily gelato serving!

Next, we hiked from Corniglia to Vernazza. The hike was a nice change of pace, and there were so many beautiful views from the path that we took.

Once we got to Vernazza, we headed to the train station to catch a train to the next town. Unfortunately, though, the train was delayed by an hour and a half because we had an earthquake! We didn't feel anything when it happened, but apparently it was an aftershock of the earthquake that happened in Tuscany a couple days before. The delay was definitely a bummer because we didn't end up getting to spend any time on the beach in the next town. But, we did get to see a precious elderly man play the accordion with his even more precious puppy, so that was a fun distraction while we waited.

Once we finally arrived in Monterosso, we only had about 30 minutes to spend there, so we decided it wasn't worth it to go down to the beach. We ate some pizza on focaccia bread and hung out on the pier until it was time to head back to Florence. The beaches in Monterosso were so nice and really different from the ones we saw the weekend before in Positano. The sand was much more fine and the beach wasn't rocky at all.

ROME is where the heart is

Friday afternoon after class, Madeline, Kaylin, Christine and I headed to the Santa Maria Novella train station to travel to Rome. After an hour delay, we were on our way, and arrived in the eternal city around 6. When we went to check into our hotel, there was nobody in the building to meet us. We had to call the owner, who informed us, "Maybe we're in a coffeehouse..." (which was definitely the case, as he came running up the staircase about 5 minutes after our call with a strong scent of fresh espresso on his breath). He brought us to our room, which was so much nicer than we expected it to be for the amount we paid! It was air conditioned, had a large, flat screen TV, comfortable beds, and a private bathroom. One thing I've learned during my time here in Italy is to never, ever take air conditioning for granted; most buildings and homes here do not have air conditioning!

After we settled into our room and freshened up a bit, we headed out to find dinner. We ate dinner at a small bar, then went out in Rome. We went to the Ice Club, which was so incredibly cool (figuratively AND literally :)), but we didn't stay for very long since it was so cold. They keep the bar -5 degrees Celsius! When you pay the cover fee, they give you an insulated poncho to wear inside.

Madeline, Kaylin and me

In an igloo!

We woke up bright and early the following morning to see as much of Rome as possible. I feel like you could spend weeks in Rome and still not see everything; it is such a big city with so much history and so many things to do! To get around the city quickly, we decided to buy hop-on-hop-off tour bus passes for the day, which was pretty nice. We got to see most of the major monuments and landmarks while driving around, and there was an audio tour to accompany the things we passed.

We visited the Spanish Steps first; it wasn't super crowded since it was early in the day.  There were many artists setting up their work to sell to visitors, and also the infamous rose-man, who "generously" gifts women with roses then follows them around until they pay him for the flowers.

Our next stop was the Trevi Fountain. We threw a coin over our shoulders into the fountain--legend has it that if you do this and don't look back after throwing it, you will return to Rome again one day. I followed the protocol, so I guess we will have to see if it comes true!

Next stop was the Colosseum, which was incredible. Our tour guide on the bus informed us that they could not drop us off at the normal stop, but did not tell us the reason why. We soon found out that there was a labor union strike going on that day, and they were having a parade/march down the street in front of the Colosseum. It was actually pretty exciting! There were so many people waving flags, singing songs, and holding up their banners. We considered joining in on their parade, but since we didn't know exactly what they were protesting, we figured it was best to just watch from the crowd.

Once we got into the Colosseum, we looked around for awhile. It is amazing to think about all of the events (gladiator fights, naval battles, etc.) that took place there so many years ago. The architecture of the structure is absolutely incredible considering it was built so long ago.

We ate a quick lunch, then went to test La Bocca della Verita, a face carved out of marble that could be considered the Middle Ages model of a lie detector. Legend has it that if you put your hand into the mouth of the sculpture, then tell a lie, your hand will be bitten off! I can't say I was brave enough to try telling a lie, but I did pay 1 euro to take a picture with my hand in the mouth.

We headed back to the bus stop (with all of our limbs still attached!) to catch the bus and ride to Vatican City. It was nice to hear a little blurb about each of the monuments we passed along the way, since we weren't able to actually go and see all of them.

We got to Vatican City and saw Saint Peter's Basilica, just from the outside though... The line to get in was super long and guides told us it would be about an hour wait or more to get inside the church. I didn't realize how lucky I was last time I visited the Vatican to be traveling with a priest... Aquinas' chaplain, Father Andrew, was our FastPass and got us to the front of the line whenever we visited a church!

Even though I wasn't able to go inside the basilica this time, visiting Vatican City was absolutely amazing. Seeing all of the people that come from all parts of the world to visit the Vatican really made me realize how fitting the word "catholic" (coming from the Greek word meaning "universal") is when used to describe the Church. It was such an incredible realization that although we come from very different backgrounds, countries, and cultures, we are all connected by our shared beliefs. I feel so blessed and proud to be a part of this universal community!

After our crazy attempt to do Rome-in-a-day (definitely impossible), we caught the train back to Florence and tried to get a good night's sleep before our next adventure--going to Cinque Terre the next day! More posts and pictures to come... Abbracci e baci, i miei amici :)