This past week was the first week of classes, which meant that I went to class Monday and Tuesday afternoon and don't have class until this coming Tuesday. Why? Because my Kent State professors are speaking at a lecture in Finland this weekend, so the two of them won't be back in Florence until Monday night and they left Wednesday of this past week. Needless to say I left week one of class with no homework which meant that I got a wonderfully relaxing trip to Cinque Terre that was unobstructed by thoughts of homework left for classes.
We left bright and early Friday morning (as in our train left at 06:00 so we had to leave for the station at 05:15.) and arrived at Cinque Terre at 09:00. We started off the day in Corniglia with a trek up the 400 step staircase, then up a hill and a few more sets of stairs to get to the best views Corniglia has to offer. After our site-seeing climb we moved on to Manarola where we looked out at the sea, took a few pictures, and had a delicious lunch. We didn't see the famous view, but we were in it for a little while! After lunch we went and checked into our hostel in Riomaggiore and got ready to hit the water! We climbed out on the rocks (something I normally never would have done) and then everyone else went cliff-diving while I stayed with the stuff. I was already at my adventure limit for the day climbing all the way over to where we were at. After a few hours we headed back and made dinner in our hostel. It was a very bland pasta in tomato sauce but we ate it and headed back to the rocks to watch an amazing sunset!
Saturday we all got up around 10:00 and got ready to head out to Vernazza. When we got there we encountered the day trip tour groups, grabbed some lunch, and wandered for a bit. We ended our stay in Vernazza with a trip to the castle and a sketching session from that beautiful vantage point. The castle was only available on the roof and tower portions, but it was still a beautiful space. We encountered a "ruin cat" who napped with Janelle as we all sketched. When we had all had enough of sketching in the hot sun we went back down the hill to the train station and got on the next train to La Spezia. We imagined that it would also stop in Manarola, but had we looked at the schedules we were given, we would have realized that it was one of three that don't stop in that village. We didn't realize this until we sped past Corniglia without stopping and decided we should look at the schedule. Between Riomaggiore and La Spezia, the train stopped in the middle of the tracks with no explanation as to the stop and we were very confused about what was happening. We eventually made it to La Spezia with two hours until our train back to Florence left. We attempted to change our ticket to an earlier one with the help of an Italian women who spoke English, but they would not let us. We stopped in the McDonalds and looked at the food they had to offer. This McDonalds had 7 Euro sandwiches made with fresh meats, Italian breads, and other local products. We decided to just get McFlurries with Smarties (like M&Ms only with more of a candy coating and not so large in size) and Kris got a mango milkshake. We then went into the center of La Spezia where the other architecture females got sandwiches at a little shop before we headed back to the train station for a few hours of WiFi connection since we had been out of WiFi since we left our apartments on Friday morning. Our train back to Firenze switched tracks when it pulled into the station and we only learned of the switch because Ian and Kris went on a snack run to the platform it was switched too.
We finally made it back to Florence and just in time to stop in the market before it closed. We then went home, showered, ate, and went to bed after two days of walking and travelling.
Here's my favorite photos from this weekend!
We left bright and early Friday morning (as in our train left at 06:00 so we had to leave for the station at 05:15.) and arrived at Cinque Terre at 09:00. We started off the day in Corniglia with a trek up the 400 step staircase, then up a hill and a few more sets of stairs to get to the best views Corniglia has to offer. After our site-seeing climb we moved on to Manarola where we looked out at the sea, took a few pictures, and had a delicious lunch. We didn't see the famous view, but we were in it for a little while! After lunch we went and checked into our hostel in Riomaggiore and got ready to hit the water! We climbed out on the rocks (something I normally never would have done) and then everyone else went cliff-diving while I stayed with the stuff. I was already at my adventure limit for the day climbing all the way over to where we were at. After a few hours we headed back and made dinner in our hostel. It was a very bland pasta in tomato sauce but we ate it and headed back to the rocks to watch an amazing sunset!
Saturday we all got up around 10:00 and got ready to head out to Vernazza. When we got there we encountered the day trip tour groups, grabbed some lunch, and wandered for a bit. We ended our stay in Vernazza with a trip to the castle and a sketching session from that beautiful vantage point. The castle was only available on the roof and tower portions, but it was still a beautiful space. We encountered a "ruin cat" who napped with Janelle as we all sketched. When we had all had enough of sketching in the hot sun we went back down the hill to the train station and got on the next train to La Spezia. We imagined that it would also stop in Manarola, but had we looked at the schedules we were given, we would have realized that it was one of three that don't stop in that village. We didn't realize this until we sped past Corniglia without stopping and decided we should look at the schedule. Between Riomaggiore and La Spezia, the train stopped in the middle of the tracks with no explanation as to the stop and we were very confused about what was happening. We eventually made it to La Spezia with two hours until our train back to Florence left. We attempted to change our ticket to an earlier one with the help of an Italian women who spoke English, but they would not let us. We stopped in the McDonalds and looked at the food they had to offer. This McDonalds had 7 Euro sandwiches made with fresh meats, Italian breads, and other local products. We decided to just get McFlurries with Smarties (like M&Ms only with more of a candy coating and not so large in size) and Kris got a mango milkshake. We then went into the center of La Spezia where the other architecture females got sandwiches at a little shop before we headed back to the train station for a few hours of WiFi connection since we had been out of WiFi since we left our apartments on Friday morning. Our train back to Firenze switched tracks when it pulled into the station and we only learned of the switch because Ian and Kris went on a snack run to the platform it was switched too.
We finally made it back to Florence and just in time to stop in the market before it closed. We then went home, showered, ate, and went to bed after two days of walking and travelling.
Here's my favorite photos from this weekend!