Walking On A Dream

This weekend was exactly that - like walking on a dream. (This song also came to mind a few times.)

Cinque Terre is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world, and after seeing dozens of pictures of the place, it was surreal to suddenly be there last weekend! Unfortunately, we heard it would be raining all weekend and the trails were closed, so we couldn't hike between the five cities (but it could have hailed and I would've still been so stoked.)

Our weekend destinations:

We met at school early Friday morning and took a double-Decker bus to our first stop, Genova. Since this weekend trip was put on by our program, almost all 70 of us went, so that was awesome. As soon as we got to Genova, we were met by tour guide ladies who split us up into small groups and took us on a tour of the city - such a perk because college kids on a budget don't go on guided tours. ;)

Welcome to Genova.


St. Lawrence Cathedral in Genova, where it's believed St. John the Baptist's ashes are buried.

We walked around the city and learned fun facts like Genova was the childhood home of Christopher Columbus and once was a bustling medieval port. :)

A few hours later, we were dropped off in the ritzy town of Santa Margherita. Ritzy as in.. Las Vegas + Palm Springs x 4,000. It was drop-dead-stunning. Sort of like Disneyland on steroids. Yes, it was actually MORE extravagant than Main Street Disneyland. Super colorful buildings, perfect landscaping, bright colors everywhere. We went to a whole-in-the-wall focaccia place for lunch and then walked up to a charming church and gardens on the top of the city.

Also, Madonna has a house here! Too bad we couldn't stop by. 

Looking down at the town of Santa Margherita

Later in the afternoon, we found some gelato and took it to the beach (and finally got our toes wet in the Mediterranean!) While we were at the beach, we met two guys (Frederico and his friend) because their yellow lab was playing on the beach.. and who can resist an adorable dog?! We found out they lived in the town and worked at a bar up the street. They recommended some good places for dinner and told us there would be live music on the water later that night. We headed out for a late dinner and enjoyed great pasta, live music and the all-around amazing scene of Santa Margherita. (And we also ran into Federico again!)

Gelato & the beach.

Becca & Kathleen.

Federico bought us all some drinks!

Saturday morning we took the train to Riomaggiore, the last and most southern of the 'five cities' of Cinque Terre. We walked up to the highest point of the city and were blown away by the expansive sea, and the quaint, bright houses nestled into the mountainside.

The sky on the verge of rain, so calm and pretty.

Top of Riomaggiore.

We decided to first head even more south to the city of Spezia for lunch. After discovering a great cafe for lunch and shopping in the city, we took the train up the coast and stopped in each of the five cities along the way. 

In Spezia, lots of colorful boats.

Manarola was our first stop, and was a gorgeous town filled with boats. In between the rain (and thundering), I was able to snap some pictures of the electric blue and turquoise water. It wasn't cold outside, so it was really hard to resist the urge to jump in the clear water, (especially after being so hot from walking around all bundled up.)

Manarola. Loooving this town.

Happy happy happy.

We skipped Corniglia, a smaller town at the top of the mountainside, mostly because climbing the 365 steps didn't seem too appealing in the pouring rain. Plus we only had a few hours of daylight left, and wanted to appreciate the other two cities as well.

Vernazza, the second most northern city, was beautiful and complete with a protected bay and towering cliffs.

May I please move here?

 Vernazza.

Kelsey & Natalie.

Our final city was Monterosso. We had a great dinner on the beach and could hear the rain pouring on the terrace all night. It was beautiful to watch and hear the rain on the ocean, be warm while still sitting outside, and be enjoying the surreal setting!

We also ate a lot of this:

Conveniently, almost everyone in our group ended up at the last town around 10, so we sort of took over the train station for an hour while waiting for our train back to Santa Margherita. It was totally hectic and hilarious and funny.

Sunday morning began with a boat ride to Portofino, where we were able to see amazing mansions off the Italian coast. If anyone wins the lottery any time soon, I would definitely recommended real estate in this area.

I mean, this one wasn't too bad:

We got to Portofino and I was literally dazzled by the harbor. I can only think of words like ritzy and dazzling to do all of these places justice. We found a tiny road up a hill and decided to hike for awhile until we soon saw sweeping views of the port, the Dolce & Gabbana house, villas tucked into the mountainside, yachts parked in the harbor, and people zipping around on jet-skis. Rough life. I wanted to handcuff myself to this a ginormous private yacht and never leave:

View of Portofino, I'm in loooove.

Say hello to my new summer home:

I can't even really tell you what we did that day because it was just the most relaxing and beautiful day. I felt so clear headed and peaceful, just taking in the gorgeous-ness of the Italian coast and feeling like I had zero obligations, worries, or things to think about. It was a great day.

(Too bad as I'm currently writing this I'm supposed to be doing my Italian homework, but since I'm totally confused it can be put off until tomorrow, right? So much for having zero obligations.)

We then had the rest of Sunday to relax, which consisted of this:

The natural beauty of Santa Margherita, Portofino, and Cinque Terre is a type of beauty that I never could have dreamed up, nor can any my pictures fully do justice. I feel so blessed and extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to venture to this incredible place.

(Side-note: Not too worry, not everything Italy is in fact absolutely perfect-and-beautiful-every-second; on the metro home today we saw some guy shooting up herion. For real. So I guess the world is not a perfect place.)

Miss everyone!

Love,

Lauren

Escapades in Elba

This weekend we ventured to Elba Island, about 12 miles from the coastal town of Piombino, Tuscany.

After Italian class on Thursday night, Natalie, Molly, Lexi, Kelsey and I left at 10pm by train and headed to Lavorno. It was a sleeper-style type train with six seats per cabin (and looked EXACTLY like the train in Harry Potter to Hogwarts. Just guess how excited I was.) We weren’t sure how enforced the whole assigned-seats situation was, so we jumped into a cabin where we could all fit. We introduced ourselves to the only other person in the cabin, a young guy named Paolo. Lexi casually asked if he had ever seen the Lizzie McGuire movie (since the main character’s name is Paolo). Paolo said no and we all laughed. Unfortunately, a few stops later an older man opened our cabin door and pointed to one of the seats, stating it was his. Paolo was so sweet and decided to move so we could all stay together. A few stops later, when we had finally gotten comfortable and turned the lights off, a family came in and kicked us all out. (Oops, our fault.) We all went to our assigned seats and four hours later, we arrived in Livorno.

Unfortunately, it was 2am and our next train wasn’t leaving until 5am, so we were inclined to find a well-lit corner in the train station. After laughing about the situation (but really crying on the inside), we all tried to sleep on the train station floor. We diverted some awkward situations with homeless people, survived the night, and finally boarded our train to Piombino. Within an hour, we were stepping outside to a gorgeous sunrise over the Mediterranean ocean. At the docks in Piombino, we grabbed cappuccinos at a small café and waited for the first ferry to leave for l’Isola d’Elba. Unfortunately, our rough night was just the beginning of a very crazy weekend.

After the hour-long ferry ride, we got off and were stunned by how beautiful Elba Island was. We went into the first hotel in sight and asked a concierge how to get to our hotel in Rio Marina. She just starred at us and said, “Oh. But why are you staying there?!” We sort of just shrugged; it was inexpensive, one of the only places we could find and a cute little town. She pulled out a map and said we were first off in the wrong city (we were in Portoferraio), and should be in Rio Marina (an hour by bus.) She then pointed to the best part of the island, Marina di Campo, twenty minutes from where we were, but way too far away from our hotel. Bummed, we grabbed breakfast, sat down with maps and tried to figure out our next move.

(In case this post starts to become very confusing with town names, 
here is a map of Elba Island. We arrived in Portoferraio (by accident), 

spent Saturday in Marina di Campo, and stayed in Rio Marina.)

 Elba Island

We decided to hike to the top of the Medici Fortress that was so beautifully built into the cliffs of the island. The fortress was built in 1548 by Cosimo I, and had a great view of the island & the Mediterranean. :)

An hour later, we caught the bus to Marina di Campo, the most famous part of the island, stopped at a tiny store to grab snacks, and laid on the beach all afternoon. The water was crystal clear and it was all-around exactly what we needed. (Except for the fact we were still lugging around our huge backpacks and probably looked ridiculous on the beach.)

 

 

By late afternoon, we grabbed a bus back to Portoferraio and then another bus to Rio Marina (where we were staying.) The buses going across the island were big charter buses, had air conditioning, and were only €2 for the sweet deal of seeing the entire island: mountains + the quaint towns + sprawling countryside.

View from the bus, so pretty!

Finally arriving in Rio Marina, we were floored by how perfect our little town was. (When we had told our professors earlier this week that we were going to Elba, many were just like, "Why?!" We were a bit worried.. until we got there. Elba was stunning.) Our hotel was a mom-and-pop type place, and after taking much needed showers, we headed out for a late dinner. We found a great restaurant on the water overlooking the bay of boats. Delish!

 

Natalie & Molly

The next morning, we were surprised by a continental breakfast downstairs, and our hotel concierge (most likely the owner of the tiny hotel) recommended a great hike nearby. We checked out, were able to store our backpacks in a closet, and set off. Great scenery and perfect weather.

 

Kelsey, Natalie, Lexi & Molly

After the hike, Kelsey and I went to go check out the Napoleonic Villa of San Martino, where Napoleon had lived while exiled on Elba Island.

 

On our way to San Martino

It was a bit of a trek, but we made it to the base of his estate only to find not a soul in sight. Confused, we walked up to a shop where an older Italian couple were sitting, and asked where to go. They said the estate was closed. We were shocked and asked “perché?!” They burst out laughing and said something about it being Sunday. As if we were dumb Americans to think anything would be open on a Sunday. (Big lesson learned this weekend: Italians take their Sunday rest-day VERY seriously, every single thing is closed.)

 

Award for longest driveway in the world

Bummed, we still walked up the insanely long driveway and stood at the gates to take pictures; it had closed only 45 minutes earlier. We headed back to the bus stop in the middle of the empty parking lot (that should have been a bad sign), and proceeded to wait 45 minutes without seeing a single trace of a bus. We eventually walked up to a parked car where the wife was sitting in the front seat, and the dad was outside watching his young son ride his bike around the parking lot. We asked if he spoke English (he didn’t), and in Italian we asked if he knew the next bus time, or how to get back to Portoferraio (where we needed to hop on the ferry to meet the other girls, and to make our 6:30pm train home.) He said all taxis were 'gone' since it was Sunday, and there were no more buses. He quickly smiled and said he could take us to Portoferraio! He waved his son back over to the car, and gestured for us to get in. Soon we cruising down the mountainside with an amazingly generous Italian family, with Kelsey, myself, a seven-year-old boy, and our two huge backpacks squeezed in the back. They were awesome and we kept saying “grazie mille!” when they dropped us off at the docks. We made it to our ferry within 10 minutes and an hour later were boarding our train back home.

The rest of our evening was just as unpredictable. Our train leaving Piombino was supposed to be only a 20-minute ride before we changed trains at a much larger station. However, our first train was delayed for about 15 minutes (we still aren’t sure why.. it seemed like the conductors wanted a bit longer smoking break.) Anyway, our delay + the fact that our train seemed to be going aprox. 5 mph led us to miss our connecting train (our long, 5-hour one). We desperately asked a train conductor lady for advice, but she spoke minimal English and all we managed to understand was that she recommended staying on the train until the Pisa stop to then deal with changing trains there.

We looked at each other and were like, “We’re going to Pisa? Heck yes!” We jumped off the train at Pisa, found the ticket office, and had to choose between leaving at 3am or 6am. We decided since we had to pay an extra €20 for the ticket change, a hostel wasn’t worth it. By now, it was after 10pm and we thought staying up until 3am would be a breeze, so we bought bus tickets heading to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We quickly ran into a hotel, splashed water everywhere, and tried to feel slightly cleaner before jumping on the bus to the Tower. It was so surreal to suddenly be walking on the lawn toward to the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

 

Starving, we found a great restaurant next to the Tower and attempted to see how long we could stay before they noticed. We successfully milked it for a couple hours and became buds with our waiter. Something like 5 courses later, we finally left and still had a few hours to kill.

Cheers to spontaneity!

Molly had the idea to make a Call Me Maybe music video around the Leaning Tower of Pisa (since it was 1am and the only time of night it was totally cool, obviously.) So fun. Afterward, we to some bars and nightlife to be around people, grabbed some drinks and gelato, and met some (very) outgoing twenty-something Italian guys who ended up chatting us up. Their little English + our minimal Italian skills made for some great laughs and all around entertainment. We finally enjoyed a long stroll over the bridge and throughout the town back to the station, since all buses had long since stopped running. We passed out on the train back to Torino and were so glad to finally be done with traveling. When we got off the train in Torino, Paolo was coincidentally arriving as well, and we all sort of just saw him and yelled PAOLO! Too funny. Luckily, our Italian classes weren’t until 2pm so we had the rest of the morning to sleep in.

Night two spent in a train station.

Even though we only slept in a real bed one out of the three nights, my backpack got completely shredded, and I now have a plethora of mosquito bites in the most inconvenient places, I loved soaking up every minute of it.