pesto pizza

10.07.2011
The first day of vacation is today!!! I may have skipped a class and gotten coffee instead but hey, i'm on vacation now! Today about 11 of us took a bus to Madrid at 9pm and got there at 10. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the airport from the bus station because we were all confused about how exactly to get there and how to get the supplementary ticket that we needed to get to the airport...

We eventually found our way to the check in desk  but it was closed so we had to sleep on the floor by it. And by sleep, I mean lay on the ground with our backpacks as our pillows and freeze our butts off cause it was a concrete floor. And maybe got about 30 minutes of sleep. Right when we got to the airport (at about 1am) we all sat around a table and talked and then decided to attempt to sleep. We "woke up" at about 4am and hopped on the plane to Milan!

10.08.2011
We finally got to Italy! It took us from 6am (our flight) until 4pm to get to Cinque Terre. When we finally got here, we found the office to the hostel pretty fast  and then the owner showed us to our rooms. We had to climb about a million stairs with our heavy backpacks  to get here and it was SO tiring! After that we went for a walk around the city we are staying in called Riomaggiore and we sat at a little bay where you can rent row boats. We sat there for a good hour and decided that we were hungry so we went to a pizza place with the most amazing pesto pizza ever!!! I found out later today that pesto was actually created in Cinque Terre so that explains it. After dinner we got Gelato for dessert and decided that tomorrow we are going to walk all day through the 5 cities that make up Cinque Terre and back. We are going to have lunch and possibly dinner on the way back looking over the sea. I can not wait to take more pictures!!!

10.09.2011
Today was AMAZING! Prepare yourselves for this next sentence... We got up EARLY and went HIKING! ALL DAY! We hiked a ton and I am absolutely positive tat I would be completely fine if I never did it again.

In Cinque Terre we are staying in Riomaggiore, which is the farthest south of the 5 cities. We hiked from Riomaggiore to Manarola, then took the train to Corniglia because there was construction on the pathway. We stayed there for a bit then took the train to Vernazza and wandered around there for a while. We went to Monterosso al Mare and walked on the beach and took awesome pictures and then we ate at this little place near the beach. Let me just say AMAZING lasagna! But I think I like Dad's better...

Anyways, we took the train back to Vernazza and hiked to Corniglia, which took about and hour and a half. It was so tiring because about half of it was up hill and climbing stairs and bleh it was gross. All of the paths have a ton of steps and hills and stuff but I think the pathway to Corniglia from Vernazza was the worst one. Anywho, we took the train back to Riomaggiore, got gelato and watched the sunset over the water.

As we were walking back, we bought fruit, yogurt, and potato chips for dinner. Healthy, I know. After that, we walked back to the hostel and I took a shower. The views from everywhere on the trails and the cities were so gorgeous and looked like a postcard. I loved it! So amazing I just can't get over it!

10.10.2011
So, it is about 9am right now and Emma and I are at the train station. We caught the train to La Spezia at 8:37 and it took about 10 minutes to get here from Cinque Terre. We bought our tickets to Rome and it doesn't come until 10:06 and it's direct! Yay! We don't get there until about 2:16 so it should be pretty easy to find the hostel in the daylight.
I am so excited to see the Spanish steps and all of the amazing things in Rome. Cinque Terre was so beautiful and so surreal because everything looked perfect. It just didn't seem like it could be real. It just reminded me how small we really are! I cannot believe that I am in Italy right now! It's just so gorgeous and I can't get over it! I am going to be so sad to leave Italy but hopefully I will be able to come back at some point in my life.