Rebecca Does Italy: Rebecca Does Cinque Terre and Pisa

I'm sorry for leaving you all on the edge of your seats waiting for my next post.

Like I mentioned before, this weekend (the 28th of March) was a bit different. We had class on Friday but it was cancelled on the following Monday. So, we left on Friday afternoon, right after class, and caught the train to Riomaggiore, Italy (picture to left). Riomaggiore is a small town in Italy and is one of the towns of Cinque Terre (translating to 5 towns). The total trip was about 6 hours so by the time we got into town it was late. We saw most of the town at night and made it to bed at a decent hour. Since each town in Cinque Terre is so small, the hike between them is a popular thing to do. There are different hiking trails but the one we hiked went to each town, ending in Monterosso. The hike was about 9 km, almost 6 miles, through the hilly terrain. Our first stop was Manarola. The hike there from Riomaggiore was only 20 minutes. It was a cute town. Oh by the way, I decided to get gelato in each town so I'll tell you about the flavors too. In Manarola, I got strawberry gelato. It was delicious. We started hiking at 9 in the morning because of a threat of rain so it made sense to get a fruitty gelato flavor, kind of as an extention to breakfast. Anyways, after taking many pictures we headed to the next town. The next town was Corniglia. The hike there was a little further- maybe a hour or so. Corniglia is the oldest of the 5 towns but was just as pretty. There I got stracciatella gelato. This flavor is similar to cookies and cream but much better. The path from Corniglia to the next town, Vernazza, was closed because of a landslide. Two of the girls decided to hike it anyways, but the cautious ones took the 5 minute train to Vernazza. Apparently the path wasn't bad at all, so I should have hiked it. But, since I didn't I got to see part of Italian culture. When we got into Vernazza, a wedding had just ended in the church and were on a balcony throwing out candy to all those who were below. The newlyweds through out 12-15 large baskets full of candy and everyone below was scattering to grab some. It was really neat. We looked through the church and took many pictures and then decided to have lunch while we waited for the other two to get into town. We ate at a cute family resturant where I ordered a delicious serving of pasta with meat sauce (bolognese sauce). I saved room for gelato, though, and got a scoop of Cinque Terre Cream gelato. It was a local gelato, I had to try it. I think it was a hazelnut flavor base with chocolate and other flavors. It was pretty good though. Once we met up with the other 2 girls we hiked our last stretch to Monterosso. This was definitely the most strenuous part of the hike and it took almost 2 hours to get there. It was full of gorgeous views though. Once we got into Monterosso we walked around and did a little shopping. I got my gelato before dinner. Since I've been in Italy, I've been eatting a lot of oranges so I thought I would try orange gelato but that was a mistake. It was my least favorite gelato of the day for sure. Soon after we decided we were hungry, so we got some pizza. Right as we were eatting it started to rain. We were so thankful that it didn't rain a drop during our hike though. We went to the train station after that and got back to Riomaggiore. Once there we had to get our last serving of gelato! This time I got 2 scoops- one of hazelnut and one of chocolate, both of which were delicious. After those scoops, however, I felt pretty sick and pudgy. Almost a week and a half later, I have yet to have any gelato but this Easter weekend I will definitely indulge! That was Saturday though and once we got back to the hostel we were pretty tired. We all tried to study some for our finals the following week and then passed out.

We woke up Sunday to the rain. We had decided the night before that if it wasn't raining when we woke up then we would stay in town otherwise we would head to Pisa. We woke up a hour later than we thought too because Italy went through daylight savings. We finally ate and got on the train around 1 or so. The train ride to Pisa was only a hour or so and when we got there the rain had stopped. We easily found our way to the leaning tower from the train station. It was just like it looked in pictures. Because it is the off season for tourists they're working on the building, although they may always be working on the tower itself. It is expensive to go inside so we didn't walk in it. It started to rain while we were there so we walked around the other buildings until it stopped. We took as many pictures we could while it stopped. Once it started back up we decided to find dinner. We stopped in a place near the tower and I had very delicious lasagna. It was late when we finished so we decided to catch the train back to Riomaggiore. Since its off season, not much stays open late so we went to the hostel and hung out. This hostel was in a great location and was really clean. It was set up different from all of the other hostels but it still was extremely nice.

Monday morning we woke up early, got a big breakfast and headed back to Verona. Before we left on Friday I printed out the train timetable for the different trips back to Verona and our trip Monday was an adventure. We rode 4 trains and 3 buses and went through 4 different towns in Italy. The ride was interesting but it was also very pretty. Its great to take land transportation because you get to see so much more of the country. We got back into Verona at 5 or so and all had to study for our final the following day. The trip to Cinque Terre wasn't a beach trip like we wanted but it still was gorgeous and relaxing. Plus, we got to see the Leaning Tower! Enjoy the pictures!

With all my love,
Rebecca

My first gelato in Manarola.