Since I worked out yesterday at the gym here in the dorms, I wanted to do it again this morning so I figured I would do so. I was able to sleep in a bit, so Ry called me at 9:15am because I signed up to workout at 10am. We were able to talk for like 30 minutes and then I got dressed and went downstairs to workout. When I went up to the desk and asked the lady to open the door for me, she asked me for my ‘doctors note’…man!! I was bummed!! I was really looking forward to working out and I couldn’t because I didn’t have one. Now I am going to have to wait till Monday to get one, but once I have it, I’ll be able to workout at the dorms daily!! :) Once I got up to my room, I grabbed my 2 bags of laundry, the detergent and my money for the machines and headed down to the dungeon where I threw my loads in and came back up to my room. I did my little workout in my room and then I had a bowl of ‘Special K’ cereal with strawberries on the side and a glass of chocolate milk (in my PB container aka my only ‘cup’). During bfast, I uploaded pictures to Costco and they were going very fast so I was very happy about that. Culture was today at 3pm and we had a paper due, so while pictures were uploading, I wrote my two page paper on the differences in Italian and American lifestyles. At 2pm I made myself a salami sandwich with mustard and chips – a nice crunchy sandwich for lunch then at 2:30, I walked to class with Rob and Chris. Class today was at SMG, so we had quite the hike. Class today was beyond boring – we talked about languages and how there are over 6,000 languages in the world and Laura, the teacher, was very dry today and the 2.5 hours went by verryy slow. Once class was over, I walked with Amy and Jenny to Despar where I bought myself some tortilla chips. Once I got home, I made guacamole and a salami salad which was all very yummy. After my dinner, I got ready for bed and watched the movie Good Will Hunting, I can’t believe that was the first time I had seen that movie, it was a really good one!! In the middle of watching the movie, Ry called me while he was on his break at work and we chatted for a bit and talked about the rain and thunder, because it was doing that as we were on the phone together. Now its 10pm and I am planning on writing in my journal and then getting onto Skype when Ry gets home from work!! I hope everyone’s day is going well!!
I’M GOING TO SCOTLAND THIS WEEKEND!! :) That was decided today with a few others randomly and I ended up buying my ticket tonight, how exciting!! I woke up at 7am and Ryan called me and we talked for 20 minutes and then I got ready and had a bowl of ‘Special K’ but w/out the strawberries and a glass of chocolate milk. I didn’t have internet again this morning, so before we left the dorms at 8:30, I went downstairs to see if the computer lab had internet, but it didn’t. Class today was at BC and at 9am with our new SoA teacher Paolo. He was only 30 minutes late and then class went until 11am. He was rather dry and hard to understand because he would take lots of breaks while he was talking about certain art pieces and he was all over the place with no structure, no PowerPoint Presentation or anything, it was weird. Good thing I took that class last semester at MCC, so I know what’s going on. :) After class, Amy, Jenny and I went to the bus station near school and took the bus to go to HD…third times a charm, right?? YAY…it really is a charm…HD was open so we checked out the new store in VT…can you believe that there is a HD in VITERBO?? That’s because VT is bomb!! I really enjoy this town, it’s a lot of fun and even though it is small, there is still so much going on which is great!! After HD we went back to the bus station and I took it to Ipercoop so I could go to the Bufetti (which is behind Coop) to buy a new journal. Last week while I was on SIT, I filled up my journal which I have been writing in daily since day one!! I didn’t think I was going to write that much and fill out every page of it, but I did!! I am amazed that I did so…definitely glad I did it, but I was scared because I couldn’t find a new journal anywhere, until today!! I went to the paper store and they had some, cute ones at that!! Yay!! After going to the Bufetti, I walked home and made myself a small salad and had walnuts/craisins on top of it with homemade Italiano dressing and I had a fruit salad as well…yummy!! After lunch, I decided to take an hour long nap before I went to go work out. The dorms have a tiny gym now which only has 5 machines, so I signed up to work out at 4pm so after my nap, I went down stairs and worked out. How the gym here works is you have to sign up when you want to workout and then you get the ‘gym’ to yourself for an hour!! Like I said, there are 5 machines, which the treadmill doesn’t work and there are some free weights. I did my thing for 40 minutes and was sweating to death, so I scheduled an apt for tomorrow and then went up to my room where I showered and got ready for the day. I wanted to go to the UniEuro to buy some new headphones because mine broke and I wanted to get some salami for tonight’s dinner, so I got ready and went to the stores behind the dorms. I ended up buying new headphones and then at PennyMart I bought salami, black olives, bananas, strawberries, milk and some other groceries. Once I got home, I got online where Ry and I chatted on Skype for like 3.5 hours and then he called my dorm phone to say goodnight to me. While we were on Skype, Amy called me and told me that she was booking her ticket to Scotland and gave me all the info, so I booked mine as well!! :) HOW EXCITING!! :) I cannot wait to see what Scotland has to offer!! I will be leaving early Friday morning and returning on Sunday!! :)
I hope you all had a great day especially you Amanda and Ms. Kelli – HAPPY BIRTHDAY girlies!! Hope you both have a GREAT day!!! :)
Today I realized how I start all of my entries of with “This or Today”…is that bad?? Ha, I don’t know how else to start them off…sorry folks if that bothers you…I’ll try to think of a new way to start it off!! :)
Howdy ya’ll!! Ha, this morning Ryan called me at 7:30am to wake me up and we ended up talking for like 30 minutes and then I had to get ready because I told Amy I would be to her house by 9am so we could go back to HD – today was also their ‘grand opening’ so we figured they had to be open in the morning!! :) Once we got to the bus station, we looked at the time chart and we only had to wait for like 5 minutes for the bus to come…but it didn’t. Finally another bus showed up like 20 minutes later, not the one we wanted, but still I asked the driver about our bus and he said ‘non c’é de Linea A’ aka doesn’t run on Sundays…GREAT!! Ha, so we left the train station and then I walked home. It was really nice out this morning but just as I got home, it started to pour…it’s a good thing we didn’t walk to HD plus it would be a good hike there and back!! Once I got home, I decided to get back in my PJs and watch The Bucket List while I was bundled up in my blanket!! After the movie was over, Cass and I walked to Amy’s to grab some left over salad/fruit for lunch!! It was still delish, but I forgot to bring over my mamas Italiano dressing, but that’s ok, there was just enough ranch for the three of us to have a few salads each!! After lunch, I had a few monster cookies which Amy made the other night!! Yummy!! Once I got home from lunch, I texted Ry and he called my room and we talked for like an hour or so and then I decided to watch another movie, this time I watched Just Married and was cracking up!! It had been awhile since I had seen it, so it was funny to watch!! After the movie was over, Ryan called me because he was at Target and thought of me!! What a sweetie, he knows how much I love Target!! I definitely miss that place, I just go there to walk around some times, ha, I love it!! Before watching movie number 3 for the day, I had a can of corn and some celery sticks with PB on it for dinner – I really wasn’t that hungry because I had a big lunch. :) Movie number 3 was Shawshank Redemption…what a good movie. Once that was over, I got ready for bed and since I didn’t have any internet, I went to bed. :)
This morning Ry called me at 7am so we could get on Skype to talk for a few hours before I went to the Saturday Market. I ended up leaving the dorms with Cass at 9:30am and we walked over to Amys apt to get her and all of us went to the market to see what we could get. I was very sad because the shoe man wasn’t there this week and this will, I believe, be the last weekend of me going to the market!! :( I did score though, I ended up buying like 12 scarves, 5 silk pillow cases and a few things for Ry. After the market, we went to the international store to look to see if the patches and shirts were in yet, but they were not…they said a few more weeks, so hopefully that’s when the order will be in!! :) Today was basically ‘destination HD’ because I saw last week on a billboard that today was the Grand Opening of Harley Davidson VT, so Amy and I wanted to go – me to look for my dad and her for her uncle. So after taking Linea A (the bus) we got off at Villanova which was really close to Via dell’Industria, the street in which HD was on. Terranova, a clothing store, was right across the street from the bus station, so we went in and I ended up buying a tank top that was 2euros!! Ha, gotta love the good deals out here!! After that, us girls were getting hungry, so we stopped in a new store we found called Conad which is better than just a grocery store!! Ha, it was kinda like a Walmart, but a lot nicer!! It was very exciting walking through there and we ended up buying strawberries and some other snacks and after we paid for our groceries, we went out front and ate our food while sitting on these concrete blocks in the front of the store. Everyone who passed looked at us weird, but we didn’t care, we were too hungry!! After we finished our snacks, we continued on to our journey to HD. FINALLY after walking for some time, we saw a small sign that said ‘HD’ on it, so we kept walking. After walking at least 2 miles down that street, we found it…but we were 30 minutes late…they were closed, ha, if only we didn’t stop in Conad!! But really Italianos, what’s up with closing mid-day on your grand opening?? O well…we walked back to the bus stop and got there at 3pm, perfect timing to catch the bus!! Cass and I ended up getting of the bus before Amy did and we went to Ipercoop to get some groceries for tonight’s dinner!! Tonight we ate over Amy’s apt, Beth and Jenny are in Roma with their families. We went to Amy’s at 6:30 for dinner and we made a big salad with grilled chicken, avocado, carrots, celery, croutons inside and I had my salad with both ranch and Italian dressing on it!! It was soo good!! We also had an artichoke dip that Amy made and ate it with really soft bread (Sara, you would’ve liked it!) This salad was seriously the best salad I have ever had, probably because I haven’t had one like it in quite some time now!! :) For dessert, Amy made this fruit dip sauce which was amazing!! I normally don’t like cream cheese, but it was basically cream cheese, butter, you know, all the healthy stuff. It was amazing. We cut up kiwis, strawberries and pineapples for it and it was delish!! :) We were home by 11:30 which was really 12:30 because of day light savings time. How confusing is that…thank you AZ for never doing it! So now, just a little FYI for you all, I am 9 hours ahead of you!! :) Once I got to my room, I got ready for bed and was out of it!! Lots of walking today, it was a lot of fun and funny as well!! HD cracked us up and how it was closed, it would only be open half day for the grand opening!! Italianos are crazee!!
This morning I got up at 7am and got ready/packed up before having bfast at 7:30am. After bfast, I ran up to my room, grabbed my bags and met up with everyone in the lobby. We all left the hotel at 8:30am for Caserta and by 10:30am we were there. The bus parked in an underground parking garage which was really close to the garden we visited which was called the Royal Palace in Caserta. The tour guide was with us again for this field trip, but I couldn’t hear him once we got to the palace/garden, so I listened to my ipod instead throughout the palace and took pictures while following the guide. USAC provided sack lunches today, so while we were walking through the palace, I ate one of my sandwiches. At 12pm we were free to walk around the garden, so we had 2.5hrs to do so. Jenny, Amy, Cassie, Bethany and I walked to the top of the garden and back down in total of 3 miles. It was just a long stretch of water with a few fountains…but mainly water. On both sides of the water, there were path ways and you could either walk or get a ride from a bus. I enjoyed walking right along the water looking at all the different fish. Once us girls got to the top, we sat along the edge of the fountain and just hung out and ate our food. After we were done eating, we walked back down and once we got closer to the palace, we sat down in the grass and just hung out and chatted until 2:30pm rolled around. The bus ended up taking off at around 3pm and after driving for 2 hours we stopped at a truck stop so everyone could use the bathroom and what not. They gave us 30 minutes to do so and then we were all back on the bus headed for VT (Viterbo). By 7pm I was in my room and it felt nice to be by myself and chill. It’s very hard to travel with a bunch of people because everyone acts/thinks differently so I have definitely learned to be more patient…but I really enjoyed coming home to my own room alone. :) I was able to get some internet so Ry and I got on Skype for about 45 minutes and then Ry had to go to work. I wasn’t hungry once dinner rolled around and I didn’t have any water at all because I guess when we were gone the hot water went out, so they were fixing it today and we should have some water tomorrow. Hopefully we do, otherwise I’ll have to go to the Iowa girls apt to shower!! :) All in all the week was good and I saw a lot of things and purchased some things as well, which was great!! :) I hope you all have a great weekend!!
Even though we got ripped-off on these 'icees', I really liked it!! :)
At Villa Rufolo
This morning we left on two separate buses, our one large bus was too big for the narrow roads we went on. So at 8:30am, we headed for the AmalfiCoast and were there by 10:30am. Again, we had a tour guide with us, so four of us broke away from the group and checked out the shops around the town. Someone from the group saw us and called our names aloud and since everyone then saw us, we had to join back with our group. Ha, we ended up going into the Amalfi Duomo and we were in there for about an hour and then we had free time for lunch. A bunch of us went to this one sit down restaurant where I got grilled chicken and French fries. The chicken was really tasty, I squirted lemon on top of it and the fries were really good because I had ketchup!! :) Mmm!! Right after I was done eating, Ryan called my cell phone and I was able to talk with him for a few minutes!! :) After lunch, we had like 10 minutes until we had to meet up with the group. There I found a few souvenirs, one for me and one for Nan and Poppo!! :) From Amalfi we took the bus to Ravello where Villa Rufolo (a garden) was located. The road to get there was extremely curvy and somewhat scary. Our bus driver is crazee and so are the narrow streets!! Once we got to the garden, we had 2 hours to hang out and walk around. The girls and I walked around the garden and then we went out to the shops which were near the garden and then we ended up sitting on some steps in the sun to catch some rays before we had to get back on the bus. We left for Sorrento at 4pm to get back to our hotel. The ride was 2 hours long and we went the back way home (so not along the coast). It actually started to rain while we were driving home, so there was a huge rainbow in the middle of the town and it was fun to see because we were on the mountain looking down on the town!! :) Once we got to the hotel, Amy and Jenny hung out in our room before dinner which was at 7:45pm. We had pasta, which was delicious…it had meat sauce on it but it was really good. For the main meal we had fried pork with potatoes and for dessert we had nasty ice cream cake…I didn’t know it was possible, but I now know that it is. :( Once dinner was over, we all went back to the room and watched TV…in English btw and Ry called me around 9pm!! Tonight was an early night, I was in bed before 10pm!!
It's crazee how the water in the Grottos change so drastically, such a pretty teal color!!
This morning, again, I woke up at 6:50am and went downstairs for bfast and then came back upstairs after to get ready. Today was a free day and us girls decided to go to Capri. At 8:50am, Jenny, Amy, Cassie, Francesca and I left the dorms to go catch a boat to Capri. Today it was really busy so they were using the ‘jets’ to get to Capri so the tickets were a bit more expensive, but it only took us 40 minutes to get there. :) At 10am when we got to Capri, we went and bought our Grotto Boat tickets which we got a student discount for…YAY!! Our apt for the boat ride was at 11:30am, so we walked around and checked out the shops and before I knew it, we were on the boat!! It was soo much fun, definitely very relaxing and the grottos were gorgeous!! We saw the Green and White grotto, but the Blue Grotto was closed due to high tide…it was crazee how high the tide was…you could barely see the top of the Grotto!! All you were able to see was the water being spit out of the top of it!! We not only saw the grottos, we also saw the ‘Romantic Arch’ and we drove underneath it and we saw a few famous peoples homes at the top of the island. After the hour boat ride, we were all ready for lunch, so we hiked up to the ‘centro’ where we ate at this restaurant called Isidoro. I ordered a cheese omelet and it came with French fries…it was so yummy…I asked for it to be well cooked and it was prefecto!! :) After lunch, we hung out in the center and checked out most of the stores and then decided to go back down to ‘il porto’ (near the water) where we tried to rent a scooter, but the man was like ‘too dangerous for girls’ so I was upset. O well, I will rent one else where because I have to ride one while I am out here, it’s a must!! Dad you are probably reading this and not too happy to hear about that because I know you don’t like them, but I will be careful!! :) Since it was close to 4:25pm, we decided to take the earlier boat home because there wasn’t anything else to do on the tiny island Capri. The ride back to Sorrento only took 20 minutes, it was great!! Once we got back home, we have to pass the shops in order to get back to the hotel, so of course I have to take a look at everything!! Ha, I ended up buying something for Ryan and another pair of shoes for me!! This time I got a pair of wedges…I am always trying to find a low pair of white wedges, so I figured why not just get a pair made for me!! :) My friend was there again and he didn’t charge me extra to get the wedge…what a nice guy!! :) After shopping, Ryan called me when I got back to the hotel and we chatted for a few minutes and then I went to dinner, it was at 7:30pm tonight. We had pasta, meatballs/potatoes and for dessert flan. Didn’t get any because I know I don’t like it. Instead a group of us went and got some gelati after dinner…I got café and it was delish…still the best is the one right near my dorm!! Yummy!! After gelato, we stopped at this market where Amy bought a chocolate Easter egg…she was curious to find out what was inside, so she bought one. When we got back to the hotel, Amy, Beth and Jenny came into our room and we opened the egg. At first we didn’t think anything was inside and then we found this gorgeous bracelet inside made out of beads. Ha, it was funny, we had this huge Easter egg and a tiny bracelet came inside!! The chocolate was REALLY good though, so we all hung out for a bit while we snacked on the chocolate and then I went to bed. Tomorrow is the AmalfiCoast which will be fun!!
"Caution to head" is what the sign says above me!! How short were the men back in the day?? Crazee!!
In Sorrento having fun with the self-timer function!!
I am sorry it is sideways, wanted to show you this tree...it has both lemons and oranges on it!! Crazee!!
My cutesy new PINK and ORANGE flip flops!!
Today we toured the Ancient Pompei ruins. I woke up at 6:50am and went straight down for bfast. I had two bowls of corn flakes with sugar on top and I had a bun which I toasted and put strawberry jam on. After bfast, I went back up to my room and got ready for the day. At 8:15am, we were to all meet upstairs to leave for Pompei. It took an hour and a half to get there and once we got there, I saw the BIGGEST lemons I have EVER seen in my life at this one stand which sold water, soda, etc. at…they were crazee!! By 10am, we were inside the ruins and were following our tour guide. He was really knowledgeable but I wish we had some time to walk off from the group and check things out…but we couldn’t. We were in the ruins for 2 hours and then we were scheduled to get lunch at another restaurant across the street. Pizza was what we got served for lunch, but since I cannot eat it anymore, I didn’t get one. Instead I went up to one of the girls who work for USAC and asked if I could get a salad instead. Luckily that was possible, so I got a salad with mozzarella, tomatoes and cabbage on it. I ate it all…it was soo good!! :) I didn’t eat the dessert that was served…it was like a sherbet gelato but it wasn’t that good, so I didn’t eat it. After lunch, we got back onto the bus and we were suppose to go to hike the Vesuvius mountain, but there was really bad weather today so the buses couldn’t drive up it. Back to Sorrento we went where us girls went shopping. By the time we got back to Sorrento it was around 2pm which meant ‘pausa pronza’ was occurring and none of the shops were open, so we went down near the beach and just sat on this wall and listened to the water. After hanging out there for a decent amount of time, we went back to the shops because they were now open. I found this store where this man makes you shoes in less than 5 minutes, so I found a pair I liked and I got me some leather flip flops made for myself!! :) He was super nice and it was really fun to watch him make the flip flops!! I found a pair that I liked, but I wanted to get different colors, so I picked out pink and orange and he said that that was fine, so I now have custom PINK and ORANGE flip flops made for me!! :) SO exciting!! Dinner was at 7pm back at Hotel Rivage and we had pasta, pork and potatoes and a mushy apple for dessert. I don’t understand their concept of fruit as dessert?? Ha, if there was like chocolate to dip it in or something, that would be a different story!! Haha, dinner was good though. At 9pm, Ry called me and we talked just for a few minutes because it’s expensive to call my cell phone for him, but it was great to hear his voice!! For the rest of the night, Amy just hung out in our room and I was in bed by 11pm, another big day tomorrow!! Love and miss you all!! CIAO!! :)
This morning I woke up at 5:45am and Ry called me so we could talk before I left for SIT (Southern Italy Tour). After we hung up, I finished packing and I had a bowl of GPs. At 6:40am, I was out the door and off to the ATM aka Bankomat (that’s what they call ATMs here in Italia) to grab some money for the week. After I got some cash out, I walked to the Taxi Station where everyone was ready to go. Our bus (which was new, we were the first to ride in it) came at 7:15am and we were on the road by 7:30am. After driving for 2 hours, we stopped at a gas station which had a café inside and I grabbed a blueberry muffin because they are very rare out here…I don’t understand why the bakeries don’t have muffins?? Once we were back on the bus, we still had a few more hours until we were in Napoli. Since we were a bit behind schedule, when we got to Napoli, we had to hurry off the bus to get to the restaurant which was waiting for us – USAC arranged this lunch for us. We got pizza…surprised? Ha, it was the last pizza I will eat out here, unless a crazee craving comes along. Don’t get me wrong, the pizza was good, but I am just sick of eating it. Ha. After lunch, we got back on the bus which took us to an archeological museum which had Pompei ruins inside. We were there for a few hours and had a tour guide to inform us about what we were viewing. After the museum we got back on the bus and took it to Napolis famous “East and West Street” where I got gelato from a shop that was the first on that street…in 1894. From Napoli, the bus took us to Sorrento where our hotel was located. It took quite a bit of time to get there because the traffic was really bad, so we didn’t end up getting to the hotel until 9:30pm. Dinner was being served right when we got there, so we went to our rooms to put our luggage away and then we went to go eat. Pasta was the first dish, chicken/potatoes were next and for dessert we had kiwi. I was freaking when I got the chicken on my plate because it was like the full thing, not a breast. I am sure that I did not get all the meat off of it, but I was full after a few pieces. After dinner, Cass, Bethany and I went up to our room and got ready for bed. I am glad to be home and updating my blog for all of you!! Hope this past week was fun for you all!!
This morning my alarm went off at 5:45am so I got up, along with the other girls and we were out of the room by 6:15am. We thought it would be a good idea to catch the earlier train home so we could get home earlier and have time to pack for the Southern Italy Tour. Tomorrow I leave at 7am to go on a tour with the USAC and be gone until the 27th, so I won’t be on my blog until next Saturday or Sunday. Once we got to the train station, the train was delayed 50 minutes!! So we sat around until it arrived and then we took the train to Roma Termini. Since we got on a different train to get home earlier, the ticket lady charged us each 8euros for being on the wrong train. We had the option to pay it or get off the train and take a later train…we all paid it. Once we got to Termini, we had to wait for an hour until the train for Porta Fiorentina came at 1pm. Before I knew it, I was in my dorm room by 3pm. :) After I finished packing for this weeks trip, Ryan called me at 5pm and he was over his dads house so I was able to talk to Dave, Shar, Ty and Mikey B!! :) Aw, it was so nice talking to them, I miss them!! I cannot wait to go home and visit them…BEAR DOWN boys…big game tonight in 2nd round!! :) After I talked with them, my sister called me at around 7pm and we talked for like 5 minutes, just to say hello and talk about our vacas…she was in del Mar and had a blast with Nan, Poppo, Mama Mia, TT and Earl!! :) After Sara and I got off the phone, Cassie and I went to go get a Kebab for dinner. The Kebab place is open EVERYDAY from 11am-11pm aka best news in VT (Viterbo) because everything is closed on Sundays and weird times during the week!! Ha!! Once I got home from dinner, I uploaded my pictures to my computer and to my blog for all of you to see, because like I said, I won’t be here for a week!! I hope you all have a fabulous week and I cannot wait to show you all my new pictures I know I will be taking in the southern part of ITALIA!! I am really excited for this trip, it will be a great time!! :) Talk to you all next weekend…take care!! LOVE YOU ALL!! CIAO!! :)
Cornigila in the distance... Town of Corniglia
Corniglia in the background Manarola Close up of Manarola...I love all the colors!!
Picture of the popsicle sticks!! Ha!! In between Manarola and Riomaggiore These rocks are crazee... :) Beth and I at the playground in Vernazza
This morning I got up at 9am and we were all ready to go by 10am. After walking down the 200 steps, we went to this one bakery to grab some breakfast, so I got this walnut something or other…ha, not sure what it was, but it was good. When we walked into the bakery and looked where the ladies bake…there was a little girl, like 5 or 6 years old rolling dough!! It was the cutest thing because she had a long apron on and a bakers hat, standing on a chair so she was able to reach the counter…so adorable!! :) As we ate our ‘bfast,’ we walked to the train station but before reaching the train station, you have to walk under this really cool tunnel that has mosaic tiles of all different shapes/sizes/colors on one wall – its really funky and it goes on for the duration of the tunnel. The ceiling is dome shaped and blue with lights shinning on it, as if it is the ocean, it was really cool. From the train station, we caught the train to Vernazza where we walked around the small town and as we were walking towards the water, there was this random cut out on the left of the street which leads you to a little cove where you could skip rocks on the water, or whatever, it was fun and the view was of a bunch of rocks, all leading into the water, it was really pretty. After hanging in the cove for a bit, we walked over to the water and sat on a ledge where we chatted with some American girls for a bit and then decided to go buy our hiking tickets and get going. The tickets were only 5euros to do the entire trail. Unfortunately the hike from Monterosso to Vernazza was closed, due to mud-slides, so we hiked first from Vernazza to Corniglia which was 4km long with LOTS of stairs in the beginning, and then once you were above the town, the stairs turned into the side of the mountain and was mainly dirt. The view was incredible…once we were above the town, we saw the entire town and blue water surrounding it. This hike was the longest and took us about an hour to get to Corniglia…there was one part of this hike where the trail was kind of lost, so we had to do some climbing, it was a lot of fun. Going from Vernazza to Riomaggiore – it is the hard way to go because it is mostly uphill and that is the hike we did!! :) The five of us girls wanted to not only view the scenery during the hike, but get a workout out of it as well. :) Once we got to Corniglia, there really wasn’t much to do in this town, so we found the signs to get to the next town which was Manarola (1km hike). The beginning of the trail was dizzy-like. You had to go down these stairs which from the top, had a zigzag effect, but once you are walking them, you go faster than you think because of the slant, so you end up going round and round lots of stairs. After the stairs, we had to hike up the mountain to get to the next town Manarola. The girls were hungry when we got there, so we stopped in this one restaurant and I ended up ordering a waffle at 2pm!! :) It was great…I have been missing my bfast meals, so I happy to know that at ‘Bar Enrica,’ they serve waffles with syrup on them!! :) It was funny because when she brought out my waffle, there were 4 popsicle sticks, one in each corner. I guess you are suppose to cute the waffle and eat each one like a popsicle? Ha, if not, I did it wrong…that’s what I thought they were for, so I ate it like a popsicle!! HA!! After lunch we ended up finding the trail and we walked to Riomaggiore (1km) and it was REALLY short, it was like a straight shot and we were told it only takes like 10 minutes to walk. It was basically a straight walk and at one point we were walking through a tunnel which was full of graffiti – graffiti is everywhere here in Italia!! It’s insane, on one hand I really like it because it’s colorful and different, but on the other, where is the management? Ha, Poppo!! After the tunnel, we had to hike up a bit of the mountain and then it flattened out again. While we were on the mountain, there was a point where we were able to hike down the mountain, so Jenny, Amy and I hiked down and we went all the way down to the water where we saw clams. After hanging out down there for some time, we hiked back up and finished the trail and meet up with Beth and Cassie. After our hiking adventure, we took the train back to Vernazza where we saw a playground we wanted to play on. We ended up playing for a while and taking pictures and then I found a Cinque Terre lighter for my collection. :) After a few hours, we headed back to Riomaggiore where I bought a slice of cheese pizza (like Asiago bagel) and a slice of pesto pizza. I ended up eating the cheese slice first and I saved the pesto piece. Once we got home and walked up the 200 stairs, we sat in the room for a bit and then the girls were hungry, so they went back to the same restaurant we went to last night. I wasn’t hungry and still had a slice of pizza, so I didn’t eat. Cassie and I sat there with them while they ate and we both got charged a sitting fee!! Haha, it was funny…we didn’t even touch the silverware or have water or anything and we got charged 3euros to sit there. O well, we enjoyed talking with the girls and writing our letter to ELLEN DeGeneres!! Us 5 are going to get on her show by the letter we send her, we just know it!! :) After dinner, we came back home and got ready for bed and again, I was in bed by 9pm!! :) It was great!! Wow, today was wonderful day…I saw so many beautiful views and really enjoyed the hike!! Hope you all enjoyed my pictures!!
Being goof balls :) HUGE 'Free Willy rocks'!! :) Town of Riomaggiore, where we stayed Me in Monterosso...we climbed that rock behind me!! :) Love you babe!!
Gorgeous sunset in Riomaggiore!!
This morning my DADDY-O called me at 1am!! He woke me up, but it was perfectly fine, I love talking to him!! :) We talked for like 15 minutes and then he told me to go back to bed, so I did. I had my alarms set for 3am and I guess I shut them both off, because I didn’t wake up until 3:30am, when Ryan called…wow, thank you Ryan for calling me!! :) Ha, I would’ve missed the train to Cinque Terre, for sure!! :( Ry and I talked for a bit and then I had to go and get ready/finish packing my backpack. For bfast this morning, I had enough milk for a bowl of cereal, so I had a bowl of GP’s and a banana with PB on it…yummy!! :) Since our train was leaving from Porta Fiorentina (right near the dorms) at 5am, Cassie and I left the dorms at 4:45am and decided to take our short cut, but it POURED the night before and our short cut was completely flooded, so we had to walk around. We ended up running through the parking lot towards the train station because we didn’t want to be late!! We made it to the station before 5am and boarded the train which Jenny, Amy and Beth were already on. Once our train reached Roma Termini, we had to transfer onto another train to Riomaggiore, which was a fast train. Once we got to Riomaggiore, we got off the train and walked around the town and stopped in a few shops where I found a patch, which was great. After shopping for a bit, we found our hostel and paid for it. Then when the hotel man gave us our keys, he told us to walk up these steps and he would meet us up at the top…he was going to take his car!! I should have joined him in his car…I now know why he didn’t walk with us!! Haha, we had to climb 200 (we counted) STEEP steps to get to the top of the hill where I room was located. Ha, it was too funny because us 5 were walking up and laughing because they were like NEVER ending steps!! We finally made it to the top and waited for him to drive up. Once he parked, he showed us our room and left. We all decided to unload some of our stuff and then check out the rest of the towns, so after we unpacked our backpacks, we decided to grab some lunch. After walking down the 200 steps, there was this restaurant where we ate it and sat outside. It was an enclosed outside area. I had a cheese pizza and a diet coke. I haven’t had a coke in forever, it was great for a change. After lunch, we decided to walk towards the water where we ended up climbing out onto these rocks that reminded us all of Free Willy. Ha, the rocks where huge, some white and some gray, all fun to climb on. While we were walking from rock to rock, I found myself a stick and used it as a walking stick, ha! We hung out on the rocks for a long time, just enjoying the gorgeous view of the water and of all the houses, each different colors, with different shutter colors. After the rocks, we went to the train station where we got on the train to Monterosso (the furthest town of the five) which only took like 15 minutes to get there. When you are standing at the train station and you look out, all you see is water…it was GORGEOUS!! :) Us girls walked down to the beach where we saw this huge rock protruding into the water from the shore, so we decided to climb it and hang out up there for a bit. It was a good thing I had my walking stick, it came in handy. Ha! The view was amazing, everywhere you looked you saw water and it was crystal clear…kinda reminded me of Barbados…but the beach here had little pebbles, not fine sand. :) After the beach, we went back to the main street which was along the shore and looked at all the shops. While we were walking, there was this one area and it had cacti…I was amazed…ha, a little bit of AZ was in ITALIA!! :) All the towns are TINY, so we didn’t spend a whole bunch of time, but enough to soak it all in. After Monterosso, we got back on the train and went back to Riomaggiore and I ended up buying fruit from Coop. O my, their Coop in this town was too cute!! It was the smallest grocery store I have EVER seen!! You literally walk in and barely have enough room to turn around, but yet there is everything you need in there!! :) It was neat to see. Our plan for the night was to watch the sunset, so I stopped in a café to buy a hot cocoa before we went to go watch the sunset. We all decided that we wanted to go back to the ‘Free Willy rocks’ and watch the sunset. So that’s just what we did!! :) We ended up getting there pretty early, we were unsure of when the sun was going to set, so we hiked up the mountain a bit, so we were able to see the sunset and the ‘Free Willy rocks’ :) I believe it was close to 7pm when it finally set, so we got down from the rocks and went back up near the hotel where a restaurant was. For dinner, I ordered a pesto dish…Cinque Terre is famous for their pesto sauces, it was really good!! Our room was literally 10 steps away from the restaurant so after dinner, we went home and were all in bed by 9pm!! It was great because tomorrow is going to be a long day of hiking, I cannot wait!! :)
This morning I woke up at 7am and at 7:20am, Ryan called me and we were able to talk for like 30 minutes. After we got off the phone, I had a bowl of Golden Puffs along with a banana and then I got ready for class. TodayGardens class was at SMG, I guess from now on, all of the Thursday classes will be at SMG, so us girls left the dorms at 8:30am and walked to SMG. Gardens went by really fast and after class ended, I walked home because my next class wasn’t until 3:45pm. Once I got home, I hung out and ended up taking about a 15 minute cat nap and then I got up and studied for a bit, today I had my final for Survey of Art, I feel I did really well on it!! :) I finished the test in like 15 minutes and since our teacher wasn’t there and the class was over with her teaching, we didn’t have a lesson. On my way back home, I took the long cut home so I could stop at Despar to get some lettuce for a salad, but I forgot (once again) that it closes early on Thursdays, so I walked over to Lidl and that too was closed. Once I got to my room, I had a bowl of cereal for dinner and then I got on Skype to talk to Ry and we ended up talking for a few hours and then he had to go to work and I had to get ready for bed and pack for CINQUE TERRE!! :) I was packed and in bed tonight before 9pm…I have to get up at 3:30am because our train to Roma Termini is at 5am!! :) I can’t wait for this weekend, it is going to be so much fun hiking through the towns, cant wait to show you pictures!! :) Hope you all enjoy your weekend!!
Buongiorno!! Here is the scoop: from January-May 2009 I will be doing a study abroad semester in Viterbo, Italy. The classes I will be taking are: Elementary Italian, Italian Culture, Italian Cuisine, Survey of Art and a Travel class so see some of the major gardens here in Italy! :) I am very excited for the amazing opportunity in which I have my parents to thank!! I hope you all enjoy my blogs and pictures!!
Arriverderci!!
