Italy!!

I have imagined going to Italy ever since seeing Under The Tuscan Sun. I've pictured basking in the warm sun, eating delectable pizza and living/loving as the Italians do. Unfortunately for me my trip didnt start of with such bliss.

After coming back from an exhausting trip to England on Tuesday, I found out we were leaving that evening for Italy. Packing and re-packing wasn't too difficult with my "magic bag" I conveniently took from my dad before becoming a "world traveler" as I like to call myself. But being a self-proclaimed world traveler does not mean I still have no idea what I am doing half the time, which was blatantly clear through the next mistake I made with 5 of my friends on the way to Italy.

To get to Italy we had to take a train to Lübeck and then fly to Pia and get a train to Cinque Terre from there. We thought this plan was simple enough and were so excited to finally get some nice summer weather. BUTT of course something had to go slightly wrong.. and this time it was definitely our faults! haha. Our flight to Pisa was at 730 am, and we had assumed that we could get to Lübeck early and sleep in the airport before our flight. So we arrived in Lübeck at 1 am and took a taxi to the airport, much to our surprise the airport was closed. awesome. So after a 25 euro cab we ended back in the town, where nothing was open except a sketchy pizzeria. Our only choice was to set up camp in the pizzeria, which very conveniently only had one booth. We were all so petrified that we would get held at gun-point and robbed that none of us could sleep and ended up just sitting there like zombies. Finally at 630 am we got the bus back to the airport and passed out for an hour before our "lovely" ryanair flight.

 

all looking beautiful in the wee hours in the Pizzeria

Now i dont know if many people have had the pleasure of flying with ryanair, so let me just fill you in on all its wonders. First of all ryanair has airports in the most random, sketchy places imaginable in Europe, which is one aspect that contributes to its first class reputation. Secondly, the airports are about the size of an extra-large cardboard box with a security check that a six year old could do a better job running. Lastly, and my most favorite part of ryanair, is the boarding process. About 10 minutes before the flight, you line up and get your boarding passes checked... and you want to make sure you are first in line. You want to be in the front because once everyone's passes are checked, the flight attendant moves the barrier and all hell breaks loose. Its almost something out of a movie, but once the barrier is moved, everyone sprints across the tarmac to the plane since seats are first come first served. It was absolutely unbelievable and I couldn't stop laughing the entire time I was running. Quite an experience.

Finally after a full day of traveling we arrived in Riomaggiore, which was the first of the five cities of Cinque Terre, and where our hostel was. As if we weren't exhausted enough, we had to trek up more than 400 steps to our hostel room with all of our luggage, needless to say we were practically crawling when we got to the top. But since we only had about a day in Cinque Terre, we had no time to lose and got ready to do the "love hike". Funnily enough, we had all packed one "work-out" outfit and Claire and I had literally accidentally packed the exact same outfit.

The hike was ABSOLUTELY STUNNING and took us from Riomaggiore to Manarola then Corniglia then Vernazza and finally to Monterosso. Words cannot describe how gorgeous Cinque Terre is... its surreal to think that people live there all the time and to think that I was there, as I look back at my pictures. The hardest part of the hike was definitely the last part, from Vernazza to Monterosso. The trail winded through olive orchards and vineyards and offered amazing views. When we finally approached Monterosso, I dont think I had ever been so happy to see a beach. Alex and I ran straight to the water when we finally reached the beach and soaked in all the beauty of the Italian Riviera.

 

                                 

After the long hike we decided we deserved a nice dinner and made our way into town to look for a good place to eat. We picked a restaurant that had tables outside and seemed to be a nice place to dine. Claire and I had a fantastic meal and split black pasta with shrimp! The others decided to do the "special" where they got a pasta and then a second course and coffee. Their pasta dishes all looked delicious, but they were all really excited for their second course, which they thought were scallops. Much to their surprise their meal, scallopini, did not mean scallops in Italian and they ended up with something that looked like a bad part of beef drowned in lemon and butter sauce. I honestly think that dog food looks better than the scallopini did. Sadly they were all unsatisfied with that course, but its all part of living and learning! :)

 

The next day we decided to go to the beach in Riomaggiore which was a rock beach, but so nice. We unfortunately had to take our bags with us because the hostel didnt have a luggage room, but having rocks instead of sand made that more convenient. After relaxing and soaking up some sun, we had the worlds most delicious pizza for lunch. Not kidding, I dont think I have tasted pizza so good. It had tomato, mozzarella, basil and olive oil and was so fresh! yummm!!

 

After we all stuffed our faces and were fat and happy, we all got on the train to Florence. Once we got to Florence I learned that the Italians actually call it Firenze and it is the capital of Tuscany. I had been so excited to go to Florence for months because one of my best friends, Julia, had studied there for 4 months and absolutely loved it. Although I knew I would love it too, I didnt realize how much I would. The city is not as big as I thought, but that made it even better because we could truly experience what it had to offer in the couple of days we were there. Our hostel was in a great spot, right near the Duomo and a lot of markets, so as we went to explore the city we naturally ended up shopping in one of the markets. One thing that I loved about Firenze was all of the paintings around the city! There were so many painters who had pictures of different places in Tuscany, all of which were beautiful. It was so hard not to buy all of them, but my friends Alex and Steph had an even harder time than I did and ended up buying at least 6 each :) After exploring the markets we saw the Duomo, which is actually called the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore because Duomo just means cathedral church in Italian. Irrigardless, the church was so full of colors and designs, definitely one of the most interesting pieces of architecture I have ever seen.

 

I absolutely loved exploring Florence, one of my favorite places was the Ponte Vecchio, which is a bridge over the Arno River. It is famous for having shops built along it and we definitely had a blast walking along and shopping at the same time! We also met some fantastic people who were so nice to us, which was a change since usually we were just looked at as "dumb tourists". One painter, named Alfredo told us where to eat for dinner and told us to tell the owner we knew him, we were students and wanted to eat in the "back room". We thought we would give it a shot, and it actually worked! We were taken to a second room, where none of the tourists were, so we didnt get the expensive prices, and were treated like kings and queens! We got unlimited bread, 2 courses, one of which was mountains of delicious pasta with veggies and the other was bruschetta, and wine! All for 8 euros each... now if you dont understand how expensive food is in Europe, this was an absolute steal!!! After one of the best dinners i've had, we headed over to the Arno River to see fireworks off of the Ponte Vecchio! It was such an amazing experience, being in Florence with great weather, great company and seeing great fireworks :) definitely one of my favorite evenings in Europe!

After a fantastic weekend experiencing a country I had always dreamed about, we topped it off by taking ridiculously touristy pictures in Pisa holding up the leaning tower. To my surprise the leaning tower of Pisa is pretty much the only thing that city has to offer, otherwise I would consider it the "dump of Italy". I still cant quite grasp why anyone would choose to live there while the rest of Italy seemed so gorgeous, but to each its own. :)