The ridiculousness started on Thursday night when I found a burrito place not far from us. Yes - we found burritos in Italy, which we found to be essential since pizza and pasta can get very old, very fast. I told a few of my suitemates about the find and we ventured out for a late dinner Thursday night, which was the best since I've been here. We had delicious, fresh burritos and THE best margaritas I've ever had. If you ever come to Florence, go to Eby's Bar. The woman there will take great care of you and it will be a nice escape from the carb overload.
After this absolutely spectacular dinner we wandered back to the apartment, hoping to get a good night of sleep before our weekend adventure. When we got back to the apartment we heard a slight drip coming from the dining room. As we slowly wandered in, we found that our ceiling was leaking. Thinking it was just a minor problem, we put a few cups down to catch the water. About 20 minutes later, we pulled out 5 or 6 full size buckets, which we then had to empty every hour on the hour. We called the RA on duty to alert them of the incredible water spilling from our ceiling and when they sent someone over he said, "that sucks." Note to Americans - Europe does not work on a 24 hour response service. Needless to say, the leaking stopped the next morning, but we still have a huge, unfixed crack in our ceiling.
With just 4 hours of sleep we got up the next morning and got on a train to go to Cinque Terre. After a longer than desirable lay over in Pisa we finally got to La Spezia, which is just a bus ride away from Cinque Terre. But, since we're broke college students, we had to book a hostel in Biassa, a town also just a bus ride away from Cinque Terre. Italy, like Mexico, believes in siestas, and as luck would have it, we rolled into town right at the beginning of that period. After waiting an hour to go to information, we found out how to get to the bus that would take us to Biassa. Needless to say, the directions were sub par and 3 hours later we found our bus.
We finally made it to Biassa, which, while being small, is absolutely beautiful! I highly recommend it. We dropped our already dirty packs off and headed down to Cinque Terre and Vernazza - Rick Steves' favorite town. I wish I could begin to tell you just how beautiful every bit of Cinque Terre is - but I can't. I know I'm from a land locked state, but I've never seen so much water in my life. You literally cannot see where it ends, which just baffles me.
In Vernazza we randomly picked out a dinner spot called the Blue Marlin, which we later discovered was another one of Rick Steves' favorites. We ordered a bottle of Cinque Terre white wine, Foccaccia al Formaggio and Trofie Pesto. I'm all about eating quickly, but for the first time in my life, I was the last one to finish my meal. For the rest of the night I re-imagined every bite of food over and over again, because it was that good.
The next day, as we hiked from town to town, I continued to stand in complete awe of the ability to build on these hills and the almost perfectly picturesque landscape. Every stretch of land was breathtaking. Pictures and stories will never suffice, so the best thing I can say is if you can afford a flight to Europe - go to Cinque Terre. It's worth whatever kind of trek you have to make, trust me.
I've gone to just about every emotional extreme this weekend with my 3 other suitemates traveling with me, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Go to Cinque Terre, just do it, trust me.
