Pisa and Florence (It's Tourist Time)

Second day of our weekend trip had begun! Jenny, Kristina, Sarah, and I all hopped on a train in the early morning heading to Pisa... and what for? To take pictures in front of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa! haha we were definitely about to look like some major tourists!

I really had no idea what to expect from the town of Pisa... in my mind I guess I had ignorantly thought it was going to be a big field with the tower in the distance. What I hadn't expected was actually how nice the city was. There is a big center for the city with big buildings and statues. There is a river running right through the middle of it, with buildings/homes lining the sides of it. I was surprised how pretty it was.

Just beyond the river, we had to walk a little farther and could start to see the tower in the distance. Also we knew we were close because the amount of tourists near us had tripled! We arrive at an opening on the path and there it is! The Leaning Tower of Pisa!! And I'm not sure what I thought it would look like, but it honestly looked like it could just fall over at any second. It was noticeably leaning over.

Next to the tower was a beautiful cathedral and baptistery. The tower was originally built to be the bell tower for the cathedral. We we're on a bit of a tight schedule, so we went right in with taking our pictures. This was pretty tricky though because there were tourists everywhere all trying to get their pictures as well. So we ended up having to stand on these tall circular stones above the crowd in order to snap our pictures. Each of us had our own little photo shoot with the tower haha.

I can't get over how ridiculous this picture is! It's like, "Help!! I'm holding the tower up all by myself!" haha I felt like a huge tourist, but taking pictures like this was mandatory since we went all the way out there. So I'd say our visit to the Leaning Tower of Pisa was a success and was fun as well :)

Afterwards, we hopped on another train heading to Florence!! The train ride there was a sight to see as well, as we were traveled through all the Tuscany region of Italy. 

We got off the train and again followed Rick Steves self guided tour of Florence... hey it definitely beats paying for a tour guide! We were able to hit up all the major places in the city just within a couple hours and we took our time at each place!

We passed by the Accademia Gallery, home to many famous works of art, but perhaps the most famous is Michelangelo's David. We didn't go in because waiting in line would have taken hours. So instead we got to see the copied version of David later outside Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria, and everyone around was taking pictures of it like it was the real David.

 

Next was Il Duomo di Firenze. Man is it stunning. Even just the outside are so detailed with intricate designs, patterns, and colors. But again unfortunately the wait would have taken hours so we just stuck with viewing it from the outside, which like I said, is incredibly impressive in itself. What I'm surprised about is this beautiful cathedral is sandwiched in between buildings all around and it wasn't possible to get a picture of all of it at once. But like any tourist, I walked till I could get the best views and took my pictures.

 

After we left  we headed to yet another famous sight: Ponte Vechio. It's surprising how the little and cute the buildings on the side were. It was a wonder to me how they were all still standing, it looked like they could spill into the water any moment. And what was inside them: jewelry!!! So pretty, but expensive. Maybe in like 20 years when I've worked a lot I'll be able to afford it haha. But it was fun to see it all and walk along the bridge. And the four of us got a great picture together on Ponte Vechio.

And after all the sights, something delightful happened! We got gelato!!! :D This time I got chocolate and tiramisu flavored gelato... a tasty combination indeed!

We had to go back to the train station in about an hour so we sat in the Plaza della Repulica for a little bit. There was an Italian man playing lovely, relaxed music. His music was so good and so calming, mostly in Italian but also a couple English songs. It was actually one of my favorite parts of the day. I just got to sit there and reflect on the weekend. I also enjoyed people watching all the locals and tourists bustle about through the city. Just being there in that moment was a perfect way to end our fun, busy day and overall great weekend.

Cinque Terre... Five Villages In One Day!

From the beautiful to the disappointment and back to the amazing. This weekend had a little bit of everything… Different places in Italy and different emotions. But all around was a great weekend and a time to learn important lessons. For this weekend I traveled with Jenny, Kristina, and Sarah!

Where to begin!!! Delayed train after delayed train, we arrived in Cinque Terre 2 hours later than we intended. With all our bags, we had to sprint up the huge hill of Riomaggiore (one of the 5 main towns of Cinque Terre) in order to catch our shuttle from the city to our hostel. So since we were in such a rush, most of the things in the town were such a blur to me that night. But it was okay because we’d have the whole next day to spend in the 5 towns!

What I do remember on the shuttle up to the hostel was the beautiful sunset on the water! I was trying to snap as many pictures as possible, but with a rickety shuttle it was a bit of a challenge. It’s an image I can still see in my mind.

That night we checked into our hostel. Definitely one of the worse places I’ve ever stayed haha but for only $25 a night it was worth it! We all went to bed early that night to get ready for the long, exciting day ahead of us.

The following day...

We woke up really early to get an early start on the day! In Cinque Terre, there are hiking trails all throughout each town and we decided to try the first one from Monterosso to Vernazza. Monterosso was the farthest away from where we were staying so we took the train out to the town.

Right off the bat we could see this city was very touristy. Little shops all along the streets with lines of beach chairs and umbrellas you had to pay for in order to go on the beach. Even though you could tell this city had lost some of its culture due to tourism, it didn’t take away from the beauty of it. It had adorable colorful buildings and crystal clear waters just on the shore of the city.

  And this weekend I was on the Italian Riviera!! Again on the Meddertanian sea!

  As any traveler knows, Rick Steves knows his stuff. So we used one of his self guided tours through the city of Monterosso. We toured through the streets and walked up a trail to the top of the city. From there we could see all of Monterosso.

We also walked into a quaint chapel playing music that honeslty felt so peaceful to be in. I feel like along this experience, it’s been hard for me to have spiritual moments because my mind is always in a go-go mode, whether with school or traveling. So it was very nice to be in there and take a step back. Right beyond it was a graveyard. I’ve never seen a graveyard with graves dating back to the 1200s. And no joke, this graveyard had some graves in that century.

After the overlook, it was time to move onto our hike!! All excited we eagerly started the hike to the next town, Vernanza.

 Well shortly after starting, I realized this was going to be a challenging hike. Hills with steps that reached up and up and small narrow paths, you had to be on guard the whole time you hiked. Having a cold definitely didn’t help as I was wheezing for most of the time hiking.

However, the views from the hike are incomparable. While we were hiking we were surrounded by mountains that fell off into the sea! And at times you could see the next town jutting out from the mountain, that was my favorite part. There were also vineyards all up and down the hills and slopes. Simply put: it was amazing. And even though it was a hard hike, it was definitely worth the effort.

We finally made it to Vernazza!! It’s interesting to me how the 5 towns were similar but also different at the same time! Vernazza was unique in the since that the town was essentially completely around the water. So many people were using little boats or swimming. And it had a very lively feel to it, even though when we got there it was only about 12.

We walked the streets and went by the water. Again brightly colored building lined the town.


   
We checked the clock and decided it was time to move on to the next town Corniglia. Originally we had thought we were going to hike this trail again to the town, but after the last one we said nope! So we took a quick train over to the next city.

Corniglia is a much quieter town than the rest of them. I think this mainly has to due with the fact that it’s situated high on a hill and the only access to it is to climb more stairs… my theme song for the whole way up was “started from the bottom now we're here!” haha it was so rewarding when we got to the top and I could sing it! Just look at all those stairs!!

As Corniglia is smaller we moved quickly through this town and headed to our next stop, Manarola. In Manarola we booked a wine tour!! We had to rush to get changed, and although we were hot from the day we were really excited... I mean who wouldn't be in excited about a wine tour in Italy?

We go to our meeting spot right outside the only church in town, San Lorenzo, and are there about 20 minutes early. As the time ticks down I'm getting more and more excited... until I start to get this uneasy anxious feeling. I'm looking around at the people near the church with us and no one seems ready to go on a wine tour. I decide just to ask a couple people and no one else was there for a wine tour... 5 minutes till the time it's supposed to start and still no one else is there for a wine tour and no tour guide. Jenny runs down to an area to get wifi and double checks the meeting spot and asks several people. Yep, we we're in the right place.

5 minutes past the meeting time, we're annoyed these people were late. 15 minutes past the meeting time, now we are starting to get upset and very worried. Jenny runs down again to check wifi for an email about any last minute change, but nothing. 30 minutes past the meeting time and we know. This was a scam. We already booked and paid online and they weren't going to show up or let us know anything. This is where the disappointment sets in.

Conveniently, I am right across the church when these emotions arrive so I just go and sit in the church. And as the other girls are trying to figure out what was going on, I honestly just sat there and connected with God. As I mentioned before, it's so hard to have time here to sit back and do anything like that because we constantly have to keep going during this trip.

But what I told myself that day in the church was this: Anxiety and disappointment are both allowed, but only for a certain amount of time. If I choose to dwell for long lengths of time on the unchangeable, then that's my fault and my problem. But if I can realize what happened and adjust, then this is what's important. I knew that how I choose to move on from this will help me grow as a person.

So I got up and we went to see the city. This town may have been one of my favorites actually and I'm glad we got to see all of it. I loved the setting of the town layout and the water.

We also decided to do our own self-guided wine tour. Rick Steves has a recommendation on a vineyard up the hill and we decided why not try it! So we went up Cantina, which has its own factory on top of the hill! 

 

We got to look around the factory, walk through the vineyards, and watch a video on how the wine was made in that winery. We decided to count this as our unofficial wine tour and we even tried some of the wine. We tried Sciacchetrà, the local dessert wine of Cinque Terre. It was honestly the sweetest wine I'd ever tasted, so good.

 

After our own wine tour, we hung out a little longer in Manarola and then took the train over to the last town in Riomaggiore. Unfortunately, we got to see this one in the day and night only for brief periods but it was still awesome to say we got to check out all 5 towns of Cinque Terre!

Now, I’ve skipped over one very important section of the day because I wanted to talk about it all together… and that is FOOD :) wow was it wonderful throughout Cinque Terre!!!

To start it off I had a lovely cuppaccino to wake me up in a small café in Monterosso. Then had delicious focaccia presto pizza in Vernazza. After I ate such heavenly gelato in Corniglia (coffee, hazelnut, and honey flavored [and I got the honey because they use the local honey made right in Corneglia]). And for dinner, I got the risotto al mare and it was the best seafood dish I have ever had. I hadn’t even tried half the foods on it before and didn’t know how to eat, but man was it good. Mussels, claims, shrimp, crab, calamari…. Yum yum yum

We ended the night right with such a great dinner. Overall Cinque Terre had proved to have its ups and downs, but the villages themselves were wonderful and the food delightful :) I've always known that being a tourist, some people will try to take advantage of you. I experienced that firsthand during this trip, but at the same time I grew from it and left feeling closer to God.  

This was just one day of our weekend. We still had another full day! And for that day we were off on a train to our next destination…

 

Sooooo nice to be in Nice!

Day 1:

Our very first travel weekend approached, I felt a mixture of excitement and some nervousness. Not knowing how much or what to pack and how all the train transfers would work out. The trip sounded perfect, a much needed break from the first week of class.

So 30 of us had all booked our trip to Nice, France. The train rides getting there got a little hectic because 30 of us had to catch 4 different connecting trains! But we all made it with no one getting left behind :) We actually had a great time on the train all hanging out, drinking wine, and sharing stories. It made the 6 hour train ride go by really fast.

After arriving in the Nice train station, we headed out to check in to our different hostels. Kristin, Allie, MG, Emily, Angela, and I stayed at a hostel called Villa Saint Exupery Beach Hostel. It had really nice accommodations with a very central location to everything in Nice. We settled into our rooms, got ready and then headed out to the main, center part of the city.  

First thing was first… where can we get some food?? We stopped at this small place off the main center and grabbed sandwiches (not the best, but pretty dang cheap) After getting food in our bellies, we headed out along the Promenade des Anglais. (Equivalent to South Beach Miami) Along one side of the street were bars and restaurants and along the other was the beach!

Needless to say, we all had a good time that night. We went into one of the bars on the strip and had a couple of drinks (I had to try Sex on the Beach just to say I did). We met new British friends that would do their American accents as we would try out our British accents for them haha it was interesting to talk to them and get their perspective on things. We then headed into one of the nightclubs in Nice called High Club. Unlike anywhere I’ve ever been, it had a crazy atmosphere with great songs and dancing. What made it even better was meeting up with other people from our travel abroad group, so about 12 of us experienced it together. It was all around an awesome, fun night with good friends and good laughter!

Day 2:

Woke up early and headed into Monaco!! Unfortunately the 6 of us got split up because of the bus system in Nice, so I spent the day with Allie and Kristin. It ended up still working out great as the 3 of us had a great time and other 3 did as well.

Let me just say that is the most high-end place I have been to. From the ginormous Monte-Carlo Casino (where Casino Royal was filmed) to the Valentino and Gucci shops along the street to the Lamborghini, Bentleys, Mercedes, etc you could tell not your average person got to stay in Monaco.

 

Our first stop walking through Monaco was the Monte-Carlo Casino!! A beautiful building with elegant fountains lining the long walkway to the doors. And all lined up infront of the casino were some of the crazy expensive cars I mentioned before. For this casino, if you didn’t look the part there was no way you were getting in.

It was really interesting to get to see it and be in that type of surroundings. Our next stop was the main ports and docks just to the back and left of the casino. No ordinary boats were in these docks… they were all yachts! And not just small yachts, they were large and luxurious.  Something I can only dream about.

Our last stop in Monaco was to get food!! Haha we went down to the dock area and there were a bunch of little restaurants lining the dock so we all had yummy panini :)

Next part of our day: NAP TIME!
 

After waking up we then got ready to go out on the town again. Our hostel had a really good happy hour deal and if you bought one of the drinks during happy hour, you got a free pasta dinner! Hey, works for me! So I ordered a delicious strawberry daiquiri.

That night a lot of us got to hang out together! It was actually really fun being in a group because we got to know each other so much better this trip.

 

The nights festivities included: Heading to a bar called Nice Cube and chilling there for a little bit before going to the main event of the night, Wayne’s Bar. From the outside you might not expect what your about to experience when you walk in. In the front is the bar and tables… but just beyond that is a stage!

Every night Wayne’s has a cover band perform a bunch of known English and American songs! There were tables and stools all set up for people to stand on to dance and sing their hearts out!! It was such a highlight of the trip, so much fun and a really friendly atmosphere. It also helped that everyone there mostly spoke English. Ending the night, we all talked about how great the trip had been so far and our plans for the next day.
 
Day 3: 

Our last day!!! And we definitely made the most of it. We woke up and headed to the city’s local Fruit and Flower Markert, outdoor along the Cours Saleya. The market was lined with fresh fruits, flowers, handmade soaps, candles, olives, and little trinkets. To myself I kept imagining the locals coming to this market everyday to pick out their ingredients for that nights dinner… it seemed so peaceful to me.

After walking around for a bit we grabbed some food from the markets… for me I couldn’t resist the fresh fruit. I had some grapes, pineapple, cantaloupe, and my favorite food: watermelon!!

We took our food with us and walked just a couple more blocks to be on the Nice beaches!! So different from American beaches, the ones lining Nice’s shores had no sand but smoothed, small rocks. Andddd it was acceptable to be nude on the beaches (but only a handful of girls had their tops off, not full on nudity thankfully)

So the 6 of us relaxed on the beach for a bit. We took turns going into the water since Nice has a high theft rate. But no problem for us, we were cautious of our belongings and able to fully enjoy our time on the beach! 

   

When Anegla, Emily and I got into the water we were like “I can’t believe were swimming in the French Riveria!! The Mediterrean Sea!” 

 

 

The day ended as we walked to an overlook of Nice, France and got a stunning, panoramic full view of the city.

The train ride home definitely felt longer than getting there, as we were all tired. But none of us could have been happier with how the trip went. Literally the perfect first travel weekend to start this experience off!

So excited for my future ventures!