Cinque Terre Weekend!

This past Thursday I was sitting at dinner without any plans for the weekend. A big group of A&M people went to Paris for the weekend, but I had already decided not to go when they were planning the trip. I didn’t want to just sit around all weekend, but it was starting to look like that was in my future. Then, a guy here named Luke, who I work in the kitchen with and is the other half of the dream team, told us that he was going to Cinque Terre with his sister the next day to go hiking and that we could go. I had been wanting to go hiking for a long time, but I wanted to go to Cinque Terre when it's warmer, so I was pretty torn. For those of you that don’t know, Cinque Terre is a group of five little cities on the north west coast of Italy. Usually you can hike along the coast to all five cities and it is just a beautiful place to go. Tyne, Joe, and I decided Thursday night to join in with Luke and Laura the next day. Kind of a last minute trip. We were a little nervous because weather.com said there was a chance of rain and it had been pretty cold that week, but we decided to brave it. 

Here is an outline of the weekend:

Friday- We started the morning out with an early trip to a café and then a train to Florence. We hung out there for a while, visited the Duomo, ate lunch, and ate gelato. Then, we took a train to Pisa. Joe and I had already been to Pisa, but the rest of the group hadn’t yet so we went to all the sites. By all the sites I mean the Tower and the church.  Since this trip was kind of last minute, there weren’t any real plans, including hostel reservations. We walked to a hostel that Luke and Laura had looked up and found out was really cheap. Unfortunately, we got there to find out that they did not have any openings. Thankfully the lady suggested another hostel and gave us the address. We were very hopeful that his hostel would have an opening or else we wouldn’t know what to do. Obviously there were many jokes made about how we were going to stay out all night or sleep in a box.  The second hostel was in the middle of a busy street lined with restaurants and stores. When we got to the right number all we saw was a door and were pretty sure the address was wrong. It turns out it was one of those doors where you have to ring the place you want to go and they let you in. It was pretty weird, and we were pretty sure it was going to be a sketchy place. Thankfully though it really wasn’t that bad and they had a room for all of us to stay. Just a short story to illustrate the hostel experience- There was only one public bathroom for about 10 people so when the bathroom was open Tyne and I decided that it would be best for us to use it at the same time so, while she was showering I was getting ready for bed.  We were just minding our own business when someone opened the door. Tyne was reaching for shampoo at that moment and saw the hand and yelled “we’re in here!”  We giggled about it for a little and then less than a minute later the same guy opened the door again, walked about 2 feet into the bathroom and kept saying “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry”. I really don’t know why he thought it was necessary to come back into the bathroom to apologize for coming in in the first place or why we didn’t lock the door after the first incident, but it was really entertaining. That night we just went to eat dinner, talked for a while, and then went to bed early.

Saturday-  We woke up early and caught a train to La Spezzia. There we found a tourist office and got maps and information for Cinque Terre. We had time to waste before our train to the first city so we went to a café to have breakfast. I should have taken a picture, but that is where I ate the best pastry I’ve ever had. It was a croissant with a nutty flavored filling and it was delicious. After that we went to the first town. We were a little disappointed to hear that we could only hike the trail from the first city to the second city because the rainy season had caused landslides along the path to the other cities. We hiked the first path and were just amazed at the beauty of it. No words or pictures can ever do it justice. After we made it to the first city we decided to hike up into the mountain since we couldn’t along the coast. The trail was about 2 hours and it was pretty tough. We were also 3 Texans with 2 people from Colorado who do a lot of hiking so we had to pretend like we were hanging in there. I am not sure if I will ever be able to go hiking again though, because that path was just gorgeous and so great. The weather was so perfect too. We all were able to strip all of our layers and even got sweaty. We made it to the 3^rd city and then took trains to the 4^th and 5^th.  When we got to the cities we just walked around the towns and the beaches. In the last city we watched the sun set as best as we could from behind a mountain. We then took a train back to Pisa and went back to our hostel. Once we got there, the boys decided that they were still hungry so they asked the friendly man at the front desk where to get pizza. He gave us directions to the best pizza place ever where they serve pizza by the meter. Yes, a meter of pizza. We also asked the waitress for her favorite and she told us to get specca and marscapone, which wasn’t on the menu. It was a cream cheese- ish pizza with a special kind of ham. We all took one bite and were so incredibly surprised at how delicious it was. Seriously, THE single best flavor of pizza in the world. For spring break one of my flights is out of Pisa, so we have plans to go back to this place. If you’re ever in Pisa ask me for the name of this place because you HAVE to go. (I don’t have the name on me right now)

Sunday-  This day we just woke up, checked out of the hostel, and started heading home. Luke and Laura went on to Lucca, but the rest of us decided we were tired and ready to be back. For some reason, we were really unlucky with train times on this day and had to do a lot of waiting around to catch them. I also caved and got McDonald’s fries. I told myself I wouldn’t eat American food before Spring Break, but I gave in. Oops.

This weekend reminded me how great God is. I was in the most beautiful place I’ve seen so far (yes, even more than the Almalfi coast) with some absolutely wonderful people. The trip was just perfect and I was also reminded how lucky and blessed I am. This semester is flying by way too quickly and I am just trying to soak it all in.

Here are some pictures:

One last thing unrelated to this weekend: I am terrible with directions. There has been a running joke this semester that we have a "group leader" everywhere we go who is in charge of leading the group in the right direction. Obviously, I have never been one. I also have never walked anywhere by myself and never had to make it around town on my own. Well, today I decided that it is about time I start being brave and went to a cafe to read and then ran errands ALL BY MYSELF. I really grew up today, and I didn't even get lost!

Until next time!