Our week together was filled with travel and experiences and we loved every minute of it. It felt like I was on some dream vacation all week rather than in school, but it flew by pretty quickly. As I updated before, we saw Bologna and Venice the first weekend! It was a blast, but during the week I had class and we tried to plan around it. Because Tate had been to Florence before we didn't go to the museums he had seen, but explored the city instead. I took him to the San Lorenzo leather market and we spent a few hours shopping and looking on Thurday. He ended up with leather gloves (which he never took off the rest of the trip, literally.) and a leather briefcase for work which he wanted to take everywhere (like a girl with a new purse she never wants to put down, ha!). He even took the briefcase (and gloves) to Cinque Terre, it was really cute :) We also climbed the tower next to the Duomo (420 stairs...) and saw a beautiful view of Florence on a beautifully sunny day. We also ate at Dante's, my favorite "free student wine" restaurant on Tuesday night. It was actually National Women's Day (who knew we had our own day??) and I recieved free flowers and no service charge! Yes! Wednesday night we ate at the American diner here that serves REAL hamburgers, because they don't have American food in Thailand either. So that was a nice change in pace for both of us. Okay okay now on to Cinque Terre...
I live here!
Friday morning we woke up and caught a 10am train to Monterosso! Monterosso is the first, or Northern most, of the 5 towns of Cinque Terre (literally meaning "five lands") and has direct beach access. We had a room right off the beach and main road there for Friday and Saturday night, and we are SO glad we stayed that long because it would have been too short otherwise! Literally, most the towns are on the cliffs of mountains over the Mediterranean and even when it's still chilly in March it's spectacular. Most people spend multiple days in the Cinque Terre towns because the most popular thing to do is hike between towns on the mountains overlooking the sea. When we first arrived on Friday I was sick and really not feeling well, so we walked down the coast, hunted for our hotel, grabbed some lunch and went back to nap. Luckily I felt somewhat better when I woke up that evening and we ventured out to dinner at a restaurant called Belvedere. It was so good we went there both nights! Also, before I go on, Cinque Terre is know for three things locally: Pesto, white wine, and fresh seafood. Now, I don't like seafood, but Tate does, and I was hesitant to order the white wine because I LOVE red, but oh my goodness. Get the white wine. Just get it. Dad, when we visit, you will suck it up and order white wine because it is the best I have ever had. And the pesto! Wow. Don't worry, I have pictures. And back to the seafood, I obviously ordered pasta dishes without seafood both nights but there is a house dish Belvedere is famous for. It cost 45 euro and is all of the fresh seafood caught from the day cooked in a big earth-clay jar thing that is a foot and a half tall or more and is steaming, and they just dump it all in a huge bowl on your table. I mean whole lobsters, octopus, crab, mussels, fish, everything. Any seafood lover's dream in a bowl. Literally everyone was ordering it, but poor Tate didn't get to because I don't like it :( Sorry Tate!
On the beach at night!
Monterosso...
The next day we ate a big breakfast and headed for the hiking trail to Vernazza, the town after Monterosso that is supposedly a great one to hike to. We climbed this huge rock formation on the beach in the water of Monterosso on our way to the trail, so even though I didn't get to swim, we were close! We headed out on the right track of the trail, but after about an hour we realized the trail was getting pretty hard. I mean, some parts were so slanted you could take one wrong step and fly off the cliff into the sea and rocks below. But we kept going because the view was to die for and we kept seeing other people. There were also places where you had about 6 inches between the side of the mountain and plunging to your death to walk, but we made it :) so then about 2 hours in, we keep seeing people turn back because the trail was impossible (which it was) and so I convince Tate to give up, turn back and take the train. I don't want to die, and we gave it a good solid effort. He gave in, though defeated, and right as we make our back to the start, I notice another path of stairs. No. You have got to be kidding me. Yes. This is the REAL path to Vernazza. Awesome. Lets start all over again! So we excitedly start our new path (because we don't have to give up and take a train) and hike for 2 more hours to Vernazza. The hike was amazing, and a good leg workout! The views were unreal and romantic and we enjoyed the time together. Here it is...
Monterosso - where we stayed
We ate a late lunch in Vernazza, explored the little sea town, and hopped on the quick train back to Monterosso. There was no way we would make the hike back after all that! We ate at Belvedere again in the evening and called it a night :)
I made friends with this kitty! He loved me so much... I miss him :(
With our Gelato!
The next day it rained, and I was sick again from doing too much the day before, so we walked around in the rain for a while and then got on a train to Corniglia, the third town. There we ate lunch, seriously the best pasta I have had yet, some kind of garlic oil on it, and headed back for Florence. It was a long weekend and we were exhausted. This morning as I said before Tate left very early on his flight back to Bangkok and it was sad :( I miss him again already. I have had to study all day for 2 midterms tomorrow and am about to start studying again. My mom and Aunt come on Friday though so I am already looking forward to spending spring break with them. That's all I have for now! Ciao!
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