Those are just a few sights I stopped at in the gardens to take pictures of, and the last is the three of us when we visited the gardens on Friday. Another fun thing Maddy, Shandie and I did this week was go out to eat at Acqua al Due to have Florentine steak! Yes, we splurged. I spent 17 euro on the best steak of my entire life. It was a fillet with balsamic sauce, and it was the only thing I had (not even wine because it was expensive) but it was worth EVERY penny. Maddy and Shandie had the one with blueberry sauce which is famous here, but I don't like blueberries so I had the balsamic (which the waitress recommended). I want it again tonight. It was the first steak I've had since Christmas! My mouth waters talking about it...
Okay so on to this weekend (because I will spare you the boring details of class this past week). Saturday morning we woke up to head out to Cinque Terre with ISA, my study abroad program! Our train left at 10, so we woke up extra early and visited the food market in Piazza della Republica near by. There we picked up some yummy soft biscotti for the train and off we were to Cinque Terre!
If you remember, I already had visited the towns of Cinque Terre with Tate when he visited, but this time it was warmer and therefore sunnier, and I got to do a few different things. The weather was BEAutiful most of the time, and I even got a little sunburnt on my face and chest - yes! The water was my favorite color blue, so clear you could see the rocks underneath. We hiked the first day, but it was only a 30 minute trail and I wouldn't even call it a hike... it was a big paved trail along the mountain from Riomaggiore to Manarola (the 1st and 2nd of the 5 towns along the coast). But it was still beautiful and we climbed down a very steep path to reach the rocks on the shore of the water. We also walked around the beach for a long time in Monterosso (where we stayed, the 5th and last town) and put our feet in the freeeezing water, but we didn't care! We were on the Mediterranean coast!For dinner we took the 5 minute train to Vernazza for dinner. Did I mention we also ended up eating way too much focaccia bread and pesto on this trip? It's their specialty! Sooo yummy!
Sunday we did the long but amazing hike from Monterosso to Vernazza. It's a little more challenging, mostly because you are going straight uphill for the first 30 minutes, but after that it's just fun with some beautiful views. I have a lot of pictures with my new camera (which I'm learning to love very much). We stayed in Vernazza to explore for a long time, and at lunch we sat outside and ate. Fact: Maddy got pooped on by a huge bird. It was hilarious, and gross, and still hilarious. And in the process of us laughing and her trying to get cleaned up, and old Italian man came by and yelled at us in Italian for making a mess and telling us to clean it up. I love language barriers. Awesome. But anyways, after that we hung out in the town for a while, had the best gelato, and then took a train to Riomaggiore. This was probably our favorite stop because it was a little boating town you could just get lost in (well, all the towns kind of are...). We climbed down (almost fell into the ocean a few times) over the rocks on the shore and finally made it to a huge one where we could lay out in the sun. So for the last hour we got some sun :) at around 5 we decided to take the ferry back so we could pass all 5 towns, so YES we got to ride a boat! Finally, I've wanted to ride a boat the whole time I've been here. We arrived back in Florence at around 10 last night, so we were exhausted.
Today I have been very homesick for some reason. I miss the little things, like Starbucks, going to 24 hour to workout, our huge grocery stores, Chipotle, driving my beloved car that misses me, Target, real cable to watch real movies and shows when I just want to relax, and especially my family and friends. Heck, I even miss Texas heat. But I have about 5 1/2 weeks till my program ends and my dad gets here to visit, so I'll make it. This coming weekend I have our huge Almafi Coast trip to Sorrento, Capri and Pompeii! We have been looking forward to this trip since we got here. And then on Easter weekend Maddy and I are planning on going to Barcelona, Spain! Yes! So I have plenty coming up to keep me busy so I don't drown in school nonsense. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment