I honestly cannot believe that I have already been in Italy for a month. Time has flown by so quickly! I am already sad to leave which is crazy considering that I still have three months here, but if they go by as quickly as my first one did I am sure that they will pass in the blink of an eye.
Anyway, this past weekend I went to Genoa and Cinque Terre with the group from campus that I mentioned in my last post, ESN. After leaving super early in the morning, we made it to a beach right outside of Genoa and were able to relax and enjoy the scenery for a couple of hours before setting off for a busy afternoon and evening. Italian beaches are definitely not like the ones at home; instead of sinking your toes into soft sand, you have to hobble across rocks as big as your fists. Nonetheless, we didn't really mind how uncomfortable the beach was because really, who can complain about spending a morning watching the waves roll in off of the Italian coast? Not me.
After the beach we headed for Genoa. To be honest, I wasn't really too excited about this; I really went on the trip for Cinque Terre, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the city. When we arrived we were scheduled to have lunch, so while we waited for it to be delivered we sat by the harbor and enjoyed the view. Now, I've come to the conclusion that Italians don't require as much sustenance as we Americans do. We had been told prior to the trip that we would have lunch WITH focaccia (aka bread), which Genoa is particularly famous for. No. Our lunch was just focaccia. We were literally served bread coated in olive oil. After eating our servings in 0.5 seconds, my friends and I made a mad dash for the nearest restaurant, and ended up at a fast food place that served less than mediocre fried food, but it filled us up so we were happy.
Next up on our agenda was a city tour of Genoa, and it was surprisingly enjoyable. Our tour guide was really interactive and funny (she didn't hesitate to call out the "lazy girls" who sat down while she was talking) and actually kept us interested. As I've said, I really wasn't expecting much from Genoa, but OH MY GOD the architecture in the city was breathtaking! Hands-down the best I've seen so far, and so good that Genoa is officially on my recommendations list for anyone who ever visits Italy. My personal favorite was the black and white church that you can see in my pictures.
Now, if you'll remember my last post you will know that my friends and I seem to struggle at staying with our tour groups, and I'm happy to announce that we made it much longer without getting separated from them this time around. We all happen to be obsessed with gelato, and at some point during our fast food lunch we all agreed to get gelato when we passed a good place. It just so happened that our tour guide took us by a shop that is rumored to be the best in Italy, so obviously we had to stop, even though the tour group didn't... what can I say, decisions had to be made. As for a verdict on whether or not it was the best gelato in Italy, I have to disagree, although it was good and definitely worth a trip if you ever find yourself in Genoa.
Since we were separated from our group and we had free time coming up, we just decided to go shopping. There were a lot of little flee-market type tents set up with people selling their handmade items, and it was fun to look around at them even though I didn't buy anything. We also found a tent where a guy was selling dried fruit, and he was nice enough to give us samples, which were absolutely delicious - I wish I would have bought some, they were that good.
Finally it was time to head to our hostel, which was pretty far away from the city center but offered an absolutely beautiful view of the harbor. This was my first hostel experience, and I am happy to report that it was pretty nice (unlike the movie, which everyone feels the need to bring up at the mention of the word "hostel"). The rooms were set up to house eight people each, so my friends and I all got the same one, which really brought me back to my slumber party days of elementary school. We had a little bit of downtime before dinner, but like the girls we are we pretty much spent the whole time freshening up to go out.
A couple of hours later we arrived at the restaurant, where we discovered that they weren't ready for us so we had to wait...for like an hour. At this point I was super thankful for our crappy fast food, because had we just had the focaccia I would have been a hangry mess. The wait wasn't too bad though, and some of the people from our trip joined some local kids in a game of soccer, which was fun to watch and helped pass the time.
When we were finally seated at the restaurant, we wasted no time digging into the bread on the table, which is a huge no-no in Italy but we didn't care. There was also unlimited wine, and it was one of our friends' 21st birthday, so you can imagine how that went. Overall the dinner was good, but I'm super picky so I didn't love it, but I still left satisfied so I consider it a success. When everyone was finished most of the people on the trip moved on to go to a night club, but our bus wasn't scheduled to pick up us up until three in the morning, so we decided to opt out of that and took a taxi back to the hostel.
The next morning we were served fresh croissants and espresso at the hostel, which was heaven considering the lack of sleep we were running on (even without going to the club, we only got around five hours of sleep), before heading out to Cinque Terre.
For those of you who don't know what Cinque Terre is, it is basically one of the most popular attractions in Italy, and for good reason. It is made up of five (cinque) towns (terre), and the only way to get to and from them is by train or boat, as there are not roads for cars in any of the towns.
We started out in Vernazza, where we did a little bit of sight seeing but mostly had free time to explore on our own. After enjoying the view of the ocean for a little while we decided to get food, and I was ecstatic to finally find a restaurant catering to the heavy tourism of the area, which served bacon and eggs. Right now food is number one on my list of things that I miss about home, so finding bacon period, let alone being served at a restaurant, was extremely satisfying.
After Vernazza we headed to Manarola, which (if I'm not mistaken) is the most popular destination in Cinque Terre because it offers the best views of the town. We immediately set out climbing upward, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that we had to hike across a hill that is completely covered in vineyards. We learned that the hills were first farmed because they were so high up, and the locals were scared to set up shop too close to the water because pirates were a huge threat at the time. In addition to that, the locals were able to catch plenty of fish from the ocean, and wanted to grow something to go with their seafood. Eventually we made it to a cemetery by the sea, which is where the famous views of the town are, and basically just took a bunch of pictures before heading out.
The last town that we visited was Monterosso, which we were told is the newest of the five towns. We were given two hours of free time, so my friends and I decided to have a late lunch. My food wasn't anything amazing, but we all ate off of each other's plates so I got some ideas of some different dishes to try in the future. After eating we got gelato (duh) and took a walk on the beach. The beaches in Monterosso actually had sand, so it was extremely enjoyable and it felt amazing to soak our feet in the water after hiking around all day.
Overall I wish that we would have stayed in Cinque Terre longer. I hope that I have time to go back before the semester ends so that I can experience it one more time; it's just too sad to think that this could be the only time that I ever see Cinque Terre in my lifetime. Ugh, nostalgia.
And that's all for now. I know that this post was a long one, but if you made it all the way through I hope you enjoyed!
Until next week,
Hayli
Anyway, this past weekend I went to Genoa and Cinque Terre with the group from campus that I mentioned in my last post, ESN. After leaving super early in the morning, we made it to a beach right outside of Genoa and were able to relax and enjoy the scenery for a couple of hours before setting off for a busy afternoon and evening. Italian beaches are definitely not like the ones at home; instead of sinking your toes into soft sand, you have to hobble across rocks as big as your fists. Nonetheless, we didn't really mind how uncomfortable the beach was because really, who can complain about spending a morning watching the waves roll in off of the Italian coast? Not me.
After the beach we headed for Genoa. To be honest, I wasn't really too excited about this; I really went on the trip for Cinque Terre, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the city. When we arrived we were scheduled to have lunch, so while we waited for it to be delivered we sat by the harbor and enjoyed the view. Now, I've come to the conclusion that Italians don't require as much sustenance as we Americans do. We had been told prior to the trip that we would have lunch WITH focaccia (aka bread), which Genoa is particularly famous for. No. Our lunch was just focaccia. We were literally served bread coated in olive oil. After eating our servings in 0.5 seconds, my friends and I made a mad dash for the nearest restaurant, and ended up at a fast food place that served less than mediocre fried food, but it filled us up so we were happy.
Next up on our agenda was a city tour of Genoa, and it was surprisingly enjoyable. Our tour guide was really interactive and funny (she didn't hesitate to call out the "lazy girls" who sat down while she was talking) and actually kept us interested. As I've said, I really wasn't expecting much from Genoa, but OH MY GOD the architecture in the city was breathtaking! Hands-down the best I've seen so far, and so good that Genoa is officially on my recommendations list for anyone who ever visits Italy. My personal favorite was the black and white church that you can see in my pictures.
Now, if you'll remember my last post you will know that my friends and I seem to struggle at staying with our tour groups, and I'm happy to announce that we made it much longer without getting separated from them this time around. We all happen to be obsessed with gelato, and at some point during our fast food lunch we all agreed to get gelato when we passed a good place. It just so happened that our tour guide took us by a shop that is rumored to be the best in Italy, so obviously we had to stop, even though the tour group didn't... what can I say, decisions had to be made. As for a verdict on whether or not it was the best gelato in Italy, I have to disagree, although it was good and definitely worth a trip if you ever find yourself in Genoa.
Since we were separated from our group and we had free time coming up, we just decided to go shopping. There were a lot of little flee-market type tents set up with people selling their handmade items, and it was fun to look around at them even though I didn't buy anything. We also found a tent where a guy was selling dried fruit, and he was nice enough to give us samples, which were absolutely delicious - I wish I would have bought some, they were that good.
Finally it was time to head to our hostel, which was pretty far away from the city center but offered an absolutely beautiful view of the harbor. This was my first hostel experience, and I am happy to report that it was pretty nice (unlike the movie, which everyone feels the need to bring up at the mention of the word "hostel"). The rooms were set up to house eight people each, so my friends and I all got the same one, which really brought me back to my slumber party days of elementary school. We had a little bit of downtime before dinner, but like the girls we are we pretty much spent the whole time freshening up to go out.
A couple of hours later we arrived at the restaurant, where we discovered that they weren't ready for us so we had to wait...for like an hour. At this point I was super thankful for our crappy fast food, because had we just had the focaccia I would have been a hangry mess. The wait wasn't too bad though, and some of the people from our trip joined some local kids in a game of soccer, which was fun to watch and helped pass the time.
When we were finally seated at the restaurant, we wasted no time digging into the bread on the table, which is a huge no-no in Italy but we didn't care. There was also unlimited wine, and it was one of our friends' 21st birthday, so you can imagine how that went. Overall the dinner was good, but I'm super picky so I didn't love it, but I still left satisfied so I consider it a success. When everyone was finished most of the people on the trip moved on to go to a night club, but our bus wasn't scheduled to pick up us up until three in the morning, so we decided to opt out of that and took a taxi back to the hostel.
The next morning we were served fresh croissants and espresso at the hostel, which was heaven considering the lack of sleep we were running on (even without going to the club, we only got around five hours of sleep), before heading out to Cinque Terre.
For those of you who don't know what Cinque Terre is, it is basically one of the most popular attractions in Italy, and for good reason. It is made up of five (cinque) towns (terre), and the only way to get to and from them is by train or boat, as there are not roads for cars in any of the towns.
We started out in Vernazza, where we did a little bit of sight seeing but mostly had free time to explore on our own. After enjoying the view of the ocean for a little while we decided to get food, and I was ecstatic to finally find a restaurant catering to the heavy tourism of the area, which served bacon and eggs. Right now food is number one on my list of things that I miss about home, so finding bacon period, let alone being served at a restaurant, was extremely satisfying.
After Vernazza we headed to Manarola, which (if I'm not mistaken) is the most popular destination in Cinque Terre because it offers the best views of the town. We immediately set out climbing upward, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that we had to hike across a hill that is completely covered in vineyards. We learned that the hills were first farmed because they were so high up, and the locals were scared to set up shop too close to the water because pirates were a huge threat at the time. In addition to that, the locals were able to catch plenty of fish from the ocean, and wanted to grow something to go with their seafood. Eventually we made it to a cemetery by the sea, which is where the famous views of the town are, and basically just took a bunch of pictures before heading out.
The last town that we visited was Monterosso, which we were told is the newest of the five towns. We were given two hours of free time, so my friends and I decided to have a late lunch. My food wasn't anything amazing, but we all ate off of each other's plates so I got some ideas of some different dishes to try in the future. After eating we got gelato (duh) and took a walk on the beach. The beaches in Monterosso actually had sand, so it was extremely enjoyable and it felt amazing to soak our feet in the water after hiking around all day.
Overall I wish that we would have stayed in Cinque Terre longer. I hope that I have time to go back before the semester ends so that I can experience it one more time; it's just too sad to think that this could be the only time that I ever see Cinque Terre in my lifetime. Ugh, nostalgia.
And that's all for now. I know that this post was a long one, but if you made it all the way through I hope you enjoyed!
Until next week,
Hayli