Check out that priest on a bike!!!!

I wanted to say some additional stuff from Rome and Venice that I forgot. When we were leaving our hostel in Rome to go to Venice, I walked out of the door, and there was the CUTEST little girl dancing in the entrance way. Her mom was outside smoking a cigarette and paying absolutely NO attention to her child which annoyed the hell out of me. They little girl had this super ghetto bandage on her leg, but she was just a bundle of joy. She was dancing in circles around me, so I joined in of course and danced with her for a few minutes. She obviously just learned how to walk so she kept falling, but she was a trooper and got right back up! So, we danced for a while, but we were going to be late for our train, so I had to leave. So, I waved goodbye and headed out the door past her shitty mother, and she ran after me down the street! I seriously almost started crying and haven’t stopped thinking about that little girl. If it hadn’t been illegal, crazy, and retarded to take her with me, I totally would have. It was so sad that all she wanted to do was dance, and her mom was too “preoccupied”. She really got to me when she ran after me though.

Also, an additional story in Venice is when we were hanging out in the square after seeing the main sites eating gelato, and we saw this SUPER cracked-out pigeon. He was pecking and jumping on top of this other pigeon, and I seriously think he was drunk or something because his eyes were like bulging and his feathers were all messed up. Since I hate pigeons to begin with, I didn’t feel bad, but people were acting crazy with the pigeons. There were people in the middle of the square letting them land on their arms and heads and feeding them. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? THOSE THINGS ARE RATS WITH WINGS. Clearly, those people were not from any kind of city because even Pittsburgh has those. Come on people. EW. Also, I have a new found obsession with 1) chocolate croissants and 2) cappuccino. I am sure neither would be nearly as delicious in the U.S. The cappuccino here is SO good. I love it so much. And the best chocolate croissant I had was in Naples which is a little surprising since it is the armpit of Italy. Don’t get me wrong though. I would go back to Naples in an instant for that pizza.

So, back to the present. The night we spent in Florence was really fun. We took Rick Steve’s recommendation for a place to have dinner, since he is THE MAN, and it was delicious. We had a cheese plate as an appetizer, wine, and I have a Florentine steak! It may or may not have been for two people, but I ate the whole thing and don’t regret it one bit! It was delicious. There was this couple sitting next to us though who were judging us hardcore for being American. I was trying to speak a little bit of Italian, and they were laughing which got on my nerves. Come on! I am trying! Megan (Big) was sick which sucked so she had to stay in, but I think taking a night off gave her some extra energy for the rest of the trip. We call her Big, and we call Katie Rob because they look exactly like Rob and Big from the show on MTV. Well, minus the overweight black man, but height-wise at least. It is a funny joke. We have a lot of those. I definitely got lucky finding these girls to travel with because we are ALWAYS laughing and joking and having a great time. So, after the steak, we walked around Florence a little bit.

We took embarrassing jumping pictures and such, but we were worn out so we went to sleep early. The next morning, we got up to go to Cinque Terre (Five towns and SO EXCITED). We stopped to get cappacino and some food. I of course went for the chocolate croissant because we were only in Italy for seven days. It’s whatever. But Maggie got granola and yogurt. Just as a warning, granola is apparently the same as cornflakes. Who knew? They also played Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve which was my high school class song while we were eating. That was a bit weird, but I liked it. Almost all of the music is American which is a little strange, but cool. We also had some pretty funny discussions at breakfast about Candice’s chastity belt, and the fact that I am like an insect attractor that fries the bugs but for men. I dunno. It doesn’t really make sense to write it on here, but it is hilarious when you are there. So, we hopped on the train to Cinque Terre which was a local train.  Just so you know, if you ever travel on a local train in Europe, you have to validate your ticket before you get on. We clearly did not know this, and they can fine you up to 50 euro for not validating your ticket. Luckily, the guy was nice and just told us to make sure we did it from now on. Dodged that bullet! I also got some pretty attractive pictures of Candice and Maggie sleeping which I will try to share in the future.

Cinque Terre is a little bit complicated. The biggest city near it is La Spezia which is where all the trains come in at from places like Rome, Florence, and Venice. Then, you have to take another small train to one of the five towns that make up Cinque Terre. We got to La Spezia when one of the trains was leaving for Riomaggiore (or as we called it Rigamortis) which is the first of the five towns and the one we stayed at. We tried to make a run for it but missed it. It was fun running for it though. I felt super European. So, we caught the next one because they come on a consistent basis. We met two kids who are military kids and are living in Italy for now. They were working to write a tour book for a certain company which sounded really cool. We finally got to our hostel which is AMAZING. We had an amazing porch and a beautiful view of the harbor. The place itself had a nice bathroom and a full kitchen too. It had cots in the other two rooms which were the living room and bedroom, but for a hostel, it was SUPER nice. And we only spent 50 euro a person for two nights! We went to grab lunch and I had seafood pizza which was delicious. Then, THE HIKE.

So the five towns of Cinque Terre are connected by small roads which fit the even smaller cars everyone drives. Yet, it is also connected by hiking trails. Since our town was the first town, we started our hike there and worked our way down. Also in that order, the hikes get more difficult. So, from the first town of Riomaggiore to the second town of Manarola was a nice 20 minutes hike along the ocean. It was a beautiful view and had a nice trail and everything. This path is called Via dell’Amore or Pathway of Love. It is called this because back in the 1920’s, it was the only connection between these first two towns, and boys and girls from each town would us the path to meet in the middle. Freaking adorable right? Well, when you walk the path, there is graffiti everywhere, but it is amazing. People’s names in hearts, love notes, confessions of love, you name it. All written on the rocks. We left our mark on one of the benches, but I am not going to reveal how ;-). Another tradition is for two lovers to attach a padlock to wires or on the fence somewhere along the path to “lock up” their love. So, there are all kind of padlocks everywhere with things written on them, and cloth in the shape of a heart in the fences. It was really, really cool.

So, the path from Manarola to the third town of Corniglia was closed. We took the train to Corniglia instead and somehow missed Manarola. Don’t worry. We went back later. We walked up about 400 steps to get to Corniglia, and we wandered around the town a little bit. It is definitely the sleepiest town of all of them, but it had a great panoramic view. I also bought lemonade off of the CUTEST little boy, even though it was really sour. We then left Corniglia and started the hike to the fourth town of Vernazza.

All I can say is HILARIOUS. Seriously, the hardest hike ever. I was totally not prepared. It was either uphill or downhill and super rocky. There also weren’t too many hand rails or safety fences, so falling off was a definite possibility. Poor Katie is so short, I really have no idea how she did it. Some of the steps were as big as here! But Rob is a trooper and pulled through! We sang songs and played some games while we hiked, but the view was breathtaking. You could see Corniglia up on the ridge, and it is seriously amazing that these places even exist. It is straight out of a fairytale. Rick Steve’s said it was “kind of” treacherous, but he was definitely sugar coating it. We were completely drenched in sweat by the time we were done. I was scared Katie was going to fall off, and Candice got attacked by a bee. There were also A LOT of Betty Boops around which is kind of an inside joke, but I must include it. They kept sneaking into our pictures with all of their huge umbrellas!!!

We got to Vernazza to see the sunset, and we climbed to the top where there is this castle that has a tower. It was probably my favorite town .It had the cutest harbor and a small beach, and an AMAZING view. We decided not to hike to the last town because we were going to go to the beach there tomorrow and the sun was setting. Doing a hike like that in the dark would definitely be the end of us. We ended up staying for dinner there because the train wasn’t going to come for another hour or so. We split a bottle of wine (which I probably drank most of) and caprese. I also had some pasta for dinner that was really good. We had a great view of the harbor, and it really made me fall in love with this place. I will definitely be coming back here in the near future. We then got on the train to go back to our hostel. We grabbed some gelato and were planning on getting ready and going out, but I kind of passed out on the bed from exhaustion. We have just been traveling so much and adding a hike to the mix didn’t really sit well with me. I was completely out.

Our second day in Cinque Terre started out a little rocky. Maggie wasn’t feeling well at all and got sick at like 6 in the morning. Candice and I walked to a pharmacy to try and get her something, but they weren’t opening until 10. So, she decided to wait it out, and she ended up being okay which was great. We slept in after that until about 10 which was glorious. We ate breakfast in Riomaggiore which for me, consisted of fruit crepes, a banana smoothie, and a cappuccino. YUMMY! The crepes were so good. We headed to the last town which is called Monterosso and went to lay on the beach. So, the beaches at the Cinque Terre are rocks which are a) not comfortable at all and b) SO HOT. I lasted about two hours laying out and then Candice and I went shopping a little bit. We grabbed some gelato (yes, I have it like twice a day. It is my medicine!) and walked through the town. This town is definitely the most touristy, but it was still cute. I ended up buying a long, white cotton dress that will be useful in Morocco. Two general observations. Speedos should be ILLEGAL for men over the age of like 15. And EVERYONE in Europe smokes. You can smoke everywhere, and it is super disgusting. Ugh. Hate it.

We then decided to head back to Manarola since we didn’t really get to see the town. The train wasn’t coming for about 40 minutes, so I got a mojito at this Americanized bar that is run by this guy who is definitely Italian, but loves the U.S. He was playing some serious country music, and I loved it. We got to Manarola and got lunch at a place recommended by Rick Steves (MY MAN). It was SO good. I got seafood pasta, and the pasta was homemade and drenched in olive oil. Ahh. Perfecto. We then decided to walk down to the water, and we saw this HUGE rock that a bunch of kids were jumping off of. I watched a few of them jump, and it looked cool. So, of course, I decided to do it. Megan and Maggie came with and the water was FREEZING. But we climbed up to the very top of the rock and jumped down into the water which was about a 30-35 foot fall. It was AWESOME! Super scary though. It took me a second to jump, and I really thought the jump should have been over when I was about half way through it. Such a rush. The first time it hurt the bottom of my feet a bit, but that was it. We did it twice, but the second time I forgot to hold my nose, so I got a BUNCH of salt water in my nose. And a huge wedgie. So, that was it for us!
We headed back, got showered, and took another of Rick Steve’s recommendations and ate at La Lanterna. It was right across from our hostel which was pretty nice. I got gnocchi with clam sauce, and they were definitely the best gnocchi I have ever had. They were homemade and had garlic and basil infused in them. SO GOOD. The guy who worked there was this grumpy old Italian man, and I loved him. A group of five came in after us, and he pretty much kicked them out because the restaurant was pretty small. He threw up his hands and said “This is not possible”! Haha. So cute. He had these little red glasses too, so Maggie told me how to say I like your glasses. I said that to him, and he started talking to me really quickly in Italian, and I was like “Uhhh Sorry! No comprendo!” So, he grabbed my face and gave me a big kiss on the cheek. Haha. He was the best.

We then went and got gelato, and Candice and I were drinking mojitos from the local bar. They were some of the best mojitos I have ever had. SO GOOD. We made friends with the old man bartender who looked somewhat like a biker version of Santa Claus. We also met some other travelers from Sweden and Australia. Two of the girls were from Sweden, and they were a little crazy. They were pretty drunk and just a bit ridiculous. The one apologized to me because she had always thought American girls were shallow, and we weren’t! Shocker right? We also met two girls from Australia who were nice and are going to be in Santorini the same time as us too! Also, we met three guys from Australia, and they were hilarious! They called their one friend Nugget, so I obviously joined in on that. They told us all about their travel plans too. They were going to Spain after Cinque Terre to do the running of the bulls which apparently is like suicidal? Nugget wasn’t doing it though, so they were ripping on him a little bit. We also fought a little about different words and how “weird” our accents were. They were fun to hang out with. After a while, Candice and I left them at the bar to go and sit down by the harbor. It was really nice when it was dark, and we sat and talked for a while. Candice then went to try and call her boyfriend while I made friends with a stray cat! He was super cute, and Candice checked first to see if he had rabies. What a great friend!

So, we woke up this morning and left Cinque Terre. I was super sad about it. I could have stayed there all week! We caught the train to Pisa and did the whole touristy pictures with the tower. It is much smaller in person that I always thought it was. It is only 8 stories high! It was a good thing to see though. It was super crowded but still entertaining. So, we headed back to the train station to go to Civitavecchia which is where the boat was going to meet us. We grabbed lunch there, and we are now headed to Croatia! Italy was amazing though, and I had a great time, even though it was a bit exhausting!