4.5 Terre

So last week when my family was in town, I dragged them to Cinque Terre, a day trip I had not-so-secretly been planning for weeks. And not only did I drag them there, but I made them wake up at six in the morning to catch the train to go. For those of you who find it hard to believe that I, of all people, would willingly wake up at six, all I have to say is that you would to for the Italian riviera. Cinque Terre may be one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.

The train ride was long and tedious and filled with over-zealous hikers with too much energy. But then, we burs out from the tunnel over a cliff face adjacent to the Mediterranean, and the collective gasp from everyone, including myself, proved to me then that everything would be worth it.

And it was.

The names of the little towns escape me now, but there are five of them (cinque terre literally means 'five lands'), with hiking trails of varying lengths leading through the hills and along the shore from town to town. Fishermen lived in Cinque Terre before the tourist industry found it (and oh god, did the tourists come in droves) but surprisingly, I felt that much of the towns' characters had been preserved. They kind of reminded me of Ireland in this way, endlessly beautiful.

It helped that the day we went on was gorgeous too. Perfectly sunny, 70 degree weather. My kind of weather. And there was great pesto and sea food and lemoncello. But anyway, on with the pictures!


The first part of the hike from the first and second village was called the Lover's Walk, hence the hearts.


This place had the strangest vegetation. I've never in my life seen wild cacti before! My parents were especially excited to see them, having lived in Arizona for a year.



Me, being a giant creeper.





Last fall, my family and I went to my cousin's wedding in Tullamore Ireland. My parents wanted to leave, but my brother and I were having a smashingly good time. So my dad drew us a map to the hotel that looked something like this. My mother took one look at it, then at us (I think we were trying to river dance at that point) and said "they're not making it home with that. We have to stay". This map kind of looks like the map that would've had Kyle and I wandering around the Irish countryside in our wedding finery.


My brother, carrying my Hello Kitty backpack.


The parentals being parent-like.



LIZARD! They were everywhere. And now if I going running in the park in Firenze, I see them everywhere too. If I had gone to Cinque Terre as a kid, I would've just spent the whole time trying to catch them. I still kind of wanted to do it actually...


Vineyards on the terrace farming system.


What these rocks fail to mention is that the beach is down a nearly sheer cliff face and you have to lower yourself to the shore on a rope.


Olive trees.





There was a bucket of cat food behind the table near this cat with a label that just didn't translate
well in English. It asked us to "feel free to feed these homeless and unloved cats". Homeless? This cat was more than amply well fed from the looks of it and none worse for the wear. And unloved? Is any cat ever unloved when I am nearby? It did help a lot that she resembles my Molly. This is Molly below in her Christmas best.


I miss my animals D:






I called this post 4.5 Terre because my parents only made it to the forth town, but me and brother bravely ventured onward to the fifth. So it averages to 4.5. But let me tell you, nothing was quite so satisfying as sticking my feet in the water after finishing that last leg of the trail.

The shot of lemoncello helped too.

Like usual, I forgot to take pictures of my dinner until I got to dessert. Oh well! It was still delicous. I missed seafood. It's surprisingly hard to find in Firenze.

Now, you're probably thinking, "what the hell? Is that the leaning tower of Piza?I thought this post was about Cinque Terre?" and you would be right on both accounts. See, to make a long story slightly shorter, we ended up getting on the wrong train home, and in the time it took us to make it back to the Cinque Terre train station, we missed all the trains to Pisa. Except for the creepy night train going to Naples that pulled in at 2am that was letting people on under the table for a little extra cash. After laying on the floor with my head udner my father's chaur for an hour or so, we made it to Pisa. Where my brother and I promptly took off to see the tower with this group of bys from NYU who had been similarily stranded away from Florence. I saw the tower as I took off to Berlin, but hey! It was nice to see it on it's own I guess, even at three in the morning. We didn't make it back to Florence until 5:30, and I didn't make it back to my apartment until 6. Even the drunk people who scream outside my window near the Mexican bar were gone, it was so early/late. I slept for about four hours then woke up to finish a final paper for a class that was due that very day.

There is never a dull moment here.