A busy, busy weekend!

This past weekend was such a blast! We travelled a lot and saw many beautiful sights... wish we could go back to them all!

Friday, June 3- What a WONDERFUL day this was! Apart from getting up super early to make our 7:25 train, visiting Cinque Terre was one of my favorite things about being in Italy thus far. Cinque Terre is made up of five villages on the Western coast of Tuscany. You hike from one village to the next, exploring them along the way. It took 3 trains and 2.5 hours to get to the first town, where we started our hike. The water here was a gorgeous, sparking blue and green expanse stretching out forever... incredible. It was a dramatic picture, watching it crash against the rocks of the coast- so beautiful. We went to this dreamy place with two guys from A&M, Joseph Trahan and joey Cramer, which made the day even more fun and funny! We hiked from the first town to the second and then took a ferry to the fourth  because the third town was closed. From the fourth to the fifth town we hiked a 2 hour hard hike to the last and favorite town. We worked hard to get there! Straight up then straight down and then straight up again! The view along the way was worth it though. To our left was a view of the sea never ending and the deepest blue I've ever seen, and to our right were vineyards winding up the mountain and one of the prettiest green colors I've ever seen too. Straight down to our left was a drop off down the woods..eeekk.. that was a little challenging.. just don't fall off the side! We made it in one piece thankfully, where we ate a yummy lunch and then quickly changed into our swimsuits to get into the FREEZING cold water... the last town has a big beach where people lay out, swim etc.. Shortly after wading halfway into this icy water, thunder started rolling and the rain started pouring! It was like a movie.. I loved every minute of it. Explored the town a little, bought some pesto to bring home because they are known for their pesto in this region.

The real adventure began on the train back to Florence. We took the 6:15 train to La Spezia, where we barely had time to buy tickets to Florence and run to that train... Well we didn't realize that this particular train was a regional train, meaning it would stop at EVERY station from there to the city... It took about 3.5 hours, many many stops, and even a backing up of the train to a stop we missed. That was real fun. I was thoroughly freaked out. There was a man with an eastern european accent, wearing gold chains around his neck and cutting an apple with big knife behind us, who had spoken to me earlier and kinda gave me the creeps, the sun was just setting as we were reversing in the middle of a small, rundown Tuscan town, so naturally I imagine scenes from 24 or the Bourne identity and how the train is about to be blown up. There was a moment I almost called my parents to say goodbye, and had tears in my eyes, looking out the window (so Meredith wouldn't see) as I knew that Jack Baur and Jason Bourne are, in fact, not real people and could not possibly show up to save the day. It's amazing the things my mind can imagine, isn't it? haha.  We made it back safely, despite my paranoia, at 10:30pm... hit the hay to get up for another early morning!

Saturday, June 4- Today we had to meet out CEA group at the train station at 7:50 to go to Lucca, a town in Tuscany. I am dying to return to this place. It is so charming, with a wall built during the Renaissance surrounding it. We rented bikes here and rode around on the top of the wall. Walls built during the Renaissance were made very wide, but not too high like during the Middle Ages. Gunpowder  and guns were being used at this point, so they had to make the walls thicker for defense, not high to block bows and arrows... I thought that was a pretty cool fact!  Anyways, we rode around the walls, coming down into town at different points to see churches and other landmarks that one of our teachers would tell us about. After the tour, we ate lunch at small restaurant.. I got chicken- the first real meat I'd had here so far and peas... it was an ok dish, definitely not the same kind of chicken that we eat in the U.S. My favorite part of the day was getting a Diet Coke with ice and a straw!!! Too bad they don't have styrofoam cups, because that would have been the cherry on top. The day was complete with DC in hand, iPod in ears, and nap time on the train ride back to Florence.

Saturday night included going to the ballet Swan Lake! Or so we thought... we bought tickets earlier last week, thinking they were for the world famous Russian ballet, Swan Lake. Not the case. The ballet was a new version about the life of the author of Swan Lake. Apparently his unfornate life, and failing marriage inspired is story, so the performance we saw was a combination of his inspiration and the original ballet... we were all so confused about this until we bought a program to read about it. Glad we went though, it was a good experience and Meredith and I found some pink champagne to make the whole night worth it! Of course, a gelato stop was made afterwards to end the night rather well!