Cinque Terre: The land of focaccia, pesto, and hiking

I spent my weekend traveling through the five towns of Cinque Terre (cinque literally means five) with one of my roommates and another friend from SAI.

     Cinque Terre is a group of five small towns connected by hiking trails and a train system. It has gained a lot of popularity as a tourist location in the past few decades, and everyone there is very welcoming. I stayed in the furthest town called Monterosso, which after exploring the other towns was definitely my favorite with a cute town as well as a small beach, which was gorgeous. Cinque Terra is further north than Rome along the western coast.  It took about four hours by train, which wasn’t bad at all! It is called the Italian Riviera and there are few places I have seen as beautiful as this. The closest thing I can find to compare Cinque Terra to is Bermuda with beautiful blue water and lots of rocks and cliffs. I was amazed with this place from the moment I got off the train at Monterosso. I forgot my camera at my apartment in Rome, so thank my lovely roommate Ellyn Domanico for providing me with the pictures for this post.

Friday

     I arrived Friday around lunchtime and got lunch right away. When I said Cinque Terre is the land of focaccia and pesto I was not joking. Focaccia originates in the area surrounding and including Cinque Terre and pesto was first introduced in Cinque Terre. So, obviously eating became a large part of my weekend!  I got a basic slice of pizza for my lunch when I arrived, or so I thought. Basic is nowhere near the description of the pizza in Cinque Terre; pizza made with focaccia bread may be one of my new favorite foods. It is absolutely delicious! After getting lunch, we settled into our hotel room and sat for a while to let our food digest a bit before hiking.

     Like I said earlier, we could take the trains through the towns or hike between them. The hikes range from difficulty levels of 1 – 5 with the hike between Monterosso and the nearest town Vernazza being the level 5 hike, so we wanted to begin with this hike. It was definitely a difficult hike with a very steep incline and a pretty far distance. We all felt quite accomplished when we made our way from Monterosso to Vernazza. Vernazza was a bit smaller of a town but, like Monterosso, it also had a small beach area with access to the sea. It was a bit overcast that day so none of us were very interested in going in the water. We just were happy to have finished the hike. Since we were already tired from traveling and hiking, we went back to Monterosso for dinner. It was a very good dinner and we ordered the locally made wine: white wine, my favorite. I was very pleased :)

View of Monterosso from the hiking trail

 Tara, Ellyn, and I nearing the end of our hike! 

Saturday

     Unfortunately, it rained very hard on Friday night so one of the trails was closed. However we were still able take the train to Vernazza and hike to the next town Corniglia, which was the level 4 hike, definitely still difficult. We ate lunch in Corniglia, but it was a smaller town and on top of the mountain so unlike the first two, we were nowhere near the water (we wore our bathing suits just in case, though). Since the trail between Corniglia and the next town Monorola was closed, we took the train to it. Monorola is another larger town with a large number of things to do and even has vineyards along the mountainside. We spent a good deal of time in Monorola since we needed a bit of a break from walking and really liked the town. After spending time in Monorola we ventured to the last town Riomaggiore. The “trail” between Monorola and Riomaggiore was a paved road called Via dell’Amore.

    

     


     This road was said to be the road that lovers traveled if they lived in the separate towns of Monorola and Riomaggiore. The road is filled with locks along the gates and fences left by couples. It is actually really precious and beautiful, and I am not at all a romantic. Alongside the road, there is graffiti on the walls of love as well. It was definitely a very romantic atmosphere, maybe I’ll go back later on in life ;)

     Once we reached Riomaggiore, we were afraid to was going to rain again so, we decided to head back to Monorola by the train. We ate dinner in Monorola where I got pesto lasagna. Now, I love lasagna already, but pesto lasagna is absolutely fantastic. Remember, pesto originates in Cinque Terre so it was completely amazing! 

Now if I have kept your attention for this whole post, I am very surprised at your focus!

Sunday

     Since we had to pay for train tickets and trail passes, we decided to have a lazy Sunday, a very lazy Sunday. We spent the day at the beach and although it was cold, I couldn’t help but just marvel at how amazing of a place Cinque Terre is. I was sad to leave but actually very happy to come home. Home sweet Rome.

I don’t know if I’ll ever have a time in my life where I am completely free to explore the world like I have now, and I definitely am so excited to take advantage of this opportunity! There is so much left for me this semester and I can’t wait to experience it all.

On-Site Classes Around Rome, AMAZING!

     While this week's classes did seem to drag on because of a make up day we had on Friday (since we have Fridays off), I had two really awesome classes around Rome.  I went to an open market in my Italian language class, and for my Religion class, I visited St. Peter's Basilica and took a tour of the necropolis. Both were super cool.


     So, as most of you know, I have always been super against learning a foreign language. It's not that I think that people speak English wherever I go, which is basically true, but my problem is that I can't learn a language in a classroom for 3 hours a week and actually do anything with it. Even though I didn't plan to take Italian while I was here, since I did already finish my requirement for UVa and have taken about 7 years of Spanish with the proficiency level of about a 2nd grader, I ended up deciding to try it out. Learning a "second" foreign language is a lot easier than the first. Now, I'm not saying that I am fluent in Spanish or anything but learning Italian has been a lot easier in the beginning than Spanish since I have some ideas of conjugations, articles, sentence structure, adjectives/adverbs that are completely different than in English.
     I actually have really enjoyed my Italian class because it's actually useful in my everyday life here. Plus, yesterday we took a "field trip" in my class to an open market to go shopping for food and just speak the language. It was really cool. There's nothing like being thrown into another language and forced to adapt to make you actually speak the language. Now, I'm not saying that people don't understand English here because there is always someone who does, but it is so much nicer of a gesture to at least attempt to speak the language. I now know how to ask how much things cost, tell someone that I want something, and ask for more/less. It only took me what five years of Spanish before I could do this? haha But, I really do think I am improving and maybe on my way to living here for some period of time later in my life? ;) So, here's hoping I learn more this semester!


     Although I live right next to the Vatican, I had never gone inside anything. My roommates and I usually just walk through it to get to another street or look at the top of the Basilica from the balcony. So, I was really exited when my religion class was having our on-site class at the Vatican. My class got to go in through the side entrance and not wait in any lines or pass security, no big deal. Thankfully our tour guide was American from Idaho or something so that we could understand everything he said without having to focus our complete attention on every word. The necropolis is so cool. 
     Essentially, after Constantine became a Christian he decided he wanted to build a monument (St. Peter's Basilica) over Peter's grave in honor of his martyrdom. But, his gravesite was on a hill. Constantine fixed this by adding dirt to the site so that it would be even ground (they say he even carried the first 5-6 buckets). Once this was completed, they started building the monument over the gravesite. Within the last 100 years or so, Catholics and archeologists began digging up the area underneath the Vatican to find the gravesite underneath it. How something like that could be there for so long without being discovered is beyond me. So, one of the popes allowed for this to take place (right around the second World War, nonetheless) in search for the grave of Peter. Then, about 50 years ago, they finally found the bones of Peter. I will admit I'm not much of a history/archeology buff, but I loved hearing these stories about Peter and reflecting of the lives of early Christians. And even though I've always been partial to Paul, it was amazing to see the bones of Peter and hear stories about his life and death during this tour. Even though it was more of a historical tour than anything, I couldn't help but really reflect on what God was able to do through one man, through Peter. I was blown away by the thought that Christianity has become what it is today because of a few simple fisherman who trusted God. I'm sure that wasn't the point of the tour, but that was what really affected me. If only Christians now had the faith and trust in God like the church of Acts, how much more could we impact the world. "Not a sermon, just a thought" haha bibliography- radio announcements from Mclean Bible.


But overall, the dragging on of classes was broken up by the awesome site visits in my classes. Everyday I wake up being amazed that I'm living in Rome for the next three months, and I can't wait for more adventures!

Sightseeing in Siena

     On Friday, I was able to take a day trip to Siena.  Siena is a very cute little town about three hours north of Rome. The architecture and art is from the Renaissance and still exhibits those features. We left for Siena at 6:30 in the morning! It was a bit like waking up bright and early (not so bright, actually, since it was still too early) for camp.  Siena is such a cute quaint little town! We were taken on a tour throughout the main parts of town and visited a church, the Cathedral of Sienna, and the Piazza di Siena then were treated to a three-course lunch (they really do spoil us).

     We first visited the Church of San Domenico closer to the edge of the town. It is also very well known due to Saint Catherine, who was part of the Dominican order. She was very influential but died relatively young, in her early thirties. They actually have her mummified head and her pointer finger IN THE CHURCH. It was weird, but I did see it (don’t have picture though since we weren’t allowed to take them and I was a bit freaked out after having seen that anyway).

     We also ventured to the Cathedral of Siena, which is GORGEOUS to say the least. It is amazing how beautiful it is inside and out, and it is amazing gothic architecture. I was able to go in later in the day and see inside of the Cathedral as well as walk up to the other edge, which they planned to extend the Cathedral to but were unable to due to various reasons. From where we went up, we were able to see a view of Siena and the countryside just outside of it. Again, GORGEOUS!

The Cathedral of Sienna

Where we were able to go to see the view of Siena

     The tour ended at the Piazza di Siena, which was essentially the town center. It is a really cool shape that is pretty much a semi-circle with all of the buildings curving with the town hall at the other end. Twice a year, they have a horse race around the town center, which is free to anyone (so people end up sleeping there overnight to get a good view…people with apartments overlooking the Piazza can let people watch from the window and charge them up to 3000 Euros!! Ridiculous, I know). The jockeys come from some of the different territories of the area but not all territories can compete (it’s a lottery to see which territories get to compete). But, it’s also a lottery to see what horse the jockeys get to ride! No one wins any money for the race; the territories do it all for the glory. Apparently their past one was August 16; definitely would have been cool to see!

     Siena was great, and I was really excited I got to go. I even got to visit Taylor Hart (she’s in my sorority) who is studying abroad there for the semester! The more time I spend in Italy, the more I think it’s way better than any other European country ;)

First Week of Classes

So the fun, exciting adventures of living in Rome were a little halted this week for classes. I guess I'm still adjusting a bit to the time difference since I did not sleep very well this week (dramamine was my best friend after lying in bed for hours unable to sleep). My schedule is pretty crazy though. Mondays and Wednesdays I don't start class until 2:15 but don't end until 8 so that stinks a bit. Then Tuesdays I start at 8:30 AM and end around 5 PM (but only have 2 classes), and Thursdays I only have one class from 8:30-10:20 AM.


I'm actually incredibly excited about all of my classes. I switched things around a bit and am now taking an Italian language class. It's just an introductory level but, hey, I just want to know the basics. Recently, I've been stopped in the streets and have been asked things in Italian. I assumed I just looked super American, but I guess when I'm alone I look Italian enough that they assume I speak it. Hopefully my Italian class will help me with that. I'm convinced my YEARS of Spanish will make it super easy to learn, but my teacher keeps telling me that's not the case. I'm sure she just because we'll say things the Spanish way assuming it's better than saying it the English way, but we'll still be wrong. 


Classes are definitely a lot different here than at UVa. One of my classes has 13 people in it. It's a Econ class. That's smaller than discussion classes! But it is kind of cool because they're such small classes that meeting people in class is actually feasible. Plus the majority of people at John Cabot are study abroad students, so they're all just excited to meet people. The biggest drawback in terms of meeting other people is how far away I live. Almost the rest of the people other than about four apartments, including mine, live on the opposite side of the school. The Vatican is definitely a nice area but not too terribly much to do other than, of course, the museums. Hopefully I'll be able to explore the area closer to the campus next week in between classes. No Friday classes though, so my weekend officially starts at 10:20 on Thursdays!!! THAT is something I am excited about!


Tomorrow I'm going on a day trip to Siena! I have a friend studying abroad there so hopefully I'll have time to visit her. I'll be sure to update once I return and post pictures!


Ciao

All Roads Lead to Rome

     This weekend really made living in Rome a lot more real. SAI, my study abroad program, had a lot planned for us to do, and it was all very exciting.

     Friday we took a day trip to ancient ruins in Ostia Antica. Being in Rome has made me realize how young of a country the US is. There is so much history in Rome, and I learned a lot on the tour of the ruins. The entrance to the city was a line of mausoleums that Romans would put urns of ashes in, and there were still some of the jars they used for ashes. The would have huge rooms just filled with these jars. Once we entered the city, there were lots of different buildings. I was really bad at picturing what the city looked like, but luckily they had renderings of what they believed the city looked like. It seemed like it would have been awesome. There was a really big amphitheatre in the middle of the city and lots of colonnades along a row of shops. It actually reminded me of UVa a bit which made me happy. During the tour, we got to meet a ton of other SAI students as well. Here's what some of it looks like.

     After the tour, we were taken to a beautiful Italian villa in the countryside for lunch. There was a couple getting married after we were done, so we saw a lot of people dressed up and heard a bit of Italian wedding customs. I want to get married there; hopefully I can meet an Italian while I’m here to make it a little more possible haha. But it was a breathtaking place with a gorgeous view. Once we sat down, they gave us wine and started feeding us. There was so much food, and it was all so tasty. We had at least three appetizers, pasta, chicken, and dessert which was a bit like an apple pie pastry. It was great.

     That night we decided to go out with other students since it was the first night any of us were really up for doing anything other than sleeping. We went to Campo di Fiori, which is a ton of restaurants and bars in a square. It was definitely a very American spot with lots of people speaking English, which is always a nice comfort. I could get used to going to bars and being able to order things without being questioned about my age. I could live without paying for cheap alcohol though! Since I turn 21 about three days after I return, I'm basically counting this as my new 21st birthday.

     Saturday was our first relatively free day. We had to wake up relatively early for permit stuff, but it didn’t take very long. After we were finished, we went to a cute café in an alley near the campus. I have blonde roommates so when we go places people know we’re American. Italians talk about Americans a lot when you’re near them. But there are a few people I know here who speak Italian and they always tell us. Italians love to just sit and watch Americans and talk about us, not usually in a good way especially if they are boys. So that is something I am getting used to, being watched while I’m eating and at places with other friends.

     Today I woke up way later than I expected to and just had a lazy day in my apartment for the morning and early afternoon. At 3 we went on a walking tour of ancient Rome. Now, remember I’ve never been to Rome/Italy/Europe before so this is all new to me. It was so cool to go around that section of Rome and see how the city is just filled with ancient ruins. I couldn’t believe how often I’d see a building and then ruins. The modern part of Rome is also connected to the ancient part of Rome through a square that Michalangelo designed. So on one side you see the modern city and on the other you see the ancient ruins, which is a really cool perspective. We walked through the ancient city and ended at the Colosseum. I learned a lot of fun facts on the tour though. Where Julius Caesar was assassinated is now a bus stop. Michelangelo’s home is now an insurance company. Good thing that the flood preserved a lot, otherwise who knows what they would have done with everything!

 I was so excited I got to do so many things in Rome after being here less than a week. It was definitely a great weekend.  

Bella Roma

I've been in Rome two days now, and it's been amazing.

I landed early yesterday morning and had to do all the checking-in right away. Luckily, we were checking-in at a hotel connected to the airport so I could bring a cart with all my luggage on it instead of having to carry it all there, thank goodness. Checked in and got my Italian cell phone, information, and apartment keys (which are super cute...they look those keys they have as bottle openers or on jewelry). Everyone's living in different apartments so we were all driven to each of ours. By the way, people in Italy are the CRAZIEST drivers. They double/triple park even if it's parallel parking, and cars go super fast even when there's barely enough room for them to fit through. Oh, and pedestrians do not have the right of way, so whenever I've been stepping off a curb I get a little afraid of being run over. But back to the point, I was the first one in the car dropped off and fumbled around for a bit trying to figure out how to move my suitcases from the car to the apartment. Finally got my suitcases inside the apartment complex and left two and carried one up a flight of stairs (I was dying at how heavy it way). Sat on that floor for a second and pouted and realized that the door I was standing next to was actually an elevator which saved my life! So happy I didn't have to carry all my luggage up five flights of stairs.

Couldn't open the door to my apartment, so luckily my roommates were already there to help me get inside. I still haven't successfully unlocked the door to my apartment yet. I was very surprised at the apartment size and things we had in it since they kept all the information super vague, so I expected it to be terrible. Also, we have an awesome balcony, and I absolutely love sitting outside, just listening to everything going on around me. I'm seriously minutes away from Vatican City and can see the top of St Peter's Basilica from my balcony. Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous and sweet. This is my view for the next three months.

My roommates are all super nice and we get along really well, which I'm so happy about. We went exploring a bit yesterday and walked around the Vatican and other places near our apartment. We definitely stick out as Americans, and people know it, especially when we were around the Vatican... people kept asking us if we wanted tours. Hopefully the whole looking American thing will eventually lessen once we start learning our way around and start speaking a little Italian. We were all super tired so ended up going home pretty early. I passed out at 9:30 and didn't wake up today until 10. I guess I was more tired than I thought.


Today was definitely a little more boring of a day since we had orientation. We got a little lost on the way to the school, since we were only given directions with the buses and googlemaps apparently didn't know how to take us there. But, it was nice to see where I'll actually be a lot of the day Mon-Thurs. It's a really cute area definitely a small "campus." Technically they have two campuses, but it's just two different buildings that are max 5 minutes from each other. It's like the distance from the corner to the lawn at UVa, so it's weird to me that it's considered two campuses. Orientation wasn't exactly like first year orientation since I was actually learning something about the city, staying safe, and traveling so it was useful. That took most of our day and then we went out for dinner after. Everything is super filling, and I haven't been able to finish a meal yet. This could be a bit of a problem though since it's disrespectful to leave anything on your plate at a meal. How Italians are not fat is beyond me! Tomorrow we are going on an excursion and eating an Italian meal with all the courses, which hopefully I'll be able to finish!