355 steps

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Ciao!

As I write this, I am putting off Italian homework. Some things never change no matter which country one is living in. So, I actually had an interesting Wednesday last week that I meant to post about, but never got around to before I left for the weekend. So, I shall begin with my Wednesday.

Last Wednesday, I had my first on site class- Art in Rome. We had class at the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. So, this is a perfect opportunity to spout off about my philosophy on time and disintegration, etc. When I first got to the Roman Forum, I walked up to the railing and thought, 'man, somebody needs to clean up around here.' I was just talking to Maria about this. But, it's nuts to think that at one time the Roman Forum was the center of life and activity in the city of Rome. Now, it's just a big bunch of ruins that mostly aren't even complete anymore. I'm pretty pissed at the people who pillaged those places, because I bet in their heyday, they were certainly something. Next up was the Colosseum. Pretty bitchin' place. Again, I'm pissed at the people who pillaged that place. I will say this, it reminded me of the Grand Canyon because I heard more English there than Italian- imagine that. I felt this when I saw one of the governmental buildings by Piazza Cavour, but I was blown away by the fact that there were no cranes or fork lifts or anything used in building the Colosseum. I guess that just shows us how powerful manpower can be.

This weekend, I visited Cinque Terre. For those of you unfamiliar with Cinque Terre, it is the bundle of five towns set up in the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea/Liguria Sea. It's up by Genoa. There is a trail connecting the five towns, and you can hike to all five towns in a span of about 5 hours or so. Friday morning, I was greeted with a 6:30 AM wake up call to head to Termini (the train station). When we got to Termini, the soonest train at 9:45 was booked, so we hung around Termini until 11:46. Losing all of my dignity, I anxiously awaited outside the McDonalds waiting for it to serve lunch. Two McDonalds in two weekends, what have I come to? Anyway, two train rides later, we found ourselves in Riomaggore, the first of the five towns. We found our hostel, and the hostel keeper Patrizia showed us to our room. After more than a dozen flights of stairs, we were out of breath and had finally reached our room. We were so high up, that we were even higher than the bell tower at the church in the piazza. Buns of steal anyone?

That night, we went out to dinner in the fifth town- Monterosso. Montorosso is the primary tourist location I would say. We ate at this amazing restaurant. We had the house wine which was yummy! I had pesto gnocchi- yum yum yum! The area was known for its pesto, and it was the greenest pesto I have ever seen in my entire life! My friends Erin and Katie got this seafood risotto with whole crawdads in it- gross!! That night, we were stuffed, but of course had some sort of room for gelato. We decided to head back to Riomaggore, and went and sat at the train station waiting for the train. While waiting, this homeless man came stumbling over to us and was trying to talk to us, but we felt entirely uncomfortable. While trying to ignore him, he exposed himself to us. So, this random Italian man, not the David, was the first Italian penis I saw. It was scarring. I'm not really sure why I'm talking about it right now.

Anyway, Saturday morning we arose at 7:45 AM after some church bells and a rooster. We were on the trail by 8:30. The first couple stretches were very easy walking. Again, there were a TON of Americans on the trail. I was wearing my AXO sweatshirt, and was stopped by this one woman who said that she was an Alpha Chi at a school in Maryland- I'm afraid I forgot the name. I was also wearing my Santa Clara shirt, and was asked repeatedly if I went to school there. Chris, I met some of your alum and Santa Cruz residents. They were all disappointed to hear that I did not ever attend SCU.

We stopped for lunch at the fourth town- Verazza. We wanted to get a pizza to go, but the man shooed us to sit down, and said there was no charge for sitting. For those of you who have not been to Italy, most places charge you sitting in their restaurant. Anyway, the waiter was pissed to find out that we were not with this older couple and moved us to a crappy table and proceeded to give us crappy service, because we do not fall into the category of Americans with money to spend. He even put dirty dishes from another table on our table while he took a picture of another table. Whatever, vafanculo to him!

The last stretch of the hike was a little more intense. There were some lovely cliffs that we were about two inches from falling off. Thankfully, we regaled each other with drinking stories, which made the walk easier. We arrived at the last town, and rewarded ourselves with some gelato. I got frozen yogurt, which was legit yogurt! We then went to the beach. Erin and Emily got stung by jelly fish. I offered to pee on them, but they said no. We returned to our hostel, battered and tired and had to do the climb up again. However, it was worth it because I got to take my first hot shower in about a week (the boiler here at the JFRC has been broken). We stayed in our town for dinner that night, and had a low key night.

That next morning, we got up and went to this cafe where they served American breakfast. By that, they mean crepes and eggs and bacon. I got proscuitto, ham, and cheese crepes and was not impressed. Speaking of, I have mentioned the food I eat a lot. This weekend, I actually looked at myself in a mirror for the first time in awhile and did not like what I saw. I have too many gelato and pasta babies rolling around in my belly. The sad thing is that I run 3 times a week on the treadmill too. Also, that morning on the the way down, we counted how many steps to our hostel and it was 355 steps. We did that 4 times up and 4 times down equalling 2840 steps in less than 48 hours.

So, that was my weekend. The really cool about Cinque Terre is that I would never think to travel there. I'm not a hiker or outdoorswoman. So, the fact that I've hiked in the past two weekends completely blows my mind and reminds me why I came to Italy. I came to do things that I would never do back home, and hiking is one of those things. So, all in all I'm pleased with my trip thus far!

Here are the links to my pictures.
The Roman Forum/Colosseum are tacked onto the same Rome album I have from before, but here's the link:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2127532&l=a3c54&id=20011971


Cinque Terre: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2129599&l=651b1&id=20011971

Ciao!

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Comments

[Maria]

love it
I love getting the play by play. Makes me feel like I am there!