Last Weekend and Week in Florence!!

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I don't remember what my last post was about, so I'll just start from Friday.

We had our midterm (which I got a 96 on!) and we watched a weird movie (which I just remembered I told you about). Then we just spent time in Florence's center until dinner. For dinner we made pasta with red sauce and about 6 of us gathered with our individual dishes to have a semblance of a group dinner. Then pretty much everyone went out to a club called Red Garter, where there happens to be karaoke, but I'll get to that later.

Saturday was the first day I got to sleep in since the second or third week, I believe. It was great. Once Liana and I finally got up and dressed, we met Sarah at the food market and bought fresh fruit and such delicious things. We briefly returned to the hotel to meet up with some more people, then went to Mario's for lunch. Apparently Mario's is super famous and has been written up in all sorts of articles and travel guides. The food was pretty good, but I felt incredibly rushed. Unfortunately, I won't get a chance to try it again because it closed for all of August. After our 20 minute meal, the six of us (Steph, Sarah, Alex, Alexis, Liana, me) climbed to the top of the Duomo. 483 (or something like that) stairs. Small stairs. But the view is completely worth it. It's law in Florence that nothing with in the city can be built higher than the Duomo, so when you're up there, you can see down on everything. We spent a good amount of time up there, to make the entrance cost and climb worth it. Then, of course, we got gelato. Dinner rolled around, we made our individual dishes and gathered yet again. As we ate, digested, ate some more, and digested yet again, we grew more and more tired. It took about 2 hours, but ultimately everyone of us decided to not go out and just go straight to bed (that had been my plan all along, but they claimed that was lame).

6:30 a.m. rolled around horribly fast Sunday morning. Why, you ask, did I get up so early? Well, to get on a train to go to Cinque Terre. Sarah, me, Jamie, Jackie, Hannah and Frankie all woke up painfully early (any time starting with 6 and ending in a.m. is painfully early to me, I don't know why) to meet up with a tour group to go to the scenic towns along the ocean.

We arrived in Riomaggiore, the southern most town, and had a quick pit stop before walking about 20 minutes to the next town, Manarola, along the Via dell'Amore. With our spirits pretty high (we all had been warned that traversing between the 5 towns was quite difficult) we took a train to Corniglia, the third town. Then we discovered why we had been told to wear tennis shoes and bring water. 383 steps (I'm sure about this one) later, we were at the top of a mountain, overlooking the Ligurian Sea, and quite hungry. Fortunately, we had a break for lunch, where I had the most amazing pesto with mediocre gnocchi and A LOT of water. And then came the brutal part. The walk between Corniglia and Vernazza is 4 kilometers, about an hour and a half. Did I mention that the two towns are on the sides of different mountain peaks? We climbed down Corniglia's mountian, up about halfway on Vernazza's, then around and and down to Vernazza, which is on the shore of the north side (we traveled south to north roughly going town to town). I think I can honestly say I have never sweated that much in my life. Not only is the path paved with very old, smooth rocks that are by no means even, but also it's literally on the side of the mountain, with 'steps' that are really just random rocks stuck in the dirt at different levels and no shade. Even the tour guide hated it. Oh, and we weren't taking our time. The recommended time is 1:30, we took closer to an hour. Once in Vernazza, we got an hour of free time to either swim, sit or explore. I did the latter two. Happily we took a ferry to Montarossa, the last town, instead of taking the 3 kilometer (yet 2 hour) hike. We didn't spend much time in Montarossa, except to eat really quickly and catch the train back to Florence. I can proudly say I went to sleep at 10:30.

Yesterday I didn't do much because all that was planned by the program was a tour of Santa Maria Novella, the church by the train station (Santa Maria Novella Station). My art history class paid off when I (not by choice) told the six others who went on the tour also about one of the frescoes in the church. Gelato was consumed, and then dinner, as it always should be. At ten last night the whole program descended upon Red Grater once again, this time to sing karaoke. This time was much more entertaining than the time in Urbino, mostly because not everyone could crowd around the mic, and also because the mics didn't work very well, so you couldn't hear the people screeching the songs. As usual, I was in the first group to leave, this time because a few of my friends wanted to leave and I didn't want to stay without them.

Today I hope to go to Santa Croce, even though the restorations I saw two years ago are still going on. Tomorrow is my last day of learning Italian, then review Thursday and my final Friday! Only SEVEN more days in Itlay, then a day of travel, and I'll be home!!!!!

Love,
Rachel

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