Italian Riviera Post

Buona sera! Sooo a few days ago, at the end of last week, 7 of us packed our backpacks and took the Metra to Termini and boarded our train to la Spezia to Monterosso! Monterosso is a coastal town in northern Italia that is part of a string of five fishing villages known as Cinque Terre. That part of coastal Ligura (the region) is the riviera italiana, aka azure waters, jutting cliffs, and hot pink, orange, and soft pink flowers climbing buildings and floating on the breeze. We took the midnight train and had some really interesting encounters (fyi, total sketchballs ride European trains..) with some interesting italiani.. got next to no sleep.. and at 5,00 am after transferring trains at 4,30.. arrived! It was completely pitch black when we got off the train and all we could hear was the sound of the Mediterranean roaring on the shore. EXCITEMENT. So we found some benches and decided to nap for a bit and then explore, find food, and check into our hostel. Well, I was sleepless. Sooo gradually as the sky lightened before dawn, I realized that there was a huge...black... outline, like a shadow in the sky to my left.. OMG THE CLIFFS AND MOUNTAINS OVER THE SEA!! The sun rose and lo and behold, gorgeous scenery all around us.. and despite the clouds overhead, the water was this incredible shade of dark turquoise. Liguria is famous for its pesto, foccaccia, and clearly its seafood, so we found a panettiere baking some foccaccia con il formaggio and partook. Best tasting food of my entire life. Explored. There was a huge statue of St. Francis petting a dog on top of a mountain, and throughout Monterosso there were lots of cats and dogs wandering around.. but we saw pet food dishes everywhere. What gives? Then we figured out that the town feeds its strays and that St. Francis, the italiano patron saint of animals, is the town saint. Yay. We went swimming in the Mediterranean (so salty) and napped. For dinner, we found a place called il Trattoria da Oscar. Amazing pesto gnocchi. The trenette con le patate e il pesto were incredible, too. So much that we went back the next night and I got those. Sleeeeeeeeeeeeep.
Next morning, bright and early, we make a foccaccia run from our friendly neighborhood panettiere. Mmmmmm. le Cinque Terre are connected by a super awesome hiking trail, so seven hours of hiking on nearly vertical cliffs was our quest. That was amazing. Think hell hike, but with vistas of the Mediterranean and turquoise water framed by jutting cliffs and the hot Italian sun. Mmmmm. We started in Monterosso al Mare, took the coastal path (basically cliff hiking with a constant view of the coast hundreds of feet below), made our way to Vernazza, weaved through Corniglia, tromped through Manarola, and ended in Riomaggiore. In Riomaggiore we went swimming in this cove at the edge of town.. and cliffdove. No big. I actually cut my hand on a rock when I was trying to impersonate the Little Mermaid and lay on a giant rock. Oops. All in all, gorgeous and amazing and wonderful. We decided to take the train back to Monterosso, where we showered and ate and hung out for the rest of the night. More to come later (with pictures) because right now I am in the computer lab with crazy Italian keyboards, plus I need to go meet my roommate at the Tiber campus so we can go to the Pantheon to get Giolitti. Amo Roma..