"How do you say it? Chink-y Terre-y?"

Today we scoped out the rest of the towns in Cinque Terre (so hard to pronounce the name!). 

We started in monterosso, which is the northernmost town of the five. There was a beautiful sandy beach which was 

dotted with chairs and umbrellas. We decided to hike from monterosso to Vernazza using one of the coastal trails. It was a beautiful hike, but had a LOT of really steep stairs. I have never sweat so much in my life! 

The hike itself isn't far, but it's really steep and can wind you pretty easily. 

The trail was covered in wildflowers, grass, overhanging trees, and you walk next to some beautiful vineyards. 

The views from the hills overlooking the towns are absolutely gorgeous. It took my breath away (which wasn't hard after climbing all those stairs). 

One weird thing we passed was a donation canister for food and water for the feral 

cats that I guess inhabit the hills above Vernazza. We 

saw a couple of the kitties lounging on picnic tables. 

Once we started the descent, we could see Vernazza. As we walked into town, we passed 

all sorts of little shrines for Catholic saints and there were two men playing

the accordion and violin to welcome the hikers into the next town. 

After the hike we guzzled water, ate some mediocre food at a touristy

restaurant, and then got some ice cold gelato (Nutella for me). 

We walked around the docks and the other girls decided they wanted to swim. 

I hadn't brought a bathing suit. 

After some deliberation I just decided to jump in the sea with the others. 

Even though my clothes were soaking and not fun to walk around in, 

I figure 'you only live once'. 

The water was cold and super salty.

It was worth it. 

After that we went to the next town, Corniglia. 

There are 365 stairs (one for each day of the year) to go to the town square. 

Corniglia is small, quainter, and doesn't have as many 

places to swim, but it was really cool. It also wasn't as crowded. 

After that, we went back to La Spezia to shower then headed to manarola for the evening. 

We walked alongside a cliff that overlooks the sea and then walked into town to get something to eat. 

I had a mess of seafood and squid ink pasta. So delicious. 

The only thing about today that was a little off kilter was when we got back to La Spezia, some drunk British guys kept following us around. We went to a gelato shop owned by a sweet elderly couple. 

One of the British guys decided to try and impress us 

by showing us his scrotum and the others were pulling on our braids or 

making really strange comments. Luckily they left after Hailey 

yelled at them and told them they were a bunch of morons. 

Oy vey. 
It was an interesting end to a great weekend. 
We are all wanting to stay longer instead of heading back to Rome, but I was glad I got to come for a couple days at least. I was also glad I found some other girls who wanted to join me. 
Well... off the bed! Have to catch the train back to Roma Termini early in the morning! 

Off to the coast!

Today is a free day, so myself, Brittany, Hailey, and Katelyn decided we needed some sea and sun for the weekend. So we headed out of Roma to Cinque Terre, a national park consisting of 5 towns in the Liguria region of Italy. These little towns border the sea on the Italian Riviera and are only accessible by train. There are no cars really in any of the towns, and they are linked by trails that go along the coast. For the weekend we are staying at Hotel Firenze Continentale in La Spezia; tonight we went to Riomaggiore for dinner and to take some photos and wander around. The sea is beautiful... the water is so clear and is literally turquoise. I have never seen water that looks like that. Brittany and I immediately headed to the harbor so we could go put our sore feet in the water. It smelled salty and the water was cold but it felt amazing!

 We ate dinner at a restaurant that is perched on a cliff overlooking the sea; even though it was us four girls it was a very romantic spot with fantastic food, views, and service. 

I had lamb with spinach, it was so delicious. Brittany and I split a bottle of wine that was a blend of syrah and cabernet which was fantastic. We sopped our bread up with lots of olive oil, and each of us were licking our fingers clean after eating. I could just feel the stress melting away and also had a moment of just feeling absolutely content. 

Italy is an amazing country; not just for the typical reasons (food, wine, art) but because the pace is a little more relaxed. The people are generally nice, and the way they live is also something I could totally get on board with. 

Well... time for bed! Lots to do in the morning!

Papa Francesco

Today was Vatican day! 

The whole group toured the museum with Dr. Sergio Rufini; I was overwhelmed by 

how huge it is! There were lots of paintings by many famous artists (da Vinci, Raphael, Caravaggio, etc.) and also lots of sculpture, ancient Egyptian statues and hieroglyphics, and a ton more. 

I can't even begin to describe everything that we saw in detail. The amount was overwhelming. I honestly don't think that the Vatican can be toured in even a whole day. There is simply so much to see. 

Of course, you don't go to the Vatican without seeing the Sistine Chapel. The biblical scenes painted on the ceiling were gorgeous in their detail and in the stories they depicted. Luckily, Dr. S's hubby brought

 a pair of binoculars that he let me look through so I could see the ceiling 

a lot better. It was truly incredible. 

Afterwards we grabbed lunch, and then some of us headed to St. Peters to try and get tickets for a viewing of the Pope, Papa Francesco. No luck on tickets, but we did go inside the basilica and walked around the church and the crypt beneath. There are a lot of works in St. Peters done by well known artists, however I won't go into that here. It was simply breathtaking at how big, ornate, and beautiful this church was. I was in awe. 

Crypt-ic day

Today was a lecture day; we had a guest speaker from the FAO (recall this from a previous post?) who spoke with us about the FAO's initiatives to solve world hunger issues and improve food distribution. Basically it boils down to giving everyone equal opportunity to an education because to be able to read and write gives a person a certain amount of power and skills to improve their situation. Which I can agree with. One classmate got irritated that our guest speaker didn't have much to say regarding genetically modified organisms... I think she missed the point that the FAO isn't a regulatory body that makes the rules on seed production, food safety regulations, etc. Nevertheless I thought it was a cool presentation. Our instructor gave her lecture on the Mediterranean Diet which I actually enjoyed too. Nursing doesn't have a lot of roots in dietetics, however we do so much teaching about diet with patients without really understanding how food can heal (or not heal) the body. Dr. Shepard brought up a lot of interesting points about diet and it's relation to disease that I'll definitely make a point of implementing in my teaching when I return to work. 

After lecture we went to the Capuchin Crypt which is housed in the church Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. It's part museum/part tomb. The museum houses lots of religious art (even a painting by Caravaggio), relics, and then the crypt which is decorated with the bones of monks. For me, it was slightly creepy, but I found it also very unique and the patterns very beautiful. A little haunting also; those bones were in a body like mine at one point of time. A thought shot through my head about how fragile human life is, something I learned a long time ago when I started nursing and my dad died. 

Now I am at the apartment resting up for tomorrow... ciao ciao! 

La Porta dei Parchi

Sweet hey-sus I am exhausted! Today we went to the Abruzzo region of Italy to tour La Porta dei Parchi, an agri-tourism farm that uses traditional farming methods to produce pecorino (basically, they make delicious cheese using sheep milk, and I'll be damned if it isn't super amazing!). They have over 1,000 head of sheep; I got a little 'Heidi' nostalgia when I spoke with one of the workers there who told me the sheep are herded by shepherds up to pastures high in the mountains to graze. I realize 'Heidi' takes place in the Swiss Alps and not Nunzio, Italy. But I couldn't help but think of that book! 

The farm was very interesting to me. We watched them make ricotta, walked around the hillside town of Villalago (which felt like Everest because the incline was STEEP), hiked on a trail by the river, and ate a delicious three course meal at the farm with red wine. We had a cheese sampling, traditional shepherd's pasta (rigatoni with cheese sauce and sage), lamb meatloaf with gravy that I could easily drink as a beverage it was so good, and a type of pastry made from the cheese. It was SO good. I didn't buy any cheese, but I thoroughly enjoyed the visit. Even if I was drenched in sweat and wearing the wrong shoes for so much walking. It was absolutely beautiful to see an ancient town and hills covered in wildflowers with snowcapped peaks in the distance. I think I need to marry a sheep-farmer so I can eat cheese all day and wear wildflowers in my hair. 

A walking tour of Roma

Today we had a historic walking tour with another professor... sheesh what is IT with all the attractive tour guides? It's a conspiracy I tell ya. It's probably the university's way of making sure we give them good feedback at the end of our summer session :) 

Anyways, we went to Piazza Navona, which at one point in time held a huge chariot racing stadium in ancient Rome. You can actually some of the marble pieces underneath a hollow arch just outside the piazza. There is a fountain called 'Fountain of the Four Rivers' which is sculpted by Bernini (if you don't know who that is go get yourself an art history book!). Apparently Bernini was in competition with Borromini, a fellow sculptor and architect, for the commission to build the fountain. The bid went to Bernini, and Borromini was given a bid to build the adjacent church next to the fountain. There is a statue of a robed woman on the church overlooking the fountain, with her head turned away. Folk lore says this was Borromini's way of snubbing the other architect over not getting the bid for the fountain. I thought that was really interesting. Close to the piazza is a statue of an elephant also done by Bernini, crowned with an ancient Egyptian obelisk. The church behind it houses 'Christ the Redeemer' by Michelangelo. After that, we went to Campo de Fiori, an old public market that is more of a tourist trap now but used to be the main market in Rome. Julie and I ordered pizza and 'ugly cookies' from Forno bakery and sat and ate on the steps in front of the French embassy. We had class and then headed back to the apartment. Today is Sheila's 22nd birthday, so we went to Grazia e' Graziella for her birthday. It was fun getting to talk with everyone and celebrate with Sheila!