Venice and Cinque Terre

Hey everyone! So I think I am going to write about Fall Break in segments. So, here are the first two days or so of my break. It is from Venice to Cinque Terre and then getting to Barcelona.

So Thursday was the first day of our spectacular Fall Break. After school we hoped on the train to Venice and started our adventure. On the train we met an awesome Aussie named Pip. She had been traveling since April, and was headed to Venice for 4 days. Once we got the Venice, we quickly found our hostel and got settled in. Pip was supposed to be in a different hostel, but it was really hard to get to, so she ended up staying in our room with us. We each had our own beds, which was great. We also had our own bathroom…but it wasn’t much bigger than a very small broom closet. It was impossible to wash your face without getting water all over the floor.

The owner/manager of the hostel was named Uncle George. Oh man, was he a character. We are pretty sure he had a crush on me, because he kept telling me I was beautiful and had a pretty smile. Anyways, he treated us like his own grandkids. It was so nice. He told us exactly where to eat dinner, and then this morning, he personally took us to breakfast and tried to pay for our Cappuccino and Croissants, but we wouldn’t let him. He also hoped on the train with us to the mainland of Venice, just to make sure we wouldn’t get lost. He was great, a little eccentric, but great.

Once we got into Venice Friday morning, we were amazed at how great our weather was. It was perfect. We started walking to try and find St. Mark’s Square. Pip stayed with us the whole day too. The way we chose to go was not the traditional tourist way to the square, and so we got to see a lot of the real city. It was wonderful. We stopped in couple of shops along the way and picked up a few presents, but didn’t get anything for ourselves. We wandered a bit more and found this amazing little store full of vintage Beatles gear. Allison and I of course had to go in it. It was fantastic, but expensive.

As we were wondering we were talking about our trip, and realized that Halloween falls on a day we were in Paris. Saddened by the fact that we would not be home to Trick or Treat, we tried to think of a way to have fun that day. About that time, we passed a Carnival poster. For those who don’t know what Carnival is, it is this amazing celebration in Venice around the middle of February (also the time of my birthday). During Carnival people dress up in these AMAZING masks. There were so many exquisite masks in Venice. They really were works of art. So this inspired us, and we decided we were going to get masks (cheaper ones…not the 300E ones we saw), dress up, and wear them around Paris on Halloween night. So just be prepared for the pictures. After finding our masks, we really had to get to the square.

St. Marks’ Square is so fun. We saw the famous pigeons there. We even got them to land on our arms and take pictures. It was so fun. Pip didn’t want one on her, and Amy was scared, but I had like 2 on me at a time. They were so fun. We saw the Basilica and the Clock in the square. Then we wandered over the Grand Canal to check it out. Here is where the hilarious part of the day comes in.

So, I decide that I want a picture of me and my Chaco’s in the water of the Canal. So I step down onto one of the steps there that lead right down on the water. and I go to take the next step, which doesn’t have algae on it. However, this step is deceptively slippery. As soon as my foot hits the step, I slip and start sliding down all the stairs right into the water. The third step is completely submerged in water and algae, and that is where I land. During this whole thing, I chucked my purse up to the top of the steps, so thankfully nothing got wet…except for me. I got soaked. Also, all of the tourists in the square like turned and watched and laughed. It was awesome. So I was soaked the rest of the day. I got kinda scraped up in the process but it was funny.

After that whole ordeal, we decided that no Venice trip was complete without a gondola ride. We bargained with a ship owner, and finally got a good price. The tour was awesome. He took us through all the little back canals and let us see Venice from the water. It was amazing. I took so many pictures. After that, it was time to head to the train station and head to Cinque Terre. We grabbed a panini and said goodbye to Pip and hopped the train to our next adventure.


For day two of our Adventure, we headed to the little town of Cinque Terre, Italy. If you have never heard of Cinque Terre, I wouldn’t be surprised. However, it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We got in around 8 on Friday night. After negotiating the confusing bus system, our driver dropped us off somewhere near our hostel. We decided that it would probably be better to eat and then find our hostel, so we headed to the nearest restaurant. There we met another study abroad group from Ohio that was staying in our hostel. Kyle, one of the guys, told us some great stuff about Cinque Terre for the next day. They were based in Rome, and had only been going for about a week. So we gave them tips on how to survive Europe in general. We all ate pasta and watched some ridiculous Italian game show until we were stuffed. Then we all headed back to our hostel and settled in for the night.

The next morning we woke up and got ready around 6. After checking out we caught the bus into Cinque Terre, or more specifically Riomaggorie. We dropped our stuff at the train station and headed off to explore the coastline. The view is incredible. The entirety of Cinque Terre is carved into the sides of mountains. The sea below is turquoise and rocks form the cliffs of the beach. There is no sand, but rather rocks. Because it is carved into the mountain, it is all steps. You either go up or down; there is no level ground. So we got quite a work out. The houses reminded me of what I had seen from pictures of Santorini, but these houses were brightly colored. In Riomaggorie, there is this rock pile that juts out into the water that you can clamber over to get a good view of the village. We hung out on the rocks for a while and then headed back into the village. There we got the most delicious strawberries I have ever had. We walked around the main part of town (which consisted of about 500 feet of street) and the walked to the train station to catch the train to another little village. We ended up going to Montorolla, which is the last of the 5 little villages on the strip. There we ate lunch and walked a bit on the beach. After that it was time for us to catch our train to La Spezia. From La Spezia we took a train to Milan. From the Milan station we had to take a taxi for and hour and half to the Milan airport. There we had to catch our RyanAir flight to Barcelona. The thing about RyanAir is that it is a little bit shady. We didn’t assigned seats; it was just a free for all. Luckily, we got the first row on the plane. Our flight was only about an hour, as opposed to the 31 hours train ride we would have had to take otherwise. Once we landed in Barcelona we had to take an hour bus ride into the actual city center where our apartment was. Then we had to take yet another taxi to our apartment.