Cinque Terre, Day 1: September 10th

Saturday morning a group of about 25 ISA students went took a train to Cinque Terre :) We took a one hour train to Pisa and switched trains there to catch another one hour train to Monterosso. Cinque Terre in  Italian literally means "Five Towns" in English. The train to Monterosso bordered along the water and the ride was gorgeous, and we arrived at 11:45.

Once we got the the town we walked about ten minutes to our hotel. There was seven of us in a suite, which sounds like a lot but the suite was like apartment-sized (and we didn't spend much time in it). Then at 3, after some lunch and a little time in the water, most of the ISA crew took a hike on the famous trail called La Via Dell' Amore (Lover's Lane) which goes through the towns Riomaggiore & Manarola. The entire hike was on the side of a cliff along the water. There are locks all along the hike which are put there by couples who write their initials on them and throw the key into the water, to resemble their everlasting love (a little sappy but pretty cool to see)!

At the end of the hike we ended up in Manarola, where we stopped for about a half an hour. There were awesome pools of water and cliffs people were jumping off of. I opted for the baby cliffs because I was too afraid of the big ones :) haha The pools of water were beautiful and a lot of fun.

After the hike & swimming we took the train back to Monerosso & got dinner. The region of Italy we were in is known for its pesto so the 6 other girls & I went to find a restaurant that served pesto (not too hard to find since pretty much every restaurant did). We came across a place that was pretty inexpensive with a lot of food options. 3 of the other girls & I ordered the pesto & we were pretty disappointed (Don't worry we ate at a nicer place for lunch on Sunday & had DELICIOUS pesto with gnocchi)! Afterward we wandered the streets of Monterosso & got some gelato & headed back to our hotel since the sun and swimming made us all tired. We stayed up for awhile talking & amused ourselves with how bouncy the hotel beds were (see video below haha). eventually all passed out excited to wake up early for our beach day on Sunday :)

More to come on my Sunday adventures.... 

Ciao, Erica xo