Cinque Terre- Day 1- the Destroyer of Shoes

Friday, April 15

Since the 16th was going to be Kelsey's birthday, Cara, Kelsey plus some Orvieto girls, Rachel, Jordan and Jordan's sister Mackenzie and I decided to travel to the paradise of Cinque Terre! There weren't many hostels available, so the girls and I found an apartment in Riomaggiore (one of the five towns) that came out to only 22 euro a person a night. Super awesome deal. Kelsey, Cara and I took a morning train to Florence, to Pisa, to La Spezia and finally to Riomaggiore. Riomaggiore is the first of the five towns, and it's absolutely beautiful. Upon leaving the train, we were greeted by a large mural of native inhabitants which were depicted as farmers and a tunnel that led us from the train station to the town. The one side of the tunnel was entirely composed of murals made from different local rocks, glass, marble, and anything you can find on a beach. Pretty impressive. Once in the town, we made our way to the place where we had to check in for our apartment. The online review had said that the main downside of the apartment was treacherous stairs. I think it was mostly Americans that had posted this, so we were anxious to see how exaggerated this review was. (We've noticed on reviews that since Americans are used to a different standard they tend to complain about everything. Guess what, there's no elevator to take you up to your apartment on the hillside of Italy. You might have to climb up a steep hill or even steps with your luggage. Weird, I know...) We checked in and the lady running in charge (a cute little British lady now living in Italy) took us to our apartment. There were some steep steps, but not too many and at least they weren't made of uneven carved rock like everywhere else. The apartment was pretty awesome. Large bathroom, two bedroom with two double beds and three fold out beds, a living room, and kitchen with dishwares. Did I mention it also had a balcony facing the water? Absolutely perfect. We were right over the dock area with tons of boats and a little built up rock pier that wrapped around the front of the town.

Since the girls and I had a kitchen, we decided to cook dinner that evening to save some money. We found a little Coop and fruit stand where we got noodles, chicken, veggies, fruit and of course Vino. We went back to the apartment to store our purchases before we set out exploring. For some reason, the first thing on everyone's list except mine was to climb the rock pier all the way out to the tip. Perhaps if I didn't have my purse or a massive hole in the tip of my flats I would have been game for it... or if I wasn't the clumsiest person on earth. We hopped from rock to rock for awhile, dodging sharp angles and mini revines (ok, revine is an exaggeration but it still would have really messed us up if we fell in between some of the rocks we were jumping). Once we had made it most of the way out and we were directly infront of the town, Cara and I made a pit stop. The rest of the girls wanted to continue to the tip (which was a bit further) so Cara went with them but I hung out where I was. For one, there wasn't anything more to see at the tip, I was already in prime picture taking local. Second, something about really beautiful scenery makes me value alone time, which I gladly took for awhile. Eventually, dark clouds started to roll in so I called the girls to start climbing back with me. The climb back wasn't as easy. The hole in my flat had definitely gotten bigger and I was slipping in my shoes all over the place. We eventually made it back and decided that we should probably start making dinner.

It's been a minute since those of us at Santa Chiara have cooked a meal so Cara willingly took the reigns of our dinner. We made chicked pasta with alfredo, pesto, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, and cheese. yum! Cara and I shared a Chianti wine (since we're living in Chianti country, it's become our favorite) and the other girls drank white wines. We spent the rest of the night chatting and people watching outside our balcony. Lovely ending to a lovely day.

This is what Italy + this weekend has done to my shoes. They are now resting in pieces in a trash heap in Castiglion Fiorentino. Farewell dear shoes, you have served me well.