We got to Riomaggiore and the first thing you see when you get off the train is the Mediterranean Sea. It is a really small city right on the coast with a little harbor as the center of town. We grabbed lunch at a little restaurant called Via Dell Amore. We had some of the best pasta, pesto, and bread I have ever had.
The next thing we did was hike up a hill and catch a bus to our hotel- Borgo Di Campi. The hotel was located about 4 K away from the city up on the side of a cliff. The view was unreal! Seriously, it was the most beautiful place I have ever been, you will have to look at the pictures because it is so hard to explain how beautiful it really was. All of the rooms were more of an apartment style- it was kind of like we had our own little house. The layout of everything reminded me of Frontier Ranch. We walked from the check in to the hotel restaurant, which over over-looks the Mediterranean Sea and all of the apartments. We then walked down a little path of stairs to our apartment. The path was adorned with flowers and green plants with grapes growing everywhere. There where gazebos and swings and hammocks.
First thing we did was go check out our amazing two-room apartment. We have two big bed, a kitchen, a patio, a clean bathroom to ourselves, a closet, and best of all… air-conditioning! I hardly remembered what air-conditioning felt like. We dropped our bags off. The second thing we did was take a nice hour nap in a hammock over-looking the sea (yes- we shared the hammock… cute we know).
We woke up and met our new Seattle friends at the bus stop to go get groceries for our room. They were a super fun couple that was just traveling around for a couple weeks before they went to his sister’s wedding in Naples, Italy. We had fun hanging out and talking to them. When we got in to town we did a quick little shopping trip to stalk up our fridge for the weekend. We bought stuff to make for lunch and dinner as well as a bottle of some wine that had been made in Riomaggiore!
We caught the bus back up to our place and then had the nicest, most romantic dinner together at the hotel restaurant (yes, Angie and I have had a very romantic time together in Europe). Again, our view- unreal. And the food- amazing. We took our time and enjoyed every second of it. After dinner we walked down the path to a little garden area with a swing. We enjoyed a glass of wine and watched the sun go down over the Mediterranean Sea and great conversations. I would say that this is one of the most relaxing places in the world. We didn’t have anything to really do but to relax and enjoy the view- it was perfect after a long 2 weeks of being busy little tourists. After a while we headed back to our room and took nice long showers and went to bed.
The next morning we slept in for the first time in a long while. When we woke up we made ourselves some amazing sandwiches. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch of fruit, olives, and sandwiches at a table right outside our room. We then caught the bus in to town. When we got in to town we explored the city a little bit and got a cup of coffee before we started our hike over to the next town over. Riomaggiore is the first city of 5 cities that make up Cinque Terre. Many people come here to hike all 5 cities, and I hope to one day come back and make it to all of them! Angie and I just hiked over to the next town over- Manarola. The trail was called Via Dell Amore. It is supposed to be a “lovers hike.” The views were amazing. It wasn’t a long hike but it was an amazing one. The entire hike was right along the coast of the ocean. Along the entire path were tons of “lover locks” with two people’s names on them- very romantic (as is everything in Europe). Went we arrived to the city of Manarola we explored the city a little bit and went and sat by the ocean in the cities harbor. We grabbed some ice cream and looked in a couple of shops and then walked back to Riomaggiore. We hung out at the harbor for a little while and then both bought some straw hats. We hung out in our hats in the center of town and played cards. We played rummy and Angie beat me, again, just like she has been beating me ever time we play cards. We played cards for a while and then caught the bus back up.
We got to our place and started cooking some pasta! We jammed out to some oldies on my ipod and had a blast cooking together. We made the most amazing pasta dish. We sat on our patio and drank to our local bottle of wine and ate our amazing pasta. We just hung out, talked, and enjoyed the sunset. It was a very relaxing night. We woke up, checked out and headed in to town to catch our train to Pisa. Again, I’m writing on the train and the views are amazing. I can’t believe we are in Italy and it is the 4th of July- doesn’t seem very American! Part of me wishes I was at PK watching fireworks! But then I remember I’m in Europe!! We only have 2 more days til we are home though… it is very bitter sweet. I can’t wait to see my family and friends but I’m not ready to leave here yet! There are still so many places I want to see! But I guess that’s a good excuse to come back one day… hopefully sooner than later!
We caught our train to Pisa! On our way there we met to juniors from University of Virginia. They sat next to us for the train ride and we both swapped funny stories of our trips and it made the ride go by much fast! We got to Pisa, checked into our hostel and headed out into the city. We grabbed lunch (pizza of course) at this little restaurant with the leaning tower right behind it. After lunch we walked over to the Piazza del Duomo, where leaning tower is and took some picture. It was funny to see all of the tourist posted-up trying to take the exact same picture (holding the tower up). We then went into the Cathedral. It was beautiful, but my favorite part was going into St. John’s baptistery. It was really small, but after looking around for a while the man at the entrance closes the doors and starts 'shushing' people. He walked to the middle of the building and without any explanation, began to do a bit of vocalization. The building echoes and held his note wonderfully. It was really pretty. After that we did a little window-shopping, walked around to a few markets, and grabbed dinner.
It is so weird to think we are not in American for the 4th of July, but we are wearing our red, white, and blue in honor of the U.S.A.! We leave Italy in the morning and head back to Madrid where we will being getting out big bags out of storage and sleeping in the airport.. wish us luck, tomorrow should be interesting. The next morning (the 6th) we will be heading back to Lubbock! Geez, time has gone by so fast! I’m sure I’ll be writing at least one more blog on our flight home with some final thoughts or story!
No comments:
Post a Comment