Cinque Terre and Portofino!

So 7 o'clock saturday morning we were getting on a bus heading to Cinque Terre on a trip with the school, and it ended up being the most laid-back school trip i think of the semester. it was nice. The ride wasnt too long. 3 hours, including a half an hour break. lol. So we got to Santo Margherita Ligure which is where our hotel was at like 10. we hung out there for alittle bit, and met the bus...right by the beach. It was gorgeous. I mean, they dont have sand, they have rocks. but it was still realyl nice and the water was gorgeous. The thing with the italian riviera is that its the seacoast and the water is crystal clear and a gorgeous blue, but that its also mountainy. so sometimes your like ona cliff looking at this amazing view. bella.

So we take the boat to this other place called...comogli. We hung out there for a lunch time. right on the beach. ate a salad at this restaurant outside. pretty good stuff. and then we went and put our feet in the water, it was pretty chilly, but refreshing. and then we got gelato and just sat on this wall and looked out over the cliffs and at the water and stuff. then we got on a boat...which was ridiculous. lot of laughs on that one. stef you know why! lol. and then we went to some other place. i dont know the name...possibly san fruttuoso. but i really have no clue. lol. there we just took a tour of this abbey and monastary and stuff and it was right on the cliffs and it was gorgeous. we were onyl there for liek 45 minutes before we got back on the boat and went to portofino. which is where all the rich people live and bring their yachts to port. so we watched this one yacht come in. and then we took some pictures. and then got nonalcoholic pina coladas. I apparently dont like pina coladas and wasted 10 euro on it! stinkin portofino and their expensive places.

then we took the boat back to santo margherita ligure where we took naps and then went to a hotel around the corner for our local cuisine dinner. we had lasagna pesto which was ridiculously good. swordfish, which i didnt eat, and potatoes, and then tiramisu. it was good.

after, we went to the solarium, which was basically the really nice roof on our hotel. and hung out there, took some action shots cuz stef likes to do that, and they usually come out pretty hilarious.....we actually got to go to bed early and sleep on this trip, so that was nice.

we got up at 7:30 and had breakfast, checked out and were on the bus by 8:30. we drove about an hour to levanto. There, stefano and franco (the leaders on the trip) handed everybody a pass that gets you on the trains or the hiking trails from one village to another. there are 5 villages along the coast that make up cinque terre (levanto was not one of them). So we hung around in levanto a while. which basically means, we laid on the beach for an hour and half. took the train to the last of the 5 villages an dworked out way back. so 25 minutes later, we're getting off the train in Riomaggiore. We bought some icecream there. It was a cute little town. Then we took the hiking path (which was basically a sidewalk...kim walked barefoot lol). It was called Via del Amore *street of love. and it was up in the cliffs along the edge, overlooking the sea. it was gorgeous.

That took us to Manarola where we had lunch. So the italian riviera is also known for its faccacia and olives, so i got a pizza on faccacia bread with olives on it. it was divine. we sat and ate it outside overlooking the coast. it was just really pretty.

from there, we took the train to Corniglia. which is one thats way up in the cliffs, but we didnt have much time there because of the train schedule and its a 20 minutes hike up, that we just stayed around the train station...finally found a bathroom lol....took some pics cuz we were already up pretty high.

train to Vernazza where we got this lemon ice drink, cuz cinque terre is also known for its lemons. lol. it was sooo good. it takes like those lemon italian ices we used to get as kids on the beach. we were walking along when we heard somebody playing instruments and singing Stand by Me. so we went back and there was a guy on the viola, the base, and the guitar singing and stuff. they were really good. so we hung out there for a while. then went and did a little shopping. danielle got a really pretty necklace. then we hung out down by the water.

Fromt here we took the train to the last of the cinque terre, monterosso. there we bought some postcards and hung out on the beach. stuck our feet int hew ater. it was really pretty. from there, you could see all five villages down the coast and up on the cliffs. it was pretty sweet. the bus picked us up there and we left at about 6. we got home at about 9:15. took showers, ate a little, did a little homework and passed out.

it was a great weekend, and im really glad we went on the trip.

two days and im off to capri!

miss you guys. be back in 3 and a half weeks!