Cinque Terre, Italy

On Thursday Jay and I took a train from Lux to Brussels. We stayed overnight at an airport hotel because our flight left at 6:30am for Pisa. We woke up early, tired and eager to get to Cinque Terre. The flight definitely woke us up though. In the middle of our transit, the plane started dropping like some sort of roller coaster. It was violently shaking, tilting, and speeding up; I truly thought we were going down. The lady next to me was crying & the one in front of me was having a panic attack. To make it better, I was in the last row so I really felt every drop and shake. I just sat there praying that we couldn’t go down, I thought this was how I was going to die. The pilot wasn’t saying anything either so I didn’t know if it was rough air or if there was something wrong with the plane. Luckily, we landed safely. I assume it was just rough air because it was really windy when we got off, but there was definitely something wrong with the plane too. You shouldn’t feel like you’re on the Pitt Fall just because of some rough air! When we landed, we ran off the flight and hopped on a train to Cinque Terre. When we got there we admired the beautiful water and atmosphere and made our way to our hotel. We stayed at Hotel Villa Steno in Monterosso and it was incredible. It had a beautiful view of the ocean and an amazing garden with flowers and lemon trees. We put our stuff down and grabbed some lunch at Gastronomia where I got some amazing pesto pasta. After lunch we peeked in some shops then headed back to the hotel for a quick nap, we were exhausted. After our nap, we sat on the hotel balcony and enjoyed our free welcome drink of sparkling white Italian wine. When we were finished we walked back into the main part of town and checked out some shops. I bought myself a comfy hoodie & handmade mug with little lemons on it, so cute. We grabbed some pasta for dinner (oops, second time today) then walked around near the beach. We headed to the top terrace of the hotel to watch the sun set. What an unreal view. We came back to the room, drank some tea, then passed out after our long day. On Saturday we woke up and enjoyed a cute hotel breakfast on the balcony. We met some people from Chicago and a couple from Hamilton, Ohio. We talked to them for about an hour then went back to the room to get ready for the day. We bought our train tickets and set off to our first stop of the day, Manarola. I remember going to this town back in 2013 during my sophomore year summer. I came with my best friends at the time & I still remember the awesome little adventures from that trip. I regretted afterwards not taking advantage of Cinque Terre and always hoped that one day I would go back. I’m so grateful that time has come so soon! We got off at Manarola and made our way toward the seaside. We headed up the walkway & snapped pictures in front of the unforgettable view in front of us; the bright, clear blue water smashing against the giant rocks and colorful little houses sitting on the hill. After a while of staring, we made our way back down and through the little shops. We were not prepared for how hot it would be! The forecast called for sun and a high of 60, so we packed jeans and light jackets. I wish I would’ve brought shorts and my bathing suit! It was very crowded and we were hot so we walked back to the train & made our way to Riomaggiore, the second town of the day. We walked around here and actually found a Miami flag hanging up outside of a room! There were a decent amount of people from our program that came here this weekend, so we figured it was one of them. This town was crowded too so after a little bit of walking we decided to head back to Monterroso. Jay went up to the terrace to tan & I decided to workout on our balcony (surprisingly) then we changed & got some pizza in the town. After pizza we got gelato (so much for working out) and walked up this hill that overlooked the water. It was so amazing. The sun was setting and there was a guy playing the piano down the hill. We walked around a bit more then headed back to the hotel to pack. This was the perfect last big travel weekend! Next week is a local trip to Paris for my last weekend and birthday, can’t wait!