Greeting's from Florence! I apologize for not writing sooner about the last two weekends, but now I shall tell you all about Pisa, Cinque Terre, Positano, Capri, Sorrento, and Pompeii! On September the eleventh my program (API) took us to Pisa! Pisa is such an amazing town that is full of so much history and a few big important architectural structures. Walking into the Piazza where the leaning tower is along with a beautiful Church and Baptistery was breathtaking. Our tour guide told us that if we weren't amazed he would give us a refund, but everyone just gawked in amazement. Now everyone thinks Pisa, leaning tower, that's all to see. Wrong!
Pisa was this beautiful town with some the coolest buildings. The Chruch in front of the tower is so finely decorated with parts of the architecture looking like lace or finely detailed frosting on a cake. This church was the largest Church in the world for some time until it was out built by a bigger one. To the left of the tower is this walled in cemetery that is unlike any cemetery I have ever seen. Walking inside there is a large garden and walkways made with marble making it cooler and allowing for a nice breeze. The cemetery was very peaceful to be in and not creepy at all. Finally the tower that leans. After reading about it and growing up seeing pictures it's amazing to finally see it in person and go "Ok, it does lean and is real". Our group of course took the typical pictures of pushing it or leaning against it. We also got to hear the story of why it leans and about the engineering of straightening it up some what. But, I will tell you about Cinque Terre next!
Cinque Terre is part of the coast in Northern Italy in the region of Liguria.
The Almafi Coast is in Campania.
Cinque Terre is an area of five towns that are connected by trails/walk ways and a train. Our program let us see the area from several different perspectives which was awesome! First we boarded a boat in Spezia and proceeded to ride up to Portovenere which is right before CInque Terre. This town was beautiful and has been visited by some famous English poets who wrote about the town. The town is know for St.Peters Church and the St.Lorenzo Castle which booth at the cliffs edge looking out into the Mediterranean sea.
Next we got back on the boat after sampling some of the best pesto I have ever had rode past the first two towns in Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore and Manarola. At the third town, Corniglia, we got out for 40 minutes and got to explore and ate some delicious pesto pizza!
This is the harbour/mini beach area in the town and this is Alyssa and me eating our Pizza! The last a final town was Monterossa, which was absolutely beautiful. We arrived and got 3 hours to spend exploring and going swimming. My group, decided to jump in the water since it was wicked hot out. In Italy, beaches are either private ( you have to pay for a chair/ area) or free. We went with free and was able to experience the saltiness of the Mediterranean.
After tanning on some rocks and swimming, we took the train back through all the towns stopping in Manarola so, we could do this lovers lane walk connecting Monarola to Riomaggiore.
People on this pathway lock up there love by writing their name and their lovers and locking it on a fence. Very cool and romantic!
The following weekend of the 16th-19th, I travelled with a group to the Almafi Coast. Their we stayed in Sorrento and visited Capri on Friday. Capri hands down is high on my list of favorite places. The island was beautiful and we got to take a boat tour around the island seeing all the gratto's (sea caves where the water is absolutely beautiful because of the way light comes into them; there was a white one, green one, and a blue one which is best known). For the rest of the day, I enjoyed a delicious onion pizza and explored the many streets and stores.
The next day, we travelled to Positano, which was a very cute town on the coast. Our bus dropped us at the top and we had to walk down a long series of steps and roads winding our way down to the beach. At 11am, we went swimming and enjoyed the beach and how warm the water was. I was extremely paranoid about being stung by a jellyfish after knowing several friends who had been stung in Cinque Terre! For lunch, we sat at this restaurant and were able to look out at the ocean while enjoying our seafood! I had Mussels, which were absolutely fabulous. Luckily, when we left we took a bus back up the hill to meet our bus to take us back to our hotel.
Finally on Sunday, we packed up and drove to Pompeii and got a tour of the town. Pompeii, is very interesting and surreal to visit because it is fully preserved and the whole time you can look up and see Mt.Vesuvius.
After touring and learning about all the history, we travelled to Mt.Vesuvius driving up part of the way and then hiking the rest. Since it had been in the upper 80's that day we were all pretty much dressed in shorts, tank-tops and sneakers. Hiking up the Volcano the temperature got cooler and we saw people wearing everything from winter coats, to hiking boots, to hiking pants, to high heels and a sun dress. It was a funny variety of different outfits for the hike. Getting to walk up Mt.Vesuvius after being in Pompeii was unreal. Mt.Vesuvius is a dormant Volcano that last erupted in 1944. The whole time I kept telling myself that if it all of a sudden became active a lot of scientists in the world would have known so I was safe walking up that day.
Both weekends we had fabulous weather which made the experiences even better. I loved both areas in Northern and Southern Italy. This weekend I plan on enjoying Florence and exploring some museums and gardens. I have more pictures on my facebook page and on Picasa.
Ciao for now!
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