My Favorite Place in Italy

Thursday 16th & Friday 17th of April

These next two days were wonderful, and it was well worth the night of awful travel to be in such a beautiful place.

The Cinque Terre is made up of five small towns on the west coast of Italy - part of the Italian Riviera. We stayed in the second small town of Manarola.

The Cinque Terre area is considered a national park in Italy, so we had to pay to hike the paths that connected the small towns. It was definitely the best five euros I spent all semester.

The area was breathtaking, even with the weather resembling London's typical gloominess. The cliffs were decorated by many farms, and the colorful bright buildings of the villages turned me into such a giddy girl saying, "This place is SSSSSOOOOOO cute! Seriously. Just so cute."

Our first hike from Manarola to Corniglia was fairly easy. It was walking along this path, cliffs to my right, sea on my left, that I was overwhelmed with gratitude. In my heart, I was thanking everyone who had nudged me to study abroad and told me to go out to see the world. The Cinque Terre is my favorite place of the small list of places I have seen.

The paths between the next towns became harder - more and more steps with the path narrowing around every turn. On our way to the last town, Monterosso, we had to huddle underneath a group of trees as heavy rain turned into hail. The path became muddy after this. At first I tried my best to dance my way through the path - I didn't want mud on my clean tennis shoes! Five minutes later, Splash-clomp-Splash! - I gave in.

The path could only fit one person at a time at this point, and unfortunately we were stuck behind what seemed like an entire school of first graders. The Canadians behind us referred to their teacher as 'Big Bertha'. She did slow us down by quite a bit. With the help of our new Northern campanions we were able to dodge past the kids and Big Bertha, giving a nice hello but really wanting to say, "You are seven years old! Bertha, what kind of field trip is this?"

At each small town Kathryn and I loved exploring all the cute shops. Jewelry shops were our favorite. I think Kathryn got quite annoyed because I would always find something I really fancied and would debate it for the longest time. After weighing the pros and cons, then repeating those steps a couple times, I would always end up placing everything back where it came from. (Yes, I inserted this part of my Cinque Terre story to let my parents know that I am trying my best to be smart with my money... ;) )

Vernazza - the fourth small town in - is the home of pesto. YUM YUM YUM. I love pesto, and Kathryn and I lived off of pesto and bread for the two days we were there. I think Blake stuck with the margherita pizza. (Sick.)

We loved going to a little grocery store just down the street from our bed and breakfast in Manarola to get bread, pesto, yogurt and Coca-Cola Lights. We ate outside on a cute little patio outside our place and enjoyed the view.

The owner of the place would walk by, smiling at us as he said, "Perfecto!"

We thought so too.

In the mornings, we had a cute breakfast set up for us in the reading/dining room area. It was a simple breakfast of croissants, bread, jam, coffee and yogurt. What made it so special was the thought that was put into it. Every item was in its proper place, arranged with care over the dainty tablecloth. I especially appreciated how the curtains were pulled back so we could enjoy the view outside.

I have always been a big fan of details. The little things make the largest of impressions.

On our last morning, I hated to leave the cute place we stayed at. I wrote in the guestbook about how I hoped to come back someday.

Everytime I talk about the Cinque Terre here is what will happen: I will let out a small sigh, pull my hands to my heart, my eyebrows will raise, and I will say, "Oohhh.... I llloooooovee the Cinque Terre... definitely my favorite place."

The scenery, the people and the food in Cinque Terre made it the perfect ending to our whirlwind trip in Italy.