In a place called vertigo..

So we actually did make it to Cinque Terre yesterday! It was by far the most amazing, most beautiful place I have ever seen. We took a train from Firenze at 7:45 and arrived in Vernazza, the third of the five cities around 10:40. We decided to take advantage of the good weather and hike to the fifth town Monterosso which would take about an hour and a half. The trail was so scenic however, it was straight up and down! There were so many hills, steps and the path was so narrow that no exaggeration at all if you weren't paying attention, one slip and you were donezo. After a sweaty but so worth it trek we finally arrived in Monterosso. At this point we were all starving so we ate lunch at this little place right over the beach. We had a drink and lunch then set out for the beach. We lucked out big time with the weather! First, it was overcast then we could see a huge thunder and lightening storm over the other four cities from our spot on the beach. However, it ended up breaking up before it hit where we were. We spent the rest of the day drinking some wine, laying out and swimming. We grabbed a quick dinner then boarded the train for home. Unlike the ride there which was direct we had to transfer two times to eventually get to Firenze. We met some other college students on the train who are also studying in Firenze, one was from Palmyra , the town right next to my hometown and attended Rowan where my two best friends go! We ended up not arriving home until after midnight. We threw our plans to go out out the window and crashed in our beds. I will honestly never forget this day for my entire life. It was so breathtaking and I got to spend it with some great people. I feel so lucky to be here. I know I keep saying that but I am not taking a moment of this for granted.

Today we went and saw Donatello's David which was so exciting! After that we grabbed lunch at this place called The Diner which was an American food place. I got a burger and fries haha it was amazing and nice taste of home. Afterwards, Alex and I decided we needed to spend some time together and went to the market to go shopping. Anyone that knows me knows my obsession with jewelry and stones. So I told her about this little jewelry store I found earlier in the day. We went and got so many amazing things! It was really cheap too and the woman spoke spanish so I was able to communicate better with her. She was so nice she even let us pick out a free pair of earrings! We got home and showed our host mom our new things and told her about the place and what a small world, it is the place she gets all of her jewelry too!!

We helped our host mom move some furniture out of her house and poor Matt had to carry all the heaviest parts especially down all 90 steps we have to our flat! We have dinner with our host mom tonight and are heading for Venice tomorrow! I'm so exciting to see what Venice brings us!