Cinque Terre

Before I came to Florence, one of the trips that I desperately wanted to take was to Chinque Terre. I had originally planned to go the second weekend that we were here that way the weather would still be warm and it'd be a fun way to start off my adventures here in Italy, but when that weekend came around, I was too busy and couldn't find anyone else who wanted to join, so I ended up not going. Then, at the last minute at the very beginning of October, one of my dear friends Bri decided she was going to Chinque Terre and put it out there for anyone to join her if they wanted!

Of course I immediately jumped on board and on Friday morning, October 8th, I woke up around 5 am and made my way to the Piazza to meet up with my friends where we then headed off to the train station. Time was a ticking and our train was to leave at 6:30am so we practically ran to the station. It was about 6:10 when we walked up to the station and we had to race to the machines, buy our tickets, then race to find the platform. Finding the platform was a major issue. On the board it said we were departing from platform 1A in 7 minutes... Well we followed the signs to 1A, which took some asking around to find out where exactly it was (hidden around the corner), but the sign at 1A said the train was departing for another destination. At this point, about 6 or 7  of us girls had accumulated and we were running up and down the station looking like poor lost Americans. Seeing that the train was supposed to be departing at any minute, we jumped on it, just praying that was the right train to Chinque Terre. Needless to say it was :D

Fast forward a few hours and we were walking down Via dell' Amore (Street of love). This was probably one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever been on. I was truly taken aback by the amazing eye God has for beauty and in creating this world and the scenes that were in front of me. Here are some pictures to see for yourself:

I'm not really sure of the story behind "Via dell' Amore" but I do know that the locks found all through the path are to symbolize the eternal bond between two lovers. It was so interesting to see all the different types of locks and all the different messages that people left on the walls in the "Tunnel of Love". I even left a message of my own :)

 After Via dell'Amore we hopped on a train to Monterosso (the hiking trails were closed that day because of flodding from heavy rains the week before) and then had an amazing relaxing day on the beach! We couldn't have asked for better weather! It was probably 80 degrees and a nice breeze was felt throughout the whole afternoon! There was enough sun to get a little color but not too much to make you miserably hot. And we were just so surprised because it was already October so we weren't expecting it to be warm at all!

It was a really fun day and a great experience for all of us freshman (and a couple of awesome upperclassmen!) to bond and have a good time together outside of school and classes and the nightscene in Florence.