Cinque Terre was even more beautiful than the Amalfi Coast, believe it or not. I will put pictures on hopefully tomorrow, and you'll be able to see for yourself. We really didn't have any crazy adventures this time like we had going to Amalfi, but our hotel was pretty funny. My friend, Maria, thought she had booked a three-star hotel, but she had actually booked a one-star hotel. We figured this out when we walked into our room and the shower was literally out in the room, with barely fogged windows. Good thing we were three girls and three friends!

Other than the shower thing, we absolutely loved our one-star hotel. It was up on a hill above Sestri Lavante, hidden by lots and lots of greenery. The couple that owns it runs it more like a bed and breakfast. They are totally hippy-ish and they have a fully functioning restaurant down below the main story. Instead of going out for dinner there, we just ate the food at the restaurant, which was fantastic! The lady turned on the reggae for us, lit candles out of wine bottles and brought us out extra bread. We think her husband, who made all the food, is American (like maybe from NYC), so they both speak pretty good English- he better than she. When she found out that we were studying Italian, she spoke to us pretty much in Italian, but she was able to tell us the necessary things in English.

We really only had one day in Cinque Terre, and we spent the majority of it hiking from village to village. We hiked from the southernmost town, Riomaggiore, up to the fourth town, Vernazza, and then took a train from Vernazza to the fifth town, Monterosso. I know, we wimped out, but we still felt like we accomplished a lot. We started hiking at 12:30 and ended around 5:30, with about an hour for lunch up on a cliff in Corneglia, the third town, where we ate swordfish and insalata di mare (literally salad of the sea, but actually a mix of sea creatures). The hikes from the first town to the second town and the second to the third town were pretty easy. But the hike from the third town to the fourth town was pretty intense. Lots of very, very steep inclines and steps. I have minor shin splints now, but it was worth it. Every view was breathtaking! Imagine the bluest sea ever and the greenest leaves with the sheerest cliffs. When we got back to the hotel, we ate dinner and then just crashed. We were all in bed by 11 pm- pretty early for college students!

There ended up being only three of us because a lot of our friends decided to go to Venice for a huge concert that was supposed to have had Aerosmith, Pearl Jam, the Killers, Incubus, My Chemical Romance and lots more. I say was supposed to have had because there was a storm on Friday, two days after the concert had started. It rained and hailed and about three fourths of the staging and sound equipment fell on the crowds. I've heard that 26 people are in the hospital and 2 are in critical condition. The concert, I think, was pretty much canceled. My friends either hung out in Venice or went to Verona. Aside from missing the concert of a lifetime, I don't think the weekend was wasted.

The Urban Trekking was pretty cool except for the fact that it started at 9:15 am :) Regularly school starts at 9, but it would be nice to have a day to sleep in every once in awhile. Anyway, our first stop was at a leather binding shop where we watched two people beat, cut, and stain leather and then bind it into a little journal. Our second stop was at a ceramics shop where a woman hand paints and fires beautiful stuff with the Italian countryside all over it. Then we went to a weaving shop where table runners are made with old mechanical looms. The last place was a gelato shop which is considered to have the best gelato in town. It was not the Perugina factory (sniff sniff!) but it was acceptable (anything with chocolate is acceptable). They talked about making their own gelato and their chocolate truffles. We didn't get to see them make anything but it was still neat to hear about. I can confirm the part about the best gelato!

Buona serata, Ellie