As I write this, I,m trying to figure out this italian keyboard and to not focus on the sweat dripping down my back. I,ve probably thought this before, but honestly i can,t remember when i was as hot as this. Just got to Florence last night amidst a bit of Italian drama. Let me back up a bit..
So, left Paris on Wednesday to jet to Pisa, luckily with no passport problems. I was a little worried because technically you can only stay in the Schengen countries of Europe for 3 months and I,m well over that, but there have been no problems, hopefully it stays that way! Got to Pisa and walked from the airport, which was a little strange since it was right in the middle of the town, and met up with my travel buddy Sari at this somewhat decent hostal that was only about, oh 88 degrees F inside. We walked down a sketchy deserted street to this nondescript pizza place to watch the spain vs. germany game, and then hustled home. Pisa is not great! We didn,t even make it to the Leaning Tower since it was on the other side of town and we decided to just get to Cinque Terre instead. Apparently we didn,t miss much, or at least I,d like to think that!
Thursday bruoght us to one of the most lovely, gorgeous places I,ve ever been- CInque Terre. We stayed in the first town, Riomaggiore, and the towns are exactly what you,d imagine- rows of pastel coloured houses staggered in the mountain rocks, overlooking water that is almost torquouise, you can see right down to the bottom and see all the schools of fish. Everyone was so HAPPY looking there! not a huge town by any means, maybe only 10 restaurants or so, and all uphill! Our hostal was a tiny little apartment that we shared with people from Australia, China,England and Montreal, and had steps right down the cove where you can rent kayaks and snorkels. Thursday we did a bit of the Cinque Terre hike, with which you can hike to the other towns of Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso, but we only made it as far as Manarola. You have to walk high up on a sort of cliff walk, breathtaking. We swam in a cove in Manarola, and there were all these tiny blue fish at our feet, so ridiculous! Rest of the day was spent eating loads of fruit, and eating pizza and wine on a cliff to watch the sunset. Both Sari and I were in disbelief pretty much tne entire day.
The trains went on strike from Thursday night til Friday night, which somewhat wrecked our plans to leave for Florence on Friday morning, so nistead we went kayaking in the morning which was the highlight of this trip so far. Apparently I have some pretty diesel arm strength, who knew? We then went swimming in our town of Riomaggiore, jumping off some cliffs into the amazingly clear water. After a lunch and another sweaty hike up through the town, we decided to chance it and went to the train station to see if anything was running, and lucked out! Grabbed a train to La Spezia and then miraculously got on a train to FLorence, getting in by 8 PM! Most trains were cancelled, so we were seriously grateful.
Our first couchsurfing experience in Florence last night was.. interesting. It was free, and trhe mission behind the YMCA type place we stayed was that its a hostal during the summer and houses homeless people during the winter. Love the mission, hated the place. Took us over an hour to find it. No fan, our room was in this weird compartment type thingie with a sliding door, and there was like 20 of them.. and people left their shoes outside the door. Creeped us both out, so we tried to ply ourselves with Italian beer to go to sleep but instead both spent a sweaty, sleepless night. Fun!
Today finds us both in better spirits, having moved to a somewhat swanky hostel called Plus Hostal that features a swimming pool, 2 bars, laundry (!) and my bed is a full size, which feels gargantuan. Here for 2 nights then probably going to Rome. Hoping Florence manages to enchant me, so far all I,ve noticed is how many tourists there are, how crowded it is, but did enjoy seeing the Duomo and the market again.
Off to air conditioning, ciao!
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