Mallory Comes to Visit: Cinque Terre and Florence

This past week, my friend Mallory came to visit me from Manchester, England. She spent the week in Rome wandering around the city, and traveled with me this weekend to Cinque Terre. It was her birthday yesterday, so we went to Florence for the day/night to celebrate her 21st birthday!

Cinque Terre has been a place I have wanted to go to ever since I have been studying abroad in Italy. Cinque Terre consists of five coast towns: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso. We arrived Friday afternoon in the first town Riomaggiore and went to our hostel. It is located at the top of the hill in Riomaggiore with a gorgeous view of the water and the town. We took a train to the beach town, Monterosso and laid out all day. That night we went to a restaurant called Ristorante Ripa del Sole, which was a slow food restaurant. Cinque Terre is known for pesto, so we all had to try it. It was fabulous.

Saturday was our day of hiking the towns. The main hike is closed, so we couldn’t hike all five towns, but 4 out of the 5 paths. The hike from Riomaggiore to Manarola is known as the love path and is defined by locks and names inscribed on the path.

The path from Manarola and Corniglia was closed, but the hike was Corniglia to Vernazza was amazing. My favorite hike however was from Vernazza to Monterosso because we were on the coast the majority of the time and walking through the tiniest and most narrow areas of the mountain. I felt like I was actually hiking a mountain, my heart beat went up and down. I have a new passion for hiking and cannot wait to go to Colorado this summer and hike the Rocky Mountains.

We left Cinque Terre Sunday morning and took a train to Florence. We walked around the leather markets and bought some leather products, then had dinner at my all time favorite restaurant Aqua al Due to celebrate her birthday. We of course had Rigatoni alla Melanzana, the best pasta I have eaten abroad. Mallory even said it was the best pasta she has had abroad as well. After a long weekend of traveling, we skyped with some friends and went to bed.

This week is a quick one for me, with one quiz and an Italian test, but then I am going to Greece on Friday! We are flying into Athens, but spending the majority of our time in Mykonos. I cannot wait! Greece is the one place that I have been dying to see! It will be a dream come true!