Aly in Italy: Cinque Terre... When in italy.... Wiiii!!

Saturday, we went back to Viareggio for a beach day trip through SAI. It was free, so of course we went. It was a nice beach, but very crowded and very hot. Guys kept trying to sell us stupid stuff the whole time. They Jamaican dudes are really annoying. It was almost as bad as the beaches in Mexico. We had a nice seafood lunch on the beach which was great! Sunday we went to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre translates to "five towns/land." If any of you are pinterest fans, you've probably seen countless pictures of Cinque Terre on there. It's even more beautiful in person. We booked our Cinque Terre program through bus2apls.com. We took a chartered bus to La Spezia. Then, we took the train to the various five towns. It's only about a four minute train ride between towns which is nice. Cinque Terre acts as a national park. We went to the first town, Riomaggiore, which was absolutely stunning. It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. The rocky cliffs and shores actually reminded me a bit of the Maine coast. The water was the perfect blue. We took the train to the fourth town. (The second town, probably one of the prettier towns, is still under construction after a terrible mudslide wiped through the town. Town three, Corniglia, didn't have too much too offer except food places. At the fourth town, Vernazza, we went cliff jumping. The swells were pretty large, and we have a difficult time swimming out to the big rock to jump off. A lot of us cut our legs and feet trying to get on the rock. But, it was worth it! When in Italy, right? Wiiiiiiii! I jumped off a few times. It was abut 25 feet tall, so not too bad. I think someone got pictures, so check out Facebook for those. After cliff jumping, we hiked along the rocky coast to get to the fifth town, Monterosso. The hike was strenuous and took about an hour and a half. Definitely needed tennis shoes for that. The scenic fews from the trail were incredible. I tried to get as many pictures as I could, but I was so focused on my breathing and where I was walking that i got a little distracted from picture taking. When we finally reached Monterosso, we headed through a tunnel to the other side of the beach. We went to this awesome place that just sold drinks and played country music. I felt right at home! They have the best Pina Coladas and Strawberry Daiquiris. They were so fresh and cold. It was amazing. We hung out on the beach for a while after that. The beach was really rocky, so we actually spent most of our time in the water, which was the perfect temperature. Afterwards, we returned to La Spezia to take the bus back to Florence. When we got back to Florence, I immediately ran back to my apartment. (I seriously did run and I looked like an idiot doing it.) I needed to shower and eat before the big Euro Cup game started! We went to The William (pub right near Santa Croce) to watch the game. We were playing Spain. Unfortunately, we picked the one bar that seemed to house all of the Spain fans. So when we lost, 4 - 0, it kind of sucked. Oh, well. At least we made the finals!

Comment on my blog everyone so I know you are reading it. Let me know of any questions you have.