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Florence, Cinque terre, Pisa, Venice
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So...it has been awhile since the last time I have sent any updates. But since Rome we have gone throughout Italy and visisted Florence, Cinque terre, Pisa, and Venice. We have ate our weight in pasta and drank/ate enough cappucinos and pastries to last a person a lifetime. I have loved everything about Italy. I can't wait to come back and I recommend everyone takes a trip to Italy!
So Florence started out a little shaky. As we pulled into the station we were unaware that there were two train stops in Florence. So we hussled to put our bags on and get off the train; however, two other girls were trying to get off at the same time. Stephanie and one of the other girls got tangled up and one of them dropped something so this caused myself, Stephanie, and one of the girls to get to the train door only to have it shut in our faces while Siho, Gina, and one of the other girls were standing on the platform outside the train waving goodbye. I was hysterically laughing at the circumstance as we tried pushing every button to get the doors to open back up so that we could get off. Everyone on the train was laughing at us and I thought we were going to be going to another town. Luckily someone told me that the main station was the next stop. So Stephanie and I got off the train (we had the directions to the hostel with us) and didn't know how we would find Siho and Gina. Oddly enough, they had taken a bus into the main part of town where we were and happen to see me walking down the street towards the hostel. They frantically got off the bus and ran in our direction. When they walked in it was a miracle out of a movie and we were reunited once again LOL...we definitely got lucky!
So while we were in Florence we went to the Academia which has the statue of David. It is unimaginable how Michealangelo created such a perfect replica of a human body and he made it using marble. Every detail is perfect down to the veins in his hands and every muscle in his body. We also had a little taste of the nightlife and went on a pub crawl and to some clubs at night. We went to a club that was all very upper class fashionable locals. We looked a little out of place in our backpacking clothes and flip flops since we were the only non-italians there and they were all in designer clothes, but it was fun anyways. There was also an amazing flea market that had everything a girl could ever want from Italy. I was in heaven and went there everyday....I was going through shopping withdrawals since I left America...then I realized that I could not fit anything into my already overpacked backpack which put a little damper on my could have been shopping spree! The only downfall of Florence was that everyone started getting sick because we have been traveling so much so Stephanie was pretty much confined to her bed throughout our stay in Florence.
From Florence we made our way to Cinque terre. Cinque terre is 5 fishing villages in a row where you can hike between each village along the ocean. This place was so much fun. They are known for their pesto sauce so of course we started off with some pesto pizza...very tasty! The first night we were there Gina and Stephanie went to sleep at 6pm because they were both sick. Siho and I decided to go to the cafe\bar that was below the apartment we were staying in to have a hot chocolate. While we were there we made friends with the locals who were "pirates" and they started buying us the local drinks of limoncello and sangria and the next thing we know we are the life of the party dancing with everyone. We made friends with a couple from D.C. and a ton of people from Cinque terre. The bartenders decided that the following night they would throw a party at the bar in honor of Siho and I called "the party for beautiness" It made us laugh so we said we would be back. Of course all the same people were back the next night and Siho and I had a blast. We practiced being bartenders, I played D.J. and we had our "party for beautiness" LOL. The night ended with all of us going to the beach with a bottle of wine and hanging out in the sand. It was so much fun. The next day we hiked between all 5 villages which was very neat because each hike was different. One of the hikes was a romantic hike, one had stones, grafitti, and sayings posted all over a cave so of course we carved our names on the walls, one hike was all stairs and another part was what looked like an enchanted forest with waterfalls. The whole hike took about 5 hours but it was well worth it.
While we were sad to leave Cinque terre, we had to hurry because we were trying to make it to Oktoberfest in Germany. So we decided to take a one day trip to Pisa to see the leaning tower of Pisa. We took pictures of us "holding up" the leaning tower of Pisa. Then we went to find our hostel. We walked for miles up and down the same road looking for our hostel for 4 hours. Everyone would say its 50 meters this way..we would walk 200 meters and not see anything. More people would give us directions and we still could not see anything except an open field on one side, a cemetery on the other, and nothing else for miles. While we were walking we would see signs but still no hostel. Everyone acted like we were crazy for not being able to see this hostel, but unless they expected us to sleep in the cemetery there was nothing else around. I am convinced that the town was playing a joke on us and there really was no hostel because we never did find one. We eventually made it back into town and found a hotel but we vowed to never go back to the town of Pisa...it did not treat us very well.
We then made our way to Venice. We were only in Venice for one day because of our time crunch but we wandered around the town, saw the canals, and took in the scenery. The town is complicated to get through because of all the bridges, waterways and buildings that come out of nowhere. It was a beautiful town and I would love to go back someday so that I can have my romantic gondola ride on the canals! But from here it was off to Oktoberfest!
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