Five Lands

Yesterday I went on our much anticipated field with our school to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre literally translates to Five Lands and is a group of islands on the Italian Riveria that are a popular hiking spot for tourists. We took a bus to Cinque Terre at 8am on Saturday morning and arrived just outside the first town of La Spezia. After a quick stop to McDonalds for all 50 American students in our group (fat), we hopped on the train to get to the first hiking trail. Our goal was to hike between each of the five lands by the end of the day. Each path was between an hour and two hours hike and got harder as you went on. The first path was called “Via dell’amore” or path of love and had hearts carved in the rocks everywhere and a really cool graffiti wall where couples mark their love for each other.

Once we got to the second land we all got to try Cinque Terre’s famous faccacia bread. Delicious. We continued on our hike for a couple more hours as the trail got exceedingly more slippery and steep because it had rained the night before and continued to lightly sprinkle during our hike. I was grateful for the clouds though because it made the hike much more enjoyable since we still had a beautiful view but didn’t have to be dripping with sweat the whole time.

Once we got the fourth land though, it was like God wanted us to take a break because it all of a sudden changed to 70 and sunny. We sat down at a restaurant overlooking the gorgeous beach in front of us and got some tropical cocktails to sip on. When we finished, we went to go lay out by the water in our hiking clothes which were not very conducive to soaking up the rays. The water was crystal clear but quite chilly when we stuck our feet in. However, there was an old couple that was snorkeling and they inspired us to go join them. Unfortunately we didn’t have our bathing suits with us so we went over to the one of the little vendors to see what we could purchase to create a make shift swim suit. Our best option ended up being these little black shorts and our sports bras. We figured when in Europe that no one would really mind since in most places women don’t even bother with the top half of their bikinis.

Decked out in our new “swim suits” we plunged into the water. It was even colder than we thought. The whole beach stopped to stare as these three American girls were screaming while attempting to tread and stay afloat in the freezing water. After a few minutes though, when we finally got used to it, the water actually felt amazing. It was really salty so I just lied on my back with my arms over my head and floated there for awhile, relishing in the fact that I was currently relaxing in the Mediterranean Sea.




We never made it to the fifth land because we were enjoying ourselves so much at the fourth. This day trip however, has gotten me super pumped to go to Amalfi Coast next weekend which is in the South of Italy. We are ending our trip with a bang by spending our last weekend enjoying some of the most beautiful and historic towns in Italy including Capri and Pompeii. Then it’s off to the United States! Ahh!