Cinque Terre. 

Monterosso al Mare. Vernazza. Corniglia. Monterola. Riomaggiore.

Cinque Terre.
Honestly the best trip so far. I have so many more to come as well..but this trip was incredible. A typical European spontaneous adventure. Let me start from the beginning...
Cinque Terre has been my desktop background for over 2 years now, and I finally can change the picture to a picture I captured on my own. Incredible. How many people can say they did that?

We arrived in Monterosso on Friday at 10:30am and began the trek to the second beautiful city of Vernazza. Unfortunately, I woke up sick in the morning with a terrible sore throat and wasn't feeling my best, so the hike was a little more difficult than it usually would have been, but we had an amazing time regardless. The group that came along included 8 girls total hiking their way through the desolate outback of the western coast of Italy. (If this is Italy's desolate wilderness, I can't even imagine what else this country has in store...)
Along the way of our hike, we found fig trees and the grapes that they use to make the wine and had ourselves our own harvest of the food we gathered. Such survivors we were. Every city had such beauty and character and each one was different in its own way. One thing that was consistent, however, was the incredible rusticity of the nature of these cities. The lands were built amongst terraces which are still cultivated today with the same means of technology as they were over 50 years ago. The winemakers use barrels and handpick the grapes to make wine. The grapes are so sweet here, must be why Tuscan wine is the best in the world. We relaxed for a while in Vernazza, jumped off of some rocks into the Mediterranean Sea, and swam with the wild fish in the warmest ocean I have ever been in, whose salt content is so high, you don't even have to work to keep yourself afloat. We suntanned on the rocks of Vernazza, which was also where we had an amazing Italian dinner.

Cinque Terre is the birthplace of pesto, so you can only guess what I ordered for dinner. Also, I recently started liking seafood and my friend and I split pesto as well as seafood pasta (including mussels, clams, and shellfish). It was AMAZING. I love the food in Cinque Terre. Not to mention, the owner of the restaurant hooked it up with free appetizers (fried zucchini and fried cod-most amazing cod ever), free bread with pesto, and free water (because they charge you for it here).

Next started our real adventure.

You see, when planning this trip originally, to save money on a hostel, I had planned along with my friends to just rough it outside and sleep under the stars bringing blankets along and sleeping outside (even though it wasn't the safest option, this was my original plan). However, with a few of us being sick, we decided to try to find a hostel in Riomaggiore, where most of our friends were staying. After missing our train from Vernazza to Riomaggiore, we sat around feeling helpless and homeless, in search for an alternative. In the corner of the train station was a small flyer that caught our attention: Water Taxi. So we gave the number a call, and found out it was a great deal and sounded fun, so we decided to take a water taxi. Best. Experience. Of. My. Life.

Not only did we have 8 girls in this boat, having the time of their lives riding the waves of the Mediterranean Sea with the wind in our faces, our only source of light was that of the moon and the stars. I could literally see galaxies in the sky. I have never seen such amazing views of the night sky. The captain of the boat used the moon as his navigation system because he had no lights on the boat. He literally used the moon to determine our location and it was the most amazing 25 minutes of my life. I wish my description could elucidate this experience, but there are some moments where neither pictures nor words can explain it.

After being homeless for nearly 3 hours in Riomaggiore, we got a hotel for two people for 50euro. Since we had 7 girls total (one had already booked a hostel..like a smart girl that she was), we decided to fit 7 girls into a 2 person room. It was so much fun and we fit 4 girls on the bed, and 3 on the floor. It all worked out so well and we had the most amazing view of Rio in the morning.

We went through the next town to Monterola through the Via dell'amore, which is a long street and tunnel where people sign the wall to their loved ones and carve their initials and another place where people come lock their love together with a combination lock. I left my mark on the Via dell'amore for the people who have taught me the meaning of love itself through their never ending love for me and through the scripture of the first bible verse I ever memorized. Hopefully they will be able to leave theirs together one day.

The rest of the day we hiked the rest of the cities, swam in the sea and ate gelato right before boarding the train home. I want to go back one day. This place was seriously the place where the best memories and most beautiful scenic views were created thus far on my European adventure.