The rest of Spring Break

This is a guy in Milan. Guess
what patch was my favorite?

Day 2 - Lake Como
This day was frustrating, but still fun (which seems to be a recurring theme for me). The plan: take a train to Como, see it and possibly the neighboring town, Brunate, which is a gondola ride away, take the hour ferry up to Bellagio, take the 10 min ferry to Varenna, and then take the 1.20 hour train back to Milan to catch the train to Cinque Terre in time to sign into our hostel. Sounds like a great day, right? Unfortunately we got a late start and missed the train we wanted so we couldn't do everything. Plan B ended up being an enjoyable stroll through Como to the lighthouse at the top of Brunate, and a race back to Como's train station only to wait 2 hours in Milan since we were rushing to a train that didn't exist. Once we got to our hostel we were definitely ready to crash. The relaxed atmosphere of Como off its expansive lake was the pace I wanted for Spring Break, and the views from Brunate were what my camera wanted for Spring Break. We were both happy.

From Brunate's lighthouse.

Tim and Pablo.

Italy has two suns: Romulus and Remus.

Day 3 - Cinque Terre
This day was the best. For those who don't know, Cinque Terre refers to an area off the Mediterranean in Italy Northwest of Pisa that contains 5 small towns that are connected by trains, trails, and boats (that were not going when we were there because of the cold weather, I presume). It has kept a lot of it's original flavor because it has been dubbed a national park, which keeps large hotels away at the cost of a small entry fee. We stayed in Riomaggiore (Southeastern of the 5), and explored it a little grabbing pesto pizza for breakfast and some lunch snacks for the trail on our way out of town. La Via dell'amore connected us to the next town, Manarola, as we tried to take in the sound of the Sea crashing on the rocks at the base of the cliff below us and the views of the coastal towns that pocket parts of the procession. Manarola is a lot like Riomaggiore in layout - one larger street up the middle with smaller streets branching off it. We enjoyed a terraced park on the way out of Manarola and ended up playing with pictures more than the little playground there. We were sad we couldn't capture the huge gusts of wind and roaring of the ocean below.

Manarola.

Between towns.


Vernazza.

It was a longer walk to Corniglia which was made even longer since we explored a path down to a boat ramp at the water's level. I'm sure all of us thought we were good at guessing which waves were going to make the highest splash, but that's probably cause we pretty much guessed each one hoping they would consistently get bigger and bigger. Corniglia is the only 1 of the 5 that isn't directly off the water due to the minor detail of the huge cliff it's built atop. We did get a view of the advertised nude beach that followed the town which was lacking of both people and sand (beach apparently means 'large, uncomfortable rocks'). It was a longer walk to Vernazza, but well worth it. It surprised me as I stood over it since we didn't get any approaching views. This one is unarguably the best of all 5 complete with a piazza full of the locals boats, a castle tower, a place to watch the waves crash up by you, and, of course, more pesto pizza. After enjoying all it had to offer we took the train to Monterosso, the last from Riomaggiore, since it was getting dark. Monterosso is the only one with an actual beach of sand. Along it were a few restaurants on piers and there was a huge rock that was in the center of a stretch of sand that had lights on it to help with the high-tide pictures. I wish there was a light on the end of the beach where it hit the 150' cliff because the waves washed so high that they started to rain down on us when the wind kicked em. Not much activity in Monterosso so we returned to our submarine room in Riomaggiore after battling (and losing) the train system.

Day 4 - Pisa, Lucca
Pisa = overrated. Lucca = underrated. Oh how I tried to convince my travel team of this, but to no avail. 'We're so close, let's just stop for a quick picture'. The quick pic was enjoyable, but left us arriving in Lucca at 6pm only to find no direct train to Rome (train ticketers = liars) and no luggage storage at the station. With just enough time to carry the bags to the amphitheater piazza and back to the station I got enough of a taste to have great expectations for a return visit (possibly after school). I wish I could be there for their annual Summer music festival to see such favorites as Feist, John Legend, Ricky Martin, and more. Maybe next year.

All in all, a great Spring Break of relaxing or running. We were all glad to be back in the Rome we've come to know as home. It really did feel like home.

PS. It was really cold and really rainy the next day, Easter Sunday. "How fitting," I thought, as I puddle-hopped to St. Peter's in hopes to see the Pope's umbrella.