Pisa and Cinque Terre

Last weekend, Erin and I took a trip to Pisa and Cinque Terre. We hadn’t originally planned on going to Pisa, but it actually turned out to be an easier way to get to Cinque Terre, so it worked out in the end. Pisa was an interesting city, but there was basically nothing else to do there besides look at the Leaning Tower and visit the Duomo.

Cinque Terre was absolutely beautiful. We actually lucked out quite a bit as, according to the weather forecast all week, it was supposed to rain while we were there. We had packed accordingly and everything in our backpacks was wrapped in multiple plastic bags to make sure it would be dry. I also packed a few extra pieces of clothing and an extra sweatshirt in case it rained. However, when we got there, it was very bright out with just a few clouds in the sky, not to mention very warm. Oh well, at least we were prepared. We arrived in Monterosso, the northernmost town in the Cinque Terre, and, after getting a little lost a couple times, found our way to the hiking trail leading to Vernazza, the next town over. The hike from Monterosso to Vernazza is the hardest of the four hikes, but it also has the best views. The trail was very narrow and offered fantastic views of the vineyards and olive groves on the hills themselves and the Mediterranean Sea to our right. Often there was nothing but a steep drop to one side of the trail and the face of the hill on the other. At the end, it rose high above Vernazza before leading us down into town. The town of Vernazza was very quaint and the scenery reminded me a bit of Taormina in Sicily. I’ll post some pictures of the hike and Vernazza once I am able to more easily access my pictures.

So a couple weekends ago I had a fieldtrip to Rome with my Roman Empire class. Our teacher is extremely interested in the subject and very knowledgeable (thankfully) and so he was a great person to go on a trip to Rome with. He showed us nearly everything that still exists of ancient Rome in Rome today. The only bad thing was that, since he was trying to fit so much at once, we weren’t able to stay very long in one place. On our own, Erin and I went to pretty much every other site in Rome that we hadn’t covered on the trip. We went to the Vatican, Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. Unfortunately it was two days before Palm Sunday and fairly late in the evening, so St. Peter’s Basilica was closed, but we were able to see the set up for all the people who would be coming to see the Palm Sunday mass there. The next day, we headed to Ostia Antica, a well preserved ancient Roman city. We have a paper due for that class relatively soon and one of the options is to write about one of the buildings we observed there, but I am doing my project based on a Roman document, so Erin and I were able to just walk around and enjoy the ruins. After that, our teacher took us to Ostia Lido, the beach town of Ostia, for lunch.

Tonight Erin and I ate at the restaurant on the way down to the Minimetro. It's situated right on a cliff and has gorgeous views of the outskirts of Perugia below. They brought two little pieces of pita bread with sliced salami and a bit of cheese on top before the meal. It was a nice start. The waiter was friendly and the atmosphere was surprisingly modern for such an old city. I had the eggplant parmasian, which was pretty good, but not an eye-opening culinary revelation. Erin did not enjoy her papardelle con cingiale nearly as much as the first time she had it at Liz's birthday, but she still liked it. All-in-all, it was definitely worth going to - especially for the wonderful views.

Barcelona, a little late Part II

There is very interesting architecture all throughout the city by the famous architect Antonio Gaudi. He had a very interesting style (you'll see in the photos that I'll upload later). He designed one park, Parc Guell, which is hard to believe, was constructed between 1900 and 1914 considering how whimsical its design is. There are areas made to look like rock formations that feel as if they were pulled straight from Disneyworld. Parc Guell is built on a hill side and had beautiful views of the nearby city. You can see Sagrada Familia, a cathedral which is one of his most famous works on which construction started in 1884 and is still going on. Another fantastic park was Parc Laberint, which is on a hill a bit outside of the city, but worth the subway ride. It was extremely tranquil and I would have never guessed that I was in a major city until I got a glimpse through the trees of the city and the sea far below. In the center of the park is a large labyrinth, something I’ve always wanted to do but never had a chance to. It was a lot of fun. We also tried some hot chocolate and churros, which Barcelona is famous for. However, Spanish hot chocolate is known for having spices in it, so it wasn’t quite what we were expecting. There was also Font Montjuic, a massive fountain that is light up and grows and swells according to the music being played. We were only able to see a few minutes of the show, but it was excellent. It seemed like something that belonged in Disneyworld.

Barcelona, a little late Part I

So in order to actually get to Barcelona, we first had to take a train in Paris to a bus which then took us on a long journey to the airport. The nice thing about RyanAir, one of the budget airlines I flew, is that, so far as I could tell, they are the only airline that flies out of the airports they fly out of. This is convenient because, once one actually manages to find their way to the airport, there is little question about where they have to go. Getting there is always the adventure, though. They also do not us jetways, so you get to feel rather important walking across the runway and climbing the stairs into the plane.

Barcelona was very enjoyable, however, considering how much I enjoyed Paris, it was a hard adjustment. The layout of much of Barcelona is very gridlike. While this makes it hard to get lost in the newer section of the city and allows for dedicated bike lanes and the like, it seems to take away a bit of the charm most other European cities have. It also makes it a very long process to cross the street. There are parking lots at nearly every intersection which ends up making the intersections into octagons instead of squares, so one cannot simply walk from corner to corner. That aside, the older section of the city does feel much more "European" than the newer section. Running right through the center of the historic section is a street, La Rambla, filled with street performers and merchants ranging from flower merchants and little outdoor pet stores to art stands and places where you can get your caricature drawn. It ran right down to the Mediterranean Sea. Similar to Paris, Barcelona has bikes spread all over the city meant for the locals to use. The way it works is that you subscribe for the year for a relatively low cost (compared to other forms of transportation), around 30EURO I think. You are then able to take a bike from any of the stands throughout the city and you have 30 minutes to get the bike back to another "station".