Today I am starting my journey back home. I’m excited but a bit sad. This has been a wonderful, eye opening trip. One of the things I love most about traveling is the experiences that end up changing me; events that happen that really get me thinking. It’s interesting to see how other people live around the world. How simply they live here. One of the things I noticed a lot was people hanging their clothes out the window. In the U.S. that would be kind of ghetto, but here it’s what they do and I love it. I think it makes the city that much more beautiful.

Venice was a crazy experience. I did get lost only once and had to have my friends come get it. It was late and dark and my phone lead me to the wrong area. It’s kind of fun getting lost in Venice, though. It’s like a crazy maze. When you are there, be sure to look UP. There is so many cool things to look at that are above eye level. Get up early in the morning (like 5am early) and walk around the city before anyone else. It’s INCREDIBLE! The beautiful morning light and the quiet city is just amazing. This really happened by accident. I don’t know of a time when I am traveled somewhere and jet lag had me waking up before 4am. My friends who I traveled with also woke up ate 4am so we decided to explore the city. It was the best thing we could have done honestly.

We stayed in Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre. Highly recommended as it’s less touristy than the other cities. It’s such a cute little city too. The buildings are all so colorful and any food you buy there is so good (maybe except Mama Mia’s- but even that is pretty delicious compared to home). There are times when you feel like you aren’t even in Italy, but maybe South America. It’s run down but beautiful at the same time. The water is clear and not too cold (although I didn’t swim in it, I am taking my friend’s word that it was refreshing). Getting up in the early morning is another high recommendation for this area as well. The locals said that June and September are the busiest months, so maybe to try and go in May or October when it’s still nice but not so many people. My friends and I went on a beautiful hike and it wasn’t too busy at 7am. The weather was pleasant too, but did start to warm up by the end of the hike. Hiking is highly recommended as you get to see a lot more of the Cinque Terre (which means 5 towns). If you love beach towns, this is definitely your place to vacation!

My last day was in Genoa (Genova). I decided to take it easy my last day. I just walked the streets and thankfully I was close to famous downtown sites. On a whim I decided to take one of those hop-on hop-off buses. I have done one in almost every city I have been to and always learn a lot, while sitting on my butt – HA! For $15 it was worth it. You can find more about that here: https://city-sightseeing.com/en/home

 

 

They actually use these brooms to sweep the streets. 

This was the view from out room

The following photos are from Cinque Terre. My friends and I took a little hike the second day we were there.

I was getting ready to take some pictures of these cool doors, when this lady was huffing and puffing up the hill with her husband. She stopped and leaned up against the building and just looked at me and laughed. Cinque Terre is all hills and stairs. I don’t blame her at all for taking a break.

These are from Genoa. The city was full of these umbrellas. Some were colorful and some were just white. I never found out what it meant, but I thought they were pretty cool.