The Great Italian Backpacking Adventure

So I finally had an experience I've always been dying to have. (And this one's an even bigger thing than the skiing one) I went BACKPACKING through Italy.
7 people.
6 days.
5 towns.
Lehhh go.

Wednesday March 13 - Milan

Classes were as normal Wednesday morning, but after lunch we headed out to the airport to begin our spring break adventure. We flew from Athens to Malpensa Airport in Milan and caught a bus from the airport to the main train station in central Milan. From there we walked about 15 minutes to our hostel.

Milan at night

 Fun facts about hostels! You may just end up with random person in your room if you book one with an uneven number of people (we call them randos) This first night our group was put into two separate rooms, four in one room and three in the other with the rando. He was actually a pretty cool guy from Japan just traveling Italy by himself. You go, Glen Coco. We stuck the boys with him.
We asked our hostel owner for his reccomendation on where to eat - it was 8PM and we were starving. We wanted the BEST pizza, we told him. And he sent us to the right place.

The pizza was a different style than normal Italian pizza (as you'll soon see, typical Italian pizza is very flat) but this pizza was probably the best I had. Ever.

Thursday March 14 - Cinque Terre (Riomaggiore & Monterosso al Mare) and La Spezia

 We woke early the next day for our train to Cinque Terre, the most beautiful place in the world. I may be exaggerating but just look at this place.

 Cinque Terre is made up of 5 cute little towns (Cinque Terre literally means "Five Lands") built into the mountains right next to the sea. We started in the first one, Riomaggiore, and had the best time exploring and climbing to the church on the top. It's seriously the perfect Rachel town. All the people drive colorful cars and live in colorful houses and own colorful boats and are the nicest people in the world. I'm going to live there one day.



We accidentally got stuck in the first town much longer than we planned because of train timing (as you'll soon see trains are TRICKY) but once we got one we jumped the middle three towns and went to the 5th, Monterosso al Mare. It was divided into an old part and a new part, and we ate GELATO and wandered around the streets. (There's a recurring theme in my Italy trip: Pizza and gelato. Pretty much my diet there)

Our hostel was actually in La Spezia, near the Cinque Terra towns but outside of them, so we took another train and walked to the hostel. Our check in time wasn't until later, though, so we found a pizzeria to eat in first.

Did I eat that whole pizza by myself? Yes. Yes I did.

Then back to the hostel. It was THE BEST HOSTEL of our entire trip.We ended up checking in early still and the lady who was the previous hostel owner but still lived there let us in, chattering in English-Italian. "You never know where you're going to be and when," she smiled. "It is the beauty of your age." We loved her instantly.  The hostel felt like a real hotel. We got three rooms with cute decorations and towels (TOWELS. You really appreciate towels when you realize your first hostel doesn't provide them.)

Friday March 15 - Cinque Terre and the Train Station Adventure

The next morning our hostel included breakfast so they gave us passes to a cute cafe across the street to get pastries and tea or coffee. (Oh yeah, did I mention I like hot tea now? My mom's always been obsessed with it but I hated it. After tea time every night at the Artemis and traveling, I love the stuff. Albeit with a bunch of sugar in it.) Then we wandered around La Spezia, going to an Italian market, which was very similar to the Greek market.

 

 Next: Train back to Cinque Terre for the last three towns! We started in the 4th town (Vernazza) with plans of hiking to 3 and finishing in 2 because we consulted good ole guide Rick Steves (our loyal friend during the week) and he said 4 and 2 were the coolest. Our plans were foiled, however, with the hiking trails closed due to landslides. We consoled ourselves with more pizza and gelato.



 We took a train to town 3 (Corniglia) which was different than the other towns. First observation: Not as many cute bright buildings. Second Observation: Holy moly we have to climb that huge hill to even get to the town? Is this even worth it?

It was.  It took awhile to get to the top (so we did get our hike in afterall, ha ha) but the view was great and we found all kinds of fantastic back alleys and a precious dog that followed us around the whole time. So glad that we did do it. (*Note: If you are crammed for time, however, don't hesitate to skip Corniglia. You can get the whole experience from the other towns)





Then the next town: Manarola. In the end I couldn't decide whether I like this town or the first one, Riomaggiore better because they were both so beautiful.

In the center of town!

That night we left Cinque Terre and searched for dinner in La Spezia again. We found a little sandwich shop that looked good and relatively cheap. We stumbled on jackpot. The cute old Italian man saw the group of us and said, "Are you hungry? I give you peppercorn pig and Italian dishes!" and brought out this huge platter of meat and veggies and bread and pies. It was so good. We even got a pic with him :)

Then, are you ready for this? Here comes the mother of all crazy adventures that happened in Italy.

     That night we had a train from La Spezia to Pisa Centrale, then from Pisa to Florence where we had a hostel booked for that night. Funny thing, we got on and we're feeling pretty good. Til we left the station, heard where the train was headed, and realized we were ON THE WRONG TRAIN.
     We weren't that worried at first. I asked a guy on the train, who told me it was headed to Riomaggiore in Cinque Terre  where we could get off and get on a train back to La Spezia. No big. But it took longer than we expected, and once we got back to La Spezia, our right train had left and the next one to Pisa wasn't for TWO HOURS. We debated staying another night in La Spezia, but decided to hunker down at the station, wait for the train, and hope for the best.
    It went downhill from there.
   We finally got to Pisa at midnight. The next train (which turned into a bus) to Florence didn't leave till 1AM. We couldn't get the payphones to work, and when we finally did our hostel told us that was too late to check in (we'd be getting in at 3AM), and told us they were still going to charge us for the room. And it was freezing cold. I don't recommend hanging out at a train station for several hours on a concrete floor. Our best shot, we decided, was to just get to Florence and figure out something from there.
     Hahahaha.

     We rode the sketchiest bus to Florence (Jacob was sure he was going to get stabbed) and we got off with no direction or plan. But wait! What was that, across the street? A big golden arch, hallelujah! I can tell you never in my life have I been happier to see a McDonald's. It meant warmth, a place to sit beside the cold ground, and no sketchy people hanging out.
    Well I was wrong about the last part. Once we were inside we soon discovered this was no ordinary McDonalds. It was CRAZY CROWDED inside. And it was huge, with a big eating area and even a downstairs. There was club music playing. I'm pretty sure the sobriety levels of most of the people in the room was questionable. And there was a girl across the room from us that looked like she had been shooting heroin all night and was now rocking back and forth in her chair with her eyes fluttering open and shut.
   Jacob and Allison decided to try their luck walking around trying to find an open hostel or somewhere we could stay. They were gone an hour, while the other 5 of us watched heroin girl and tried not to fall asleep. That's another thing. You can't fall asleep in this McDonalds. A huge black bouncer looking guy would walk around and shake you to wake you up if you nodded off. No cat naps for anyone. Over an hour had gone by when they returned. They went to 30 some odd places and they were all either 1.Closed 2. Full 3. Lying. (It was 3AM though, mind you, so I kind of understand them not wanting to deal with us.
   A glimmer of hope then: finally we called Dr. J in Greece who gave us the Harding University in Florence's number. Their assistant director, Kyle, gave us instructions to ride a tram for 20 minutes and he would pick us up. He took us to the HUF bible school where Kyle and his wife showed us rooms and showers. It was such a God thing and we were extremely grateful to catch sleep for even just 4 hours.
   So there's the great McDonald's escapade.

Saturday March 16 - FLORENCE

The rest of our time in Florence was lovely. We met up with some of the HUF kids and they showed us the highlights. In no matter of time at all I was in love with the city. We saw the Duomo and the David statue and wandered around the town square looking at shops and the old buildings and the bridges. We were also with another HUG group so we ate dinner with them that night. Pasta=heavenly. Unfortunately we only had that one day in Florence, and then we were headed on another train to ROME.

Sunday March 17 - ROME

Due to our lack of sleep the night before we slept in a bit and got a late start on Rome the next day. We were further slowed down by a MARATHON going on at the Colosseum. What! Come on, St. Patrick's Day!
We loved it and got a lot done though. We saw the Colosseum, ate more pizza, walked by the Roman Forum, took a metro to the Spanish Steps and walked to the Trevi Fountain.

 

At the Travi Fountain we ate the best gelato in the world (I'M NOT EVEN JOKING.) I had chocolate and caramel and it was divine. 

After that we walked around the shopping area, pretending we were rich and snooty and could afford all the expensive stuff in Louie Vuitton and Burberry. And then...I'm a little ashamed to admit this...but our first night in Rome we ate McDonald's. You'd think the previous night would have scarred us, but we had eaten Italian for every meal since getting there and we were all wanting some good old American greasy burgers and fries. No regret.

Monday March 18 - ROME Day 2 - Vatican City

We made up for lost time on Sunday by getting an early start Monday. We went straight to the Vatican City! (Fun fact: One of our HUG groups was there the night the new pope was chosen!) It was super crowded Monday because the Sistine chapel had been closed for the Pope election. It started raining for the hour and a half we waited in line for the Vatican Museum, but we had a great time playing dumb games in line that passed the time. We even got a student discount with our ISIC cards and got in for 8 euros.

The Museum was beautiful - it was completely filled with old paintings and tapestries and maps and sculptures. Room after room after room was covered. Amazing. Finally we got to the Sistine chapel. We were packed in there pretty tightly and there were lots of guards shushing the whole group, but it was incredible. The famous picture of The Creation of Adam wasn't as big as I thought it was going to be, but it was such a surreal moment to be in a room of such ancient wonders. (Also no pics allowed inside Sistine Chapel)

After the Museum we ate a really late lunch at 3PM at a cute Italian place decorated like Cinque Terre. Allison and I split the biggest calzone in the world.

  We then headed to St. Peter's Basilica - it was ginormous. I keep using the same adjectives, but it was just beautiful. There was some kind of service going on with singing that we listened to for a little bit.

The original plan was to take the metro back to the Spanish steps to see them and the Trevi fountain again, but we all really wanted to just walk around and see the city - so we did. We walked for awhile, over the bridge from Vatican City to the rest of Rome. We walked through the Piazza Navona to the Pantheon, with perfect timing because it closed shortly after we got there. Then we walked to the Trevi fountain again, threw more coins, and bought pizza and gelato from our favorite shop. Afterwards we took a metro to the northern part of the city where a park is with a beautiful view of the Rome cityscape was. It was the perfect ending to the day and our trip to Italy.

The next day we flew home with almost no trouble...if you don't consider leaving one of group members behind in Rome a problem. We thought we were problem free once we finally figured out which bus to take to the airport, but this trip has a funny way of throwing surprises at us. She forgot to buy her ticket and the flight had no extra spots so we had to board while she stayed behind for a flight the next day. We felt awful leaving her :(She made it home safe by herself though, and it was so nice to be back at the Artemis with the rest of the HUG gang and the same bed every night and not carrying my whole closet on my back everyday.

I loved my backpacking experience, however, and would jump on the opportunity to do it again. You learn so much traveling like that - there's no charter bus to pick you up after an attraction, no adult to take care of you when something goes wrong. It's all up to you and your group to figure it out. Girl Scouts prepared me well. Hahaha. It's also great though because you can go wherever you want, you make your own plans and agenda and have so much freedom and opportunity. AHHH I MISS IT ALREADY.

Anyways, this blog post has taken me forever to sit down and write.  And sorry it's so long! Leaving for Northern Greece in a few days, and then our cruise shortly after that. It's so sad how fast the end is coming...January 15 feels like yesterday. But at the same time it feels like ages ago. I feel like I've grown so much as a person here and learned so much - about myself, about other people, about the world. This experience has been one of the best things to ever happen to me. And I love my HUG family so much. We've all grown so close and being without them for 3 months is going to be really weird.

Okay I'm cutting this off or I'm going to write a novel.

xoxo,
Rachel