Throwback

So I kind of forget that I have a blog. And I'm only one post in. Let's see how this goes.

To continue my catch-up from last time, we have to go back to Cinque Terre. This place was already somewhat special to me considering its beauty and the fact that my family traveled there a short eight years ago when I was a snaggletoothed soon-to-be-seventh grader.

Sisters during the rough years...

Poole sibs throwback. (Shamrock shirt anyone?)

Needless to say, I was pretty excited to head back to that glorious land this past Saturday. We went through a tour company, which we thought would be a convenient and pretty cost-effective way to see the 5 Lands. It turned out that so did about 500 other college students, but that was okay because it was perfect weather and just a glorious day.

Vernazza

We began with about an hour in Manarola, the second town from the train station of La Spezia.

From there we took the very crowded train to Vernazza where we ate delicious pesto pizza and cinnamon gelato, of course. Being back in that place was surreal.

From Vernazza we hiked to Monterosso al Mare. While fairly arduous, we were prepared with our tennis shoes unlike the people in front of us who walked the 6 miles in rubber flip-flops and bikinis. They seemed to regret their decision, but we certainly did not. We were rewarded with views like these: 

We ended the day with a couple of hours at the beach, so that was nice if you're into that kind of thing. It's not every day that you lay on a rocky beach with the Mediterranean coast right next to you. The beach was quite crowded, but I was happy to share.

Not too shabby for a Saturday, I'd say.

Finally a Blogger

So. Here it is. After years of following various blogs by various people whom I usually don't know, the time has finally come for me to start my very own. Surprisingly, I actually considered not starting one, hence the two week delay. But, after many FaceTime sessions where it really is hard to put into words how amazing this experience is, I knew where to go. Blogger, of course.

Now that the trivialities are out of the way, let's play catch-up. I've been in the unbelievable city of Florence, or Firenze for you Italiani out there, for exactly two weeks. It's been a time of adjustment, pinching myself because this-just-can't-be-real, and lots of gelato, pizza, and bread. Us UNC kids arrived two weeks before the rest of the students at our school, Lorenzo de'Medici, for a presession that included a "Survival" Italian class and daily cultural activities which have included a trip to a town with the most unbelievable view of Florence, Fiesole, a cooking class and a wine tasting with our new Italian friend, Marco, and a visit to a mosaic artisan workshop where it takes close to a year to finish a 4x6 piece of art.

The view of Florence from Fiesole

These two weeks have also given us a chance to  repeatedly get lost in explore this city I will call home for the next 4 months. We've already discovered some of the best gelaterias and tried our hand at being locals by buying groceries in the Mercato Centrale. We also made it up to Piazzale Michaelangelo for another stunning view of the Florence skyline.

No matter how much exploring I do, though, I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing this outside my window. 

More to come soon.

Sidenote: Shout out to my roommate, Mary, for the blog title. She came up with it after she saw me wear the same shirt 3 times this week. With one 50lb bag, what's a girl to do?