Mes Vacances: Part 1

There is so much to say and I feel as if I may bore you because I could write a novel of just desciptions on landscape, and then another on people. I will touch upon my favorite things.

Sunday: Passport, secret passport fanny pack thing (very good Christmas present from Mama Jan), Euros, more Euros, Train tickets, Eurail, Backpack, Books, Journal, cell phone, Claire, ready to go.

2:15: Claire andI have been standing at the wrong platform for one hour, our train leaves at 2:15. We sprint to our train, and make it on as the doors are closing, phew….
….switch trains in Milan seven hours later. Again, a dead sprint to our platform after waiting for the wrong train and a poor attempt at Italian. However, we made it.
11 hours later we make it to Naples. Best part about the train ride, this wonderful Italian man who really watched after us despite our language barrier. He spoke a little English and did his very best to point us in the right direction and tell us exactly what to do and see while we were in the south of Italy. I am just so blessed because God places such helpful people around me all the time. He will be in engraved in my memory as my Italian “godfather.”

Now it is Monday:
Sorrento: Citrus. Charming little town just on the Mediterranean filled with oranges, lemons, pesto, and pizza. An excellent combination.
Pompeii: I loved imaging life in this ancient Roman city.
Tuesday:
Capri: Capri is a little island, just off the coast of Sorrento. It is about a 30 minute ferry ride. Capri is this beautiful island surrounded by breathtaking cliffs, and unbelievable blue water. Roman emperors used to vacation in Capri, and other historical figures such as Oscar Wilde, D.H. Lawrence, and Roosevelt and Churchill had a few meetings on this small island, oh and how could I forget Mariah Carey’s villa there. Once we arrived on Capri, Claire and I did exactly what our Rick Steve travel guide said. We went directly to the Blue Grotto. The Blue Grotto is this beautiful little cavern hidden in the cliffs. In order to get to the Blue Grotto you must take a large boat to the location, then get in a teeny little canoe type boat, once in the canoe boat with one other person and the guide, you got into this little opening. You have to duck to get into. Once in the cavern, there is an indescribable blue light. The sunlight passes though an underwater cavity and then shines up through the water and illuminates the cave. This was the ancient swimming pool on emperors, and there are steps that go up to their villas. Also once there were Roman statues found in the cavern. Today, locals still go swimming in it after all the tours are done.

Wednesday: Florence, good gelato, good friends from Georgia.

Thursday: Florence, more gelato.

Friday: Trains in Italy decide to strike, and we must take a 6 am train to La Spezia. I am really happy they went on strike actually because we arrived in Cinque Terre really early, and then we had to take a boat instead on a train from the bigger city of La Spezia where our train arrived to the little fishing villages of Cinque Terre. The boat ride was awesome just along the coast on the Italian Riveria.
Arrived in Riomaggiore, the southernmost town of the five fishing villages in Cinque Terra. I am going to have to borrow this description from Rick Steve travel book, “Eighteen kilometers of sheer rocky coastline in northern Italy, terraced hills and vineyards sloping steeply down to the sea. Five little villages are built into the rocks between the beach and the hills. You can hike, swim, drink red wine, and watch blazing Mediterranean sunsets away from the tourist throngs in the Italian cities and the French Riviera. Centuries old footpaths and mule tracks wind about 500 to 1,000 feet above the sea, leading through olive groves and vineyards, orchards and chestnut woods.Each village has its own character, they are a few minutes apart by train.There are almost no cars as the villages are not easily accessible by road.”
So that is Cinque Terre, there is a beautiful seven mile trail from the first town ( where Claire and I stayed) to the fifth town. The trail was so beautiful that after we did it once, relaxed, ate, swam, we had to do it again. Cinque Terre is by far the most the most beautiful place I have ever seen in Italy. It was this little utopia almost, that as so untouched by the modern world, and no one seems to be capitalizing on tourism but every citizen subtly reaping the benefits of their beautiful villages and not changing a thing from their daily lives.

Sunday: We peeled ourselves off the beaches, and headed to Switzerland.