My Favorite Place

Cinque Terre is one of those places that you go to and never want to leave. The five small towns that dot the coastline of the Liguria region of Italy are probably one of the most hidden, but favorited places to travel to.
If you've been looking for a place with swimming, not many or no tourists, and a relaxing lifestyle in a quaint town, you've found it.

When I traveled here, we stayed in the city of Riomaggiore. This town was exactly what we needed to relax and then to have more adventures.

Since this is one of 5 towns within this Cinque Terre area, it was on the end of it, which meant we could get from one to the other pretty easily.
We spent one day hiking from here to the other end (through all these cities) of Vernazza, where we ended with swimming and a quick train ride back.

The next day we hiked the opposite direction, away from Vernazza and the rest, our end spot was Porto Venere, where we caught a boat ride back to where we were staying.

Both hikes were very manageable and fairly easy to do, although I would say to keep a buddy with you, because hiking alone can be a bit confusing. I did get lost on a couple occasions because I'm a slow hiker and got left behind. All in all though, I got back and there was no harm done.

The sites through the hike are gorgeous and worth taking your time anyways! I mean, it's Italy!
Hiking through some precariously placed vineyards, rocky outcroppings, and tree covered paths, it was a great experience.

We also spent 4th of July here, which was fun in itself! In Riomaggiore, the central bar is actually run and owned by Americans (if I remember correctly) and they helped us to celebrate in style! Live music and lots of beer for the chaperones (no we were not allowed to drink on this trip, only sporadically in Belgium and France, with supervision).

I think the best thing about staying here was our rented apartment. It was amazingly airy and we left the windows open a lot. So much space and a kitchen to make food! And the view wasn't half bad either, although we were not right next to the water, it was still awesome.
Although the 114 stairs up to it (yes we counted each stair) was a pain when you're tired.

This is one of my favorite places I've ever been. Everything is just a little bit slower paced. It was relaxed and you got to go and do what you pleased.
The little market shop was perfect to buy food and then go home and cook it. You just can't really beat the small town feel when it has such a great atmosphere.

I would go back in a heartbeat.

Where is your favorite place that you have been?

Cheers and safe travels!

Flashback to Switzerland

In 2010, I went on an amazing month long Eurotour after I graduated high school, with a bunch of other kids and some teachers from there.

One stop which was very memorable to me was our stop in Switzerland, Gimmelwald to be exact.
Taking the gondola up to Murren and trekking down to our mountain hostel, which is an awesome place in itself (here), we knew why we were staying here.

The mountain views, the crisp fresh air, the hundreds of cow bells clanking in the hills. It was wonderful.

But the ultimate reason was to really take a long, strenuous hike up to the top of one of the mountains, the Schilthorn, which you may have seen in a James Bond movie at some time.
This hike was grueling for me and made me very nervous. I'm not good at hiking and I didn't know if I would be stuck climbing by myself (because I'm slow) or be the last one up.

I stuck by one of my friends who seemed to have a tough time from the dinner we had eaten the night before.
Pause: He actually did have trouble from that and had to be taken to the hospital after the hike. He had a piece of food lodged in his throat which was making it hard for him to breathe and swallow. He was ok though!
We hiked together and stopped when either of us needed to, also taking pictures for each other a long the way.

Him with a Swiss cow.

Me at the mountain lake, somewhat near the top!

The tricky thing about hiking up here, is that there weren't any markers, just a slight path to follow that went away at certain point in the journey. Rocky outcroppings and a really sketchy narrow path (surrounded by a drop on both sides, this next picture doesn't do it justice) It was definitely an interesting hike.

While this was probably one of the hardest things I have done, it was altogether worth it.
I made it up to the top in about 4 and a half hours and I proudly say this is a great accomplishment of mine.
I didn't even know if I could make it all the way up, but I did it!

Definitely recommendation if you're ever in this area of the world. You might regret it while you're in the process of hiking up, but you won't regret it after.

More to come from this past trip and my upcoming one!

Safe travels!
















(This is Piz Gloria at the top, a revolving restaurant!)