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Cinque Terre: (n.) a national park on the northwest coast of Italy; one of the most beautiful and charming places on earth.
After a mere four hour "nap" in Milan, we found ourselves on the oldest train in TrenItalia's fleet. Regardless of its age, this train was taking us to our next stop on the most epic spring break of my life.
We soon were sitting on the patio of our "hostel" that was actually a little cottage perched on the top of the cliffs in Riomaggiore, one of five villages that make up Cinque Terre national park.
That night, we found my favorite bar ever. Not only did it have an amazing view of Riomaggiore and the Mediterranean, but they had Cinque Terre wine ON TAP! The bartender joked with us saying, "We only have two things on tap, Wine and Water." Oh Italia.
That night, we met some people from Indiana and UNC, where Alex goes to school. We spent some time hanging out with them and Stephen ran into his best friend from home, Jillian, who is studying in Sevilla. Yes, small world.
The next day, we hiked!
Within the park, you can hike between the towns along the rocky cliffs that overlook the Mediterranean. If you get tired or are just lazy, you can take a the train in between towns.
Riomaggiore is the southern-most village, which allowed us to make the hike from one end to the other. Unfortunately, the trail was closed between the third town, Corniglia, and the fourth one, Vernazza, so we had to take the train.
In Vernazza, I once again was reminded of how small our world really is. A nasty downpour rolled in and while we took cover underneath an awning, I ran into my friend Derek Zetlin, a BH co-worker who is studying in Prague.
By the time we made it to Monterosso, it was very cold. We put our feet in the Mediterranean and climbed a giant rock that started from the beach and hung out over the sea.
After another wonderful Italian dinner and befriending the trilingual bartender at the only open bar... we hiked up to our hostel to "nap" before catching the train back to Milan for our flight to Cairo.
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