Where can I even begin with today's activities?! This was one of the coolest days of my life, and an experience I will never forget (partially because I took like 500 pictures). Waking up at 7:45, we enjoyed a delicious free breakfast at the hotel consisting of croissants, meats, cheeses, yogurt, fruit, and water (which is always way too exciting since its so hard to come by water over here!). Meeting Austin in the town square, we began our hike into the mountains! I dubbed myself Ms. Tarzan 2013 after everything we did that day (which Karina pointed out to me would simply be Jane). Reaching the edge of Cinque Terre National Park, we bought a ten euro pass which yielded us access to all the hiking trails and the train until midnight. Cinque Terre consists of five sea towns. Monterosso was the northernmost town, so we planned on hiking south to Vernazza (about two hours) to Corniglia (about two hours), and then taking the train to Manarola and then to Riomaggiore. These trails were shut down, still recovering from the huge mudslides that the towns suffered in October 2011. We were happy that those hikes were only an hour and the other a half hour, so we were getting to hike the longer (and apparently more beautiful and strenuous) trails. What a hike!! The journey from Monterosso to Vernazza was personally my favorite. Pretty much, each of the towns was separated by a mountain or two. You would hike up and down each mountain, wrapping along the coastline. The trail was established, but most of it was natural without any man made additives. There were many stone steps, which would at times last so long that I thought my legs were going to fall off! It was a great workout, and definitely not something for the faint of heart. I could only imagine Kelly sitting down and crying about pure exhaustion! I was thrilled to have brought plenty of water to hydrate, because we were sweating up a storm. We really lucked out with the weather, which was pretty but clouded over for our five hours of hiking. I don't know what that would have been like in the beating sun! The views were absolutely incredible. Along the mountain, there were beautiful trees, wildflowers, farms in the distance, vineyards, lemon trees, and the occasional hut or waterfall. You could hear bugs buzzing, but they really were not too bothersome. As you looked to your right, the stunning never-ending view of the turquoise glass water was spotted with the occasional boat, and was honestly breathtaking. The combination of mountains and water reminded me a bit of our helicopter ride in Hawaii. The best feeling was rounding the mountain and seeing a town in the distance. Each town was similar, yet very different. As we rounded the mountain to spot Vernazza, I couldn't help but smile. The town was a hod podge of gorgeous, old, brightly painted buildings, in pinks, yellows, greens, and blues. Vernazza was down right on the water, with a harbor full of sail boats and vibrant kayaks. Rick Steve's calls it the closest thing to a natural harbor, since the formation is formed by black stone with a cute little beach. As if we hadn't had enough climbing, we dragged ourselves to the top of the town promontory castle and had a beautiful view of the ocean. It was very hard to drag ourselves up the never ending flights of stairs to begin hiking again in the mountains! The next town (after two more hours of hiking!) was Corniglia. On our hike to this city, a fellow Zeta from Missouri spotted our hot pink Viva La Cure shirts and shouted, "I'm a Zeta too!". Another older lady was passing by, and chimed in that she too was a Zeta! It was great to talk to them for a few minutes. Right before reaching Corniglia, we ran into a small hut with a sign "Visitors Welcome. Information." we decided to check it out, and I'm so happy that we did! Dubbed, "The Heart of Cinque Terre," the hut inhabitant had a cute tiny grass terrace overlooking the ocean, and sold things that he made out of local substances. There were necklaces shaved from conch shells, and cork bracelets and boards. I bought Kelly a cute little bracelet :) Corniglia was adorably settled up on a cliff jetting over the water, and is the only one of the five towns not directly on the water. It was probably the quietest of the five towns, but we grabbed lunch at a small eatery. We all had the pesto and tomato focaccia. The region is famous for both their focaccia and pesto, so we knocked out two birds with one stone! Very yummy! We also grabbed gelato at a Rick Steve's recommended place. We needed to fuel up from all our exhausting hiking! We ventured down to the train station, which was quite the descent with never ending walkways downwards. The train ride was less than five minutes to Manarola, which was an INCREDIBLE town! This is probably the town that I had seen the most pictures of. The arrangement of colorful towering buildings truly pops off the coast. Descending from the train station, we reached the completely stone harbor, where tons of people were fishing, sun bathing, and jumping off rocks into the water. The swimming hole looked like so much fun! We managed to follow a trail a bit around the cliff, to get the view of what Manarola looks like coming in from the mountains. Talk about some incredible pictures!! This truly embodied my vision of Cinque Terre, and I could not have been any happier. Reluctant to leave, we caught the next train to the final town, Riomaggiore. From the train station, it did not look very impressive until you reached the rocky inlet and harbor. This town was very beachy-water oriented, from the beach mosaic train station tunnel to many scuba diving facilities throughout the city. There is also a huge, colorful mural on the wall of the town embodying real old time workers of the town, laboring in the vineyards and olive groves. We laid on the rocky walls of the harbor for about a half hour, enjoying the most relaxing part of our day overlooking the glimmering water and sailboats. Looking down the coastline, although faint, you could pick out each of the five little towns. We decided it was time to head back, so we hopped on the train and ventured back to our home town Monterosso. After such a long day, we got back around 7:30. Karina was passed out by 9:15, but I stayed up to study a bit for my midterm on Monday. However, when I laid down, I completely melted into bed as my exhausted body quickly faded into sleep after one of the most adventurous days of my life.