Our last day on the cruise was at sea. It hurt to say goodbye to all the pleasures: the new friends, our wonderful waiters, the many activities, the fine dining... And so much more. Our first day off the cruise we spent an hour on the train, heading from Citaveccia, Italy to Rome, Italy. We spent the rest of the day in Rome checking into our hotel and visiting the colosseum. The monuments and history wears on you; it's hard to keep it in perspective that every time you look up you see something monumental. The colosseum is spectacular, still amazing and built in 80 AD. Can't imagine what went on there, but all the gladiators hanging around to take a picture with you helps you conjure up some history....fights to death, I know that!

Today, the 13th, we had until 2:10 for the Vatican. Anyone that has been to vatican city will understand what a small amount of time that is. We woke up early, which is not easy when your on vacation and in a culture that thrives at night. We took the bus to Vatican city, which is walled in, so mid-evil. The city has it's own stamp. The Sistine chapel has god's own plan all drawn out by Michael Angelo: the creation of Adam and the last judgement. St. Peters church is the largest interior in the world, its huge and beautiful. We took the stairs to the top for the best view of Rome in the city. We could see the pantheon, the river, the zoo area....all of it in all of its splendor. As much as we are impressed with it, we're craving nature over all the cement, marble and stone. After our experiences with the Vatican, we took a bus to the Trevvi fountain. It was beautiful... And we didn't forget to throw some coins in. ;)

At 2:10, we boarded the train to a place outside of Cinque Terre. The train took 4 1/2 hours. For dinner we had noodles from a local Hong Kong restaurant after checking into our hotel. Cinque Terre is a place of 5 towns that are all connected by many scenic trails. It is a big nature spot, almost like the mountainous region of Colorado with an ocean also.

The next day, the 14th, was our day for checking out the towns and figuring out what tomorrow would be like on our 6 hour hike. After stopping at Monterosso, the first town, we chose a beach to go swimming. It was a private beach, but we did not know this yet. We swam in the Mediterranean, which to my mom was cold at first, and left our stuff on the beach. When we finished with swimming, we went to get our stuff. I couldn't find my bag. So my mom and I tried to ask staff if they had found it, but none of them spoke good English. That's when we learned it was a private beach. It took a long time of struggling to cross the language barrier before we found my bag with them, and left. It's crazy how hard it is to deal with a language barrier. Using the sun as our drier, we walked around the town dripping salt water onto the cobblestone streets. We met a family from Niwot, Colorado. From Monterosso we jumped on the train and checked out Riomaggiorie, the other end of the 5 towns. We had some amazing pesto there; Cinque Terre is known for how delicious their pesto is, mostly because every ingredient is made there.

Today was our hiking day. We woke up early and took a train to Riomaggiorie and walked to the trail head. At 9:00, it opened. Because some of the trail is closed from landslides, we had to take a detour trail inland. We met two girls, Alie and Trisha, from California who were going the same way. We ended up hiking the whole trail with them, talking all the way. The trail was beautiful, challenging, and steep. It's amazing how one place can be so fertile. We passed through many farms growing pears, basil, lettuce, grapes, strawberries, cherries, apples, and much more, when you looked out into the hills, you saw the very frequent terraces. For a part of the trail, we all were very self conscious, for we were on a small path next to a steep cliff. Each town we passed, we stopped to look around. We also ended up walking in a path through a forest. It smelled amazing, and had marvelous scenery. Near the end of our trail, we crossed paths with a couple that we had met from our cruise. We talked to them a little bit before walking on. When we stepped into Monterosso, the end of our hike, we said our goodbyes and split up with Alie and Trisha. We walked to the train station and had yet again some more crazily delicious pesto. Before we went to our hotel, we walked along the beach a little bit in Chiavari. Their coastline is also beautiful, with well placed rocks that make the Mediterranian smaller an more quaint. It's a great place to swim.

Tomorrow we leave for Florence and Venice, arivoderche and ciao....