Cinque Terre

This weekend we visited Cinque Terre which was another great excursion through italian cities. For the first time here we got to have a nice relaxing time on the beach, for a group that lives right by the ocean, and I was able to swim in the Mediterranean for the first time which was one of the many great and new experiences i hope to encounter on this trip. The scenery was beautiful; colorful houses built on the side of the mountains, walkway through the island, and little shops and restaurants on the side of the road. It was definitely nice to get out of the city and experience this kind of small town feel of Italy, and we definitely did not feel like tourists here since most of the people happened to speak English. After spending the morning on the beach in Monterosso we then took a ferry over to the last island of these five islands called Rio Maggiore. On the ferry ride there we were able to see from a distance these groups of Italian mountains that at some points are so high they are in the clouds, or we might have simply been that close to heaven because it was truly beautiful looked like the most peaceful place on earth. When we reached Rio Maggiore we ate a very nice lunch at this small restaurant that you basically have to climb up a hill to get to, like the rest of the town it is built on a winding hill. We got to have some more fun in the sun and the water of course and took turns jumping into the Mediterranean which made everybody's day more fun and exciting. As I was swimming in this blue water that was crystal clear all I wanted to do was freeze time and live the rest of my life like this because I had never felt so at peace. After the long day at the beach we started to head towards the hostel where we were spending the night and that's when I continued to photograph seeing as how I kept stopping during the day to go swimming. Luckily we had a chance to walk around the higher part of the city since our bus wouldn't take us to our stop and I was so interested in the simplistic natural scenes that I had been seeing all day that to me wasn't touristy because they implied a documentary mood of where I was traveling and my relationship with the nature around me. I liked some of the photographs shot that day but I think I was being a little lazy because going into the ocean was so important for me. But the day slowly ended and we walked to our hostel and ate pizza and went to sleep to only wake up 6 hours later to make our train back to Genova. It was a very enjoyable trip and I can wait to see what the other Italian cities have in store for us.

Ciao,
Harry