bloghissimo: The Farewell Tour

It's really crazy to think that a year ago yesterday, I first arrived in Bologna, Italy (especially since I'm still trying to finish writing the posts about my whole trip). I still remember the bus ride from the airport. I was so excited, but the streets between Aeroporto G. Marconi and Via Ugo Bassi did not exactly have the picturesque Italian charm that I had expected. The layer of two day-old, semi-melted, brown snow scattered over the sidewalks and the fact that all the shops in town were closed for the holiday, La Befana, didn't exactly help either. Luckily, my six month stay made up for my initial disappointment when I felt like Italy was not the country I had hoped it to be. Italy turned out to be a lot more complex than I ever gave it credit for - a lot more than just hillside towns filled with men who drive vespas and Italian mothers who can cook up delicious pasta. It's still just amazing for me to think about how lucky I am that I got to have such an incredible experience to really get to know a country that I love so much.

And now pictures from my last days in Italy. My brother, Jimmy, came to visit, and we went on a pretty crazy whirlwind tour of Italy. We had about five days to cram in as many sites as possible (before going to GREECE), and we saw A LOT. Venice, Bologna, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence, Rome. I said that I planned this all out to make sure Jimmy could see everything he wanted in Italy during his short stay, but it was also a chance for me to see everything one last time (and the first time for Cinque Terre) before going back home.

Jimmy's first calzone in Italia.

Venezia.

Cinque Terre. This turned out to be a highlight of Jimmy's visit and one of my favorite places in all of Italy. Yes, I skipped through most of the Venice pictures, because I've posted plenty of pictures on Venice before, so to avoid making my dad wait even longer to read this we'll just skip ahead to some new stuff, va bene?

Jimmy was still very jet-lagged and slightly sick. Up to this point I felt a little bit like a personal trainer encouraging him to do some more sight-seeing (Come on! We're almost there! Two more steps, and we'll be at St. Mark's Square!), so I wasn't sure how he'd make it through the 10km trek and up over 600m. Turns out he was the one ahead of me the whole time which you might not guess by looking at this picture.

Riomaggiore, the first of the cinque terre, or "five lands." The hiking trail connects five separate towns along the Italian Riviera and has beautiful views from steep cliffs perfect for plummeting to your death if you slip along the way.

Jimmy hasn't seen the steep cliffs yet.

Via dell'Amore. Turns out Cinque Terre is quite the romantic vacation spot. This led to many incorrect assumptions. "No, no, we're brother and sister."

Cinque terre tra cielo e mare. Five lands between sky and sea.

Manarola. The second town! The beginning of the trail is deceptively easy.

Corniglia. Third town. Still pretty easy...

Wandering off into the wilderness.

Vernazza. Ok, I took out a lot of the crazy trek up to this point which included about a million stairs. Wikipedia says it's only 368, but as all professors say, Wikipedia isn't exactly the most reliable source, so let's just go with about a million.

Finally! We made it to Monterosso! Luckily for you, I have chosen not to include the picture of me from the end of this hike. We amazingly completed the whole trail including Gatorade and picture breaks in about five hours. Wikipedia says this is possible, but don't let it fool you. This was a really great feat. Wikipedia, stop belittling our accomplishment.

No time to rest. The next day we headed to Florence. Here's our old good friend, the Duomo.

This time, there were a lot more people around.

Piazzale Michelangelo. Another great hike. It was cool to come back here since I'd last seen this sweeping view of the Tuscan hillside and the city and Florence back in February when everything was a little gloomier.