Broke Girl Travelling: February 2013

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Cinque Terre

Wow Cinque Terre, where do I even begin? It is so incredibly beautiful. I'm so in love!

For those of you who don't know, Cinque Terre means five lands and as you can probably guess it is made up of five villages... Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarolo and Riomagiore. Cars are not allowed in most areas of the villages and so the best way to travel between the villages is either by train or by foot. There are foot tracks running between the five villages, many of which are along the coast so it would make for a beautiful walk for those who enjoy it. Personally seeing as I only had a day to spend in Cinque Terre, I didn't particularly want to spend the whole day walking between the villages and preferred to explore the villages in more depths so I chose the train option. If you're like me and do choose to go with the train option it is highly recommended that you get a Cinque Terre train card. For only €10 you can use the frequent trains as often as you like for a day as well as use of the local buses, access to the trail as well as entry to a few tiny museums.

My personal favourite out of the five villages was Manarolo. You get the most incredible view there and as it was the last village that I went to I was able to watch the sunset. Definitely one of the highlights of my life. I also really enjoyed Vernazza, I managed to find a gelato store that was opened (I went on a Saturday in the middle of Winter) and just sat on the rocks, watching the waves crash and a few men fishing.

Manarolo

Riomaggiore

While waiting for the train in Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore

Vernazza

There's something I find strangely beautiful about this

While waiting for the train

Vernazza

Corniglia

Manarolo

Manarolo
Don't ask me why but I love little stuff like this

Sunset in Manarolo

Manarolo

Sunset and silhouettes

Manarolo

More Manarolo

Picture perfect sunset

Me in Riomaggiore

GELATO!

While waiting for the train

Me in Manarolo

Manarolo as the sun is setting

Cinque Terre isn't the kind of place I would want to live in, I love my busy cities, but its definitely a great place to go to just to get away from the busyness and really just to sit down, slow down and really just appreciate and take in the beauty around you.

Til next time

Flo xx

A week in the Italian Alps

Right after New Years, my host family and I went on a ski trip to Vigo di Fassa, a village in the region of Trentino and approximately a 4.5 hour drive from Genova. We spent 6 days there and being the broke traveller that I am I couldn't afford to ski or snowboard so during those 6 days I went up the mountain to watch Emma ski, and pretty much just chill out on the mountain and take in the beauty of it, hard to complain hahaha. I spent two days visiting nearby villages such as Canazei with my host mum, Maria Rosaria, and doing short hikes between villages.

Being the last minute packer that I am, I was packing the day before we left when Emma comes into my room and hands me a stocking as in like a Christmas stocking to put in my luggage, I was confused (bear in mind that this was on New Years day) and with the language barrier between Emma and I, I just thanked Emma and took the stocking but didn't put it into my luggage since I had already overpacked and didn't really want to carry a stocking that I knew I wouldn't have use for. Turns out I needed that stocking. See the thing is that here in Italy a festive day called Epiphany, a Christian festive day that celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ (yes I did just copy and paste that from wikipedia) and is usually celebrated on January the 6th. According to Italian folktale an old lady called Befana visits all the children of Italy on Epiphany Eve (the night of January the 5th) and puts lollies and presents in the child's sock if they've been good or a lump of coal if they've been bad, similar to the concept of Santa Claus.

Little funny side story, on one of the days that we were heading to Canazei, a village about 12km away from Vigo di Fassa, as we were waiting for the bus at the bus stop, Maria Rosaria gets a call from Michele, my host dad, asking where we were. She tells him we're at the bus stop and he tells her to come get Emma because she was so tired she had fallen asleep on the chairlift going up the slopes. I thought that was the funniest thing I had ever heard, it still gets me!

Woah that's a lot of writing! Anywho I will be blogging again real soon about my trip to the Cinque Terre!
Til then
Flo xx