Howdy everyone!

So, I am at my friend’s house in Udine and only have 3G internet service, so I won’t be uploading pictures for this blog, but I will tell you about my day anyway.

This morning I checked out of my hostel around 9:45 and walked to the train station. I bought my ticket to Udine and then went to a cafe by the station. I had a Nutella croissant and a cappuccino before I walked back to the station. I found my train without a problem and sat with an older couple from South Carolina that were going to Venice for their anniversary. They were really nice, but I felt bad for them because they were using the Rick Steve’s guides and had NO clue what was going on or what to do when they arrived in Venice…

I got to Venezia Mestre station around 2 and immediately got on the train to Udine. I accidentally sat in the 2nd class section although I purchased a first class ticket, but it was alright. That train ride lasted about 2 hours and I arrived in Udine around 3, where I met my friend. We walked all around Udine and visited several churches, a castle, a library, a mall, a museum, and the city center.

The museum we went to was the baptistery was attached to the Udine Duomo. It was so funny because the guide for the museum was a former history professor. He was old and drunk and was talking crazzzy! After the church we just walked around and I took lots of pictures.

Udine is really interesting. It looks very German and they have preserved the city SO well. There are barely any modern buildings! It is also only 4 hours from Austria and has a rich history, so the architecture is really unique and different than anything I have seen in the rest of Italy.

After we walked around the entire city, we stopped at a bar and I had a couple of glasses of wine (it definitely made my feet feel better, hahaha)!

We came back to my friend’s house and I met her parents and we had dinner (chicken, a Russian vegetable salad, bread, and cheese) and now we are just having wine and talking. She lives in Tavagnacco, which is a suburb of Udine.

Tomorrow we are going to Codroipo and Lignano. Hopefully I will be able to find WiFi somewhere so that I can add some pictures to this blog and write my post for tomorrow, but if not, I will write the posts and put them in a queue to be published once I get a better connection.

Hopefully I will talk to you guys tomorrow, but if not, just stick with me and I will have lots of interesting things to write about in a few days when I get to Bassano del Grappa! 🙂

So, I forgot to tell you guys something yesterday. I almost punched this ratchet woman in the throat. In the Church of Santa Margherita de’ Cerchi (Dante’s church) there is a shrine/monument/memorial to Beatrice, of course. Well, apparently people bring letters here and leave them for her. Well, I was in the church, just sitting and admiring and this group of Americans came in and were talking all loud. There was a lady in the group and you could tell she was trying to be the tour guide of her group. So, she starts telling them about Beatrice and Dante and walks over to her monument and there is a basket there full of letters, and what does this bia start doing? PICKING UP THE LETTERS AND READING THEM TO HER FRIENDS. No. Full stop. Tap the brakes lady. Who does that?! Don’t get me wrong, I am always intrigued to read the notes people leave for saints and whatnot, but I would NEVER, ever pick up someone’s intimate letter about their love life and read it like a magazine. I gave her the stink-eye from HELL and walked out.

Anyway, today was AMAZING! I didn’t know what I was going to do when I woke up this morning. I had planned to go to Pisa, but last night two of my friends on Facebook said I should go to Cinque Terre instead; I took their suggestion. I woke up at about 9 and left my place about 10. My hostel is literally 200 yards from the train station, so it is REALLY convenient. I went to the station and got my ticket to Cinque Terre and I bought the return ticket too because I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to get a return ticket later on. I had to go from Firenze S.M.N. to Pisa Centrale to La Spezia to Riomaggiore. Now, mind you, I have only seen Cinque Terre in magazines and books and recently saw a classmate give a presentation about it-that’s it.

So I successfully navigated my way through the train stations, but I realized why I have had such trouble. I have never had to read a train ticket or schedule and I just had to learn it on the fly. So, here’s a tip for any other naive travelers like me: when you look at your ticket and it says your destination, that may or may not be the destination of the train your supposed to get on. Like, you may be going to stop 23 of 35, so the train your supposed to get on will be called/listed as the final destination on that line, not the destination on your ticket. So, when you get off your train at a connecting station, don’t look for a train going to your destination, look for the train going to the final stop on the line you need to be on. Also, they have paper schedules printed at all stations in Italy, but make sure you pay attention because the holiday, weekend, and weekday schedules are all jumbled together on one page, with a very confusing key at the bottom.

I arrived in Riomaggiore and bought a Cinque Terre Card for 12 Euro. You get unlimited access to the trains in the area and the national park and walking trails, so it’s definitely worth it (if you get caught w/o a metro ticket the charge is 50 Euros)-you can also purchase WiFi access if you want it. After purchasing that I decided to go to the most northern village. I went to Monterosso al Mare and walked down to the beach.

I found a few pieces of sea glass and put my feet in the ocean, but this village was realllllly tourist-y. There were a bunch of women on the beach charging for massages and I thought that was such a smart idea! I hadn’t eaten and it was like 2, so I got a gelato and an espresso, before heading back down the coast.

I didn’t stop at Vernazza or Corniglia, but I went onto Manarola since it was closer to Riomaggiore and I was paranoid about missing my train to Florence. I wish I would have spent the entire day in Manarola. On the train to Manarola I met a Korean woman that had gone to Georgetown. I knew she was Korean because I saw her guidebook, but she asked me where I was from and after I told her, I asked her the same and she said she was Korean so I said, “Anyonghasaeyo” and she was all happy.

Manarola is PHENOMENAL.

Everything you think about Cinque Terre is Manarola. When I got to Manarola I walked to the center of the town and started up this trail near a cemetery (I want to be buried there-seriously), but broke away from the group and just started walking up random steps. I got to an area with all these private vineyards and gardens and kept walking on any trail I could find.

 

I finally joined back up to the actual trail and went into the Church of San Lorenzo. There was a list of men on the bell tower, whom I assume were killed at sea.

On the trail to the church there was a crucifix on the mountain and all of these old people were hanging out around it and leaving flowers and chatting.

 

Little did I know, that was just the start of the Jesus! There were all of these stations of the cross on the mountain and apparently at certain times of the year they light up at night! It was so interesting. You may think you love Jesus, but Manarola loves Jesus more than you, haha!

 

After the church I walked back down towards the sea and decided to get some food. I just put it all in my bag and caught the train to Riomaggiore. Once I arrived at Riomaggiore I ate part of my dinner and then hopped the train back to Florence.

 

On the train I met this Argentine guy that was visiting Italy with 7 of his family members (wife, kids, brother, dad). His dad had immigrated to Argentina after the war and they were all back to visit for the first time. I spoke to him in Spanish for 40 minutes and even used the ‘vosotros’ form! First he asked me what the next stop on the train was and I accurately told him. He thought I was Italian, but I told him I was from Texas and he said that I didn’t look Texan, but that I looked Italian…my response: QUE BUENO! His accent was really difficult to understand, but I was able to respond pretty accurately, and say “…y vosotros?” a lot, hahaha! I couldn’t remember past tense very well, but I was super proud of myself for remembering vosotros form.

I didn’t get back to Florence until 9:30. I left the station and stopped at this pastry shop and go two mini Nutella Cannolis and went back to my room. I had an awesome day and feel so confident now, since I was able to successfully navigate and talk to people! So happy I went  to Cinque Terre. Today was EPIC!

(here’s the sunset from the train…this picture is horrible doesn’t do it justice, but it was the prettiest sunset I’ve ever seen)

There was party on the street outside my hostel last night and they were going hard in the paint until like 3 in the morning and I couldn’t sleep after that, so I got a LATE start. Last night I washed my hair and I put it in a nice twisted bun to dry because I didn’t want to use my hairdryer at such a late hour in the hostel.

Well, this morning after I got dressed and did my makeup, I decided to straighten my hair and so I plugged my straightener in. I have a CHI and I’ve used different CHIs overseas before and they worked pretty good. Not. This. Morning. I am pretty sure I fried my straightener. I plugged it in and let it heat up while I finished getting dressed and I thought I smelled something. I went over to the sink and it was SMOKING!  I unplugged it immediately, but that meant that I had to wear my hair “curly” today…aka frizz central!

After that, I busted out my map and decided to explore the area around Santa Croce.

I’ve been to the Santa Croce 3 times, but I only went there and back to the area around the Duomo. I left my hostel and went to Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi. I’d seen all these posters around Florence for an exhibit that was going on, but I didn’t know it was there. It was really beautiful. It was comparing and contrasting the works of Pontormo and Rosso (I got in for free with my FirenzeCard). It was funny because yesterday I wrote about my inability to decipher art and appreciate it, but this exhibit was awesome! It compared the two artists works from early on, throughout their careers.  One of them was loyal to the Medici family and the other was funded by Florentine aristocrats. Although they were part of the same artistic school, they evolved very differently overtime. It was really neat to see. I think Rosso was the better illustrator, but Pontromo was the better painter and his use of color was RIDICULOUS!

I couldn’t take pictures, but here is a video for the exhibit:

After that, I walked through Piazza della Repubblica and stumbled upon Museo Casa di Dante. I went to Dante’s home and his personal chapel! I haven’t read the Divine Comedy all the way through, but I recently bought a copy and read about 50 pages. I really liked seeing his personal chapel!

While I was there, I saw this place that was selling tripe sandwiches and I wanted to try one so bad, but was afraid of getting sick before starting my day. I might go back and get one on Saturday so that if it’s bad I will have time to recover! 😛

After seeing Dante’s home and chapel, I walked to Santa Croce. Thankfully, I got to skip the entrance line because I had a FirenzeCard so I got in really quick and walked around and took lots of pictures!

After Santa Croce I walked to the Jewish synagogue and museum (it was closed), then to the Basilica della SS. Annunziata. Walking through the streets on that side of town was so interesting! There were all these posters about police violence and there was a political rally going on (elections are coming up at the end of this month)!

I saw some cool street art and some other cool stuff!

It was absolutely GORGEOUS. It is within sight of the Duomo, which I couldn’t believe. I have never been their before and it is definitely one of my favorite churches I have ever been to in Italy! I would definitely suggest going to SS. Annuziata if you ever visit Florence. After the Bell Tower and the Accademia, this is definitely the best thing to see in this city! These women were in there praying and it was beautiful to hear.

 

After that church I walked back towards my hostel and got a gelato because I hadn’t eaten all day.

I was so thirsty and grabbed a water too, but I took a big gulp and realized it was the fizzy water…BLEH! I went back to my hostel and dropped off my stuff and then ventured to that eatery I went to yesterday. That guy is so nice and it is so reasonable. It is on the corner of Via dell’Albero and Via Palazzuolo! I got a bottle of wine, a salad, some pasta, and a liter of water for 14 Euros!

I came back to my room and realized there is a club under my room (that explains the partying last night) and there was an Italian band down there playing Folsom Prison Blues! So, now I’m tipsy and listening to some Italian dudes cover Neil Young and Johnny Cash, which is pretty rad. I will definitely venture down to this bar tomorrow night, since it’s literally underneath my bed!

I didn’t meet any new people today, but I did get into 3 more places for free with my FirenzeCard and took a lot of pictures.

Today was a slow, but a beautiful day. Tomorrow I am leaving Florence. I don’t know if I am going to Pisa or Cinque Terre! It should be more action packed than today.

Thanks for reading folks and sorry for the boring material today! 🙂