Days 12, 13, 14 Cinque Terre (Monterosso al Mare)

We arrived in Monterosso later in the afternoon after getting on the wrong train.  This was only our 2nd problem with trains.  Not bad, I guess.  When we first got here, I was very excited to see the ocean.  Monterosso is on the Mediterranean and it is beautiful.  The water is so blue and it was very rough; lots of red flags on the beaches.

Monday we decided to go for a hike.  Monterosso is the northern most town of the Cinque Terre.  These are 5 towns that are linked by a walking path.  The path is along the cliffs and is very narrow and steep.  The hike to the next town was supposed to take 1.5 hours.  After being on the hike for only 20 minutes, I was eaten alive by mosquitoes and wanted to turn around.  I am allergic to mosquito bites didn't even want to try it again once we had repellent.  So, on to plan B, as my momma says.  Plan B:  go to the beach!!  We rented beach chairs and an umbrella and relaxed.  I quickly went down to the water to see what it was like.  It was so much warmer than the Pacific which is what I am used to.  I didn't even get cold.  I built a rock/sand castle which did not get washed away by the waves.  The waves were very rough.  Not much else was going on.  This was the relaxing part of our vacation.

We took a train to the next town, Vernazza, instead of hiking to it.  It was a lot like the town where we are staying but smaller.  The next day we spent entirely on the beach.  After it rained on us for a while, it finally cleared up and was a very sunny afternoon.  I spent most of the time reading my "Percy Jackson" book.  (Kind of obsessed to finish the book.)  There were a lot of people on the beach as well.  Most of them seemed to be Italians who vacation here.  This is a popular vacation spot for Italians.  Here are some cool pictures of the area and one of me after I ate a whole bowl of blueberries.  Tomorrow we go to the airport in Milan to get ready to fly home Thursday.  Although this has been a wonderful trip, I am looking forward to going home.  I am not so ready to go back to school Monday.  I hope you have enjoyed my blog.  Goodbye until my next adventure!