The Cinque Terre, Lake Como, Machester, and Home

Posts by Evan Part Three...

THE CINQUE TERRE

Joe really wanted to go to the Cinque Terre because he had friends who had gone there. We all figured we'd just go to appease him and weren't expecting too much- it turned out to be the most amazing day of the trip. Everything about the place is incredible!

For those who don't know what it is, the Cinque Terre is 5 villages (I guess there's six, but there's 5 main ones) built on the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Yes, it is as breathtaking as it sounds.

I don't even know how to recount anything from our time there except to say we all loved it. You can take a train, take a boat, or hike the distance between the villages and, according to the lady at our hotel, the hikes get progressively easier ranging from a 2 hour "very difficult" hike to a 20 minute "lovers stroll." We opted to take a train, hike, take a train, and then hike the final leg.

The first of our hikes was pretty difficult but we managed to all 6 do the hike. We were hiking over narrow, steep, jagged rocks with no ledge on the side of a mountain but the views over mountains and the sea made it all worth it and were the most beautiful sights any of us had ever seen and are beyond words or pictures (but we still have lots of pictures).

The final leg was the second hike we took and it was really easy as they had built a walkway with lots of graffiti all around. We were all exhausted but when we came across some huge rocks, Lauren, Shawn, Joe, and I found the energy to go climb out onto them. It didn't seem nearly as dangerous as the pictures would suggest.

LAKE COMO: DAYS ONE AND TWO
After that, we headed to Lake Como. We were all really looking forward to Lake Como but unfortunately, it rained all day both days we spent there. We stayed at a nice family-run hotel with an old elevator that screeched to a halt and led to lots of laughs (which then resulted in us getting yelled at for being too loud.. oh well).

Day one we ended up sleeping in due to the rain and then went to get something to eat. After we ate, we moved on and ended up at a different restaurant for dessert where Joe ordered the best dessert I've ever seen. It was a strawberry banana concoction of sorts covered in fresh strawberries and bananas (below).

Day two was Easter Sunday and we woke up early to go pick up Joe's friend, Haley, from the airport (they were leaving for their next leg of the trip on Monday). We visited Piacenza, where Mom's grandma Ernestine is from, quickly before looking for some food. After being shut out of about 3 restaurants who were booked for Easter lunch, we decided to go wherever we could find. However, we unknowingly ended up in some weird Chinese-Italian restaurant where nothing aside from plain old cheese (I mean margarita) pizza tasted at all how we expected.

The next morning, the sun was shining just to mock us for being in Lake Como on such lousy days. With the sun shining, the area looked amazing and I'm glad we at least got to see how amazing it looks!

We then dropped Joe and Haley off at the train station and we said goodbye to Joe for another two and a half months.

MANCHESTER

Our trip was essentially over aside from a night in Manchester and a flight home. In Manchester, we (now just Mom, Dad, Lauren, Shawn, and I) went to the mall for the night. We ate some dinner (shockingly, English food tasted really good) and did some shopping (hooray for Manchester United sales!) before heading back for our last night abroad.

This morning, we flew home and landed in Chicago about 3 hours ago. All in all, the trip was beyond all expectations and completely amazing. I thank God for the amazing opportunity I got to do all these incredible things. As a finale of my posts, I present a short list of things I learned in Europe:

1. Trying to catch a taxi in Paris is impossible: Once, we flagged a guy down, he nodded, told us "one minute," and proceeded to drive away and never come back... what?
2. Italians do not care about making money: About 5 times, we walked into a resturant and were told to leave since it was time for siesta. Who turns down customers at 3 in the afternoon? Apparently, tired Italians do!
3. Chinese food + Italian food = Bad: "Weird" is an understatement!
4. All the planning in the world does not mean a flawless trip: See Hotel St. Honore- ridiculous.
5. America's policy of free water and bread is amazing
6. Americans have earned their rep: I've never understood why everyone says Americans are so loud and obnoxious.. we were easily the loudest people everywhere we went!
   

Okay all, that's the trip. Thanks for reading.

God Bless,
Evan