Spring Break Part Who knows

Chapter 4: Jews take Rome Part II
Wed, back in Rome, I resumed heavy touristing - wanting to check out sights missed before. As a break, we went to Apertivo in Trestevre. Tresevre is a cute neighborhood with all these windy streets, each one with little bars and restaurants and typical Italian eateries. Appertivo is kind of like Happy Hour; for 6 or 7 euros you get a drink and a buffet of food. After the stop, explored more of Roma and called it a night.
Thurs aka SEDER!! I came knowing it was passover, and knowing I needed a seder. Chabad offered one for $40 but why go when you can make one? So I made my very first seder (hence the title Jews take Rome). The afternoon was spent looking up recipes and shopping.
In the end I made a nice seder plate by improvising with shot glasses, charoset and bought maror, brought matzah from israel and came with haggadot sent from home by mom; made a festive meal with matzah pizza, soupish and salad and gelato - so italian. A couple IES rome study abroaders came over and we ran through the process alhtough none of them wanted to continue on after the Shulchan Orech (festive meal). Ha I was still happy leading and everyone told the tidbits of info they knew. All in all I was very proud and washed up and cleaned up at the end.

CHAPTER 5 - Cinque Terre
Wake up time was 7 am for me and my friend to hop a train up north. This Italia 4 hr train passed through many famous sites including Pisa which I realllly wanted to see. It was a packed train, unlike the one to Napoli, maybe because it was Friday. We were bombared with old people (who in Italian explained how it was funny that we wanted the window open because we were young) and later, a large Italian family. Very cramped ride. After arriving at the main station in La Spezia, a smaller train was needed to guide us through the Cinque Terre aka "5 villages" linked off the Italian Riviera.
Everyone says its one of the most beautiful places - and it is! It was different than Capri's quaint beauty and instead felt so unique. It was very very touristy but for obvious regions - people of all ages from all around the world come to Cinque Terre because you can hike btwn villages and the outside mountains, lay on the beach coast or sight see the cool aspects of each town.
We took the train alll the way to the last village (each train ride is only like 10 minutes max btwn - some shorter than others). Upon docking at Monterroso del Mar we started looking for a hostel, since we decided to just do the backpacking thing. only 3 minutes after getting off the train..who shows up? ARIANA AND HER 2 FRIENDS!! Turns out they had extra room in their hotel so we could stay! PERFECT!
AFter buying a train/ hike pass, we went back to Riomaggiore aka the 1st village, checked our luggage and began the hikes. The first path btwn Riomaggiore and Manarola is only 20 minutes long and is notoriously easy. Its dubbed the "Via del Amore" for its nice paved coastal path and beautiful surrounding flora. However, it was littered with graffiti which made it so sad for me considering its a "World Heritage Site". Couples had sprinkled initials ON cacti or walls..it took away from the natural wildlife. We ventured on for the next path btwn Manarola and Corniglia. While it was still paved, it was alittle harder and had bits of uphill. Still off the coast, it was beautiufl to look at and only took about an hour to get between. After doing 2 easy little hikes, we were looking for adventure and hoping to find it in Corniglia.
Unfort this 3rd village is situated on a mountain and the only way to get up really is to walk up 366 stairs! Soooo UP we went! Finally at the top of the city we walked around, grabbed some water and searched out a beaten path into the mountains. Finally we found it hidden btwn alleys: 7a. We prob should have read the sign that said it was ranked "Difficult". But we didnt!
So UP more we went! UP and UP and UP. So many stairs winding us up the mountain, away from the villages. While the view was fantastic, the sun was beating down on us and we couldnt help but sweat and huff and puff. It never seemed to end either..When the stairs part ended, the uphill ramps began. Big step ups over fallen trees and OK OK it was a fantastic hike but it was a brutal 1.5 uphill hike that totally kicked my butt! We kept encountering backpackers walking down, so clearly we had gone the wrong way. FInALLY we came to the part were 7a split E and W...we decided to say Byeee to 7a and hello to path 6D!
6D was a very strange path. After a little more uphill, we just came back to a long plain of straight..thankfully. it took us through cute little water collecting homes and finally we left the forest and found ourselves treking through people's farming! There were little machines that climbed the mountains, picking lemons and grapes. It was so cool..we were walking through people's property. It was a gorgeous view where you could see straight down to the sea, but no sign of either of the neighborborhing villages. UNTIL..we started walking into people's HOMES! I'm not kidding, part of our hike took us around someone's backyard where they were doing construction. We waved and continued to take the path through their vegetable garden..through their sheep farm. Talk about surreal - you cant get any more authentic Italian village than that! IT was a nice spin from the touristy Cinque Terre towns but after already 2.5 hrs of hiking, we were getting alittle sick of this mountain. Finally we found ourselves at the end at a town called Volastra. Small and cute located at the top of the mountain, close to Manarola. A quick walk through the town brought us to the continuing end of 6D...another hour of DOWNHILL.
So now that our calves had the workout of a lifetime, it was time to give our quads a go.
It was basically straight stairs down - if you can call them stairs. They were landscaped grass outlined by stone and each one slanted in each direction. To walk quickly, we had to walk on the stone part and not the center grass..but the unevenness started to hurt our feet after 20 minutes. It was def a good 45 minutes to get allll the way down, walking on a couple city roads along the way. We honestly had no idea what to do excpet just keep walking down and hoping it would end! ITs funny to imagine that thats the path people might have to take to work or school or visitng their friends house. UGH.
FINALLY FINALLY we were in the center of Manarola..our legs shaking alittle. We strolled through the city, grabbed a gelato sandwhiched in sweet rolls..great way to end the hike! A train ride back to Riomaggiore and we found Ariana waiting for us!
Exhausted, we were unfort in store for more hiking. Riomagiorre is ALSO located on the top of a hill..I guess every town is? So here I am, lugging my huge suitcase up a veryyy slanted street. And her hotel was located literally at the top of a huge hill in the middle of nowhere. We walked up so many flights of stairs and even if they were alittle shallow, the grueling hikes before made it that much harder.
I've never taken a more relieving shower. The hotel was so funny. It was a attic of a little cabin decorated in red and white with a slanting ceilings and heart pillows. OUr neighbors were a bunch of loud drunk Americans. Whatever atleat the view was good.
Cinque Terre is also well known for its pesto..and the 5 of us agreed that was not something to miss. Our meal consisted of pesto bruchetta, pesto lasagna and pesto noodles. Fantastic. In midst of our meal, we heard a procession. IT was GOOD FRIDAY! All these people dressed in Priestal garb were parading down the main Riomaggiore street, holding a speaker where someone was reciting Italian/Latin? verses. Atleast 200 people were marching, holding candles. But then I saw 2 weird things: one was a stretcher with a statue of Jesus lying in it. The other was a platform carrying a Statue of Mary with knives in her heart? Very strange. They spoke for a while then turned around and walked back towards the church. Only in the Christrian holy land.
We were all sooo tired and passed out early, laughing at the absurdity of our day. The 24 hrs ish: Saturday - Sun I'd like to refer to as the dirtiest day of my life.

Woke up at 9 am since Ariana had to check out, they were headed to Milan early while we were staying for another half a day. Its actually impossible to eat salads or fish in Italy. I was so surprised. Especially for a kid on a budget..the cheapest thing you can find is pizza. No restaurants sell salads! I demanded a banana for breakfast, my body felt so deprived after months of Israeli food = always fruits and veggies.
So we checked our luggage again and decided we wanted some easier hikes. Our orig plan was to take the train to Corniglia and hike to Monterroso. Unfort we missed the train and did the same first 2 paths: Riomaggiore - Corniglia..in prob about an hr. It was much harder this time and our muscles ached. Luckily the train came in Corniglia and we finalllly made it to Vernazza, the 4th town. Our intention really was for an easy hike. Ooops. Ariana told us the day before about the "accidental mountain climb"..Well that would be the Vernazza to Monterrosoo hike. All of a sudden, I'm climbing stairs, rocks about 40 minutes straight uphill. Def needed a couple pauses after the day before. Sweating, we embarked on the rest of the hike. It was a 1.45 hr hike but some of it was crazy! the paths were so narrow! One person could barely walk across and there were no warning signs..Parents carrying babies were walkign across, dogs! Everyone! And if you slipped, it was a good 20 ft down to a cliff..crazy. It was a very pretty hike and we walked next to water and pretty forestry. I found out later that my friend Jason had actually slipped on a couple of wet stairs and fell and badly hurt himself. Seriously THAT is how ridiculous this hike was..it was just not safe to not have any warning signs. Needless to say we were alittle pissed we didnt have any forewarning about it. It did feel great to conque ANOTHER mountain! We were alittle giggly about the people at the base of the mountain who were huffing and puffing about a couple of stairs -- "like goodluck buddies". We kept meeting European families or couples who were just not dressed for the occasion - in like street pants and button downs. Seriously Europe needs some warning signs.
After a great sweaty hike, we ruled out any more. Grabbed pesto lunch at a Monterroso restaurant and slept on the sandy beach for about hour. Changed into street clothes and grabbed some Cinque souveniours like Limoncino (Lemoncello's counterpart) and pesto of course! Around 6 our train for Milan came and we secured our own compartment thank gosh. Italian trains have Harry Potter style compartments where its 6 ina room and a door to the outside. We slept and snacked thankfully. Around 9 or 10 we pulled into Milan. Once again wihtout plans. While we knew people staying around, we were having a very hard time securing a place to put our luggage so we could go out or do something. The train stations luggage compartment opend at 6 am and we though that would be bad timing when having to catch an 8 am flight to Barcelona. Soooo...we slept in the train station! In one of those "waiting terminals". IT was so dirty/ wierd/ there were lots of travelers and homeless ppl sleeping. We managed to each find a bench to oursleves away from the more smellier areas. It wasnt the best sleep I've ever had..at all. But what can you do? Very backpackerish. I awoke at 430 am with a man sitting next to me. I almost kicked him I was so startled. It was at that point that I realized I could not wait in that terminal anymore and left to go outside, find a bathroom (the train station's were closed until 6!) and find the bus.
We grabbed the earliest bus to the airprot at 5 am and basically the next 3 hours were a blur btwn sleeping on the bus and sleeping on the plane. At 10 am we landed in Barcelona and I decided to check my big bag at the airport and just carry around a duffle since it would make everything just easier when sneaking around. I said goodbye to my friend - who was off for more out of country adventures, took a bus to the city square and prayed me and Ariana would be able to meet up ok without phones. An hour later she showed up and thus began my next chapter....