A Story Book Spring Break

Picture 1: me in Sorrento with the beautiful clear water behind me
Picture 2: the blue grotto cave in Capri
Picture 3: Us at the top of the island of Capri
Picture 4: beach at Capri
Picutre 5: Cinque Terre-view of the second of the 5 towns
I just arrived home from my two week spring break, and I really don't even know how to describe it. My words can never explain clearly enough how amazing the past two weeks of my life have been. But just to give you a hint of what I experienced, there really wasnt anything that I DIDNT experience. I did everything from being on a beach, to seeing islands, hiking mountains, boating, skiing, canyoning down waterfalls, climbing, repelling, ziplining, chair lifting, falling....you name it, I did it.
Although my words will never suffice for my experiences, I will attempt to retell the fairytale life that I led for the past two weeks.
LA, my roommate, and I began our marvelous adventures in Sorrento, which is in the south of Italy. From there, we toured the ruins in Pompeii, toured around the beautiful and spectacular island of Capri, and ate some really delicious pizza! The island of Capri was my favorite of our activiities in south Italy, not only because it was so beautiful with all the flowers, but the views from the island are incredible, and the boat tour that we did was so fascinating. We got to see this cave called the Blue Grotto, where the sun reflects on the water and it turns it this shiny turquoise blue color-so beautiful.
After two days in south Italy, we took a train up to Florence, where we met up with UGA friends and hung out with them for a couple of days. When we arrived, it was our friend, Neeley's birthday, so we went to this amazing italian dinner at a really nice restaurant, and then danced the night away. I really enjoyed just getting to relax and hang out with friends from home! Must note that the gelato in Florence is REALLLY good!! especially at this disco type gelateria...soo many flavors, mmm good. While visiting Florence, we learned that the trains in Italy were going on strike, so sadly LA and I had to leave early early Friday morning so that we could ensure ourselves transportation in getting to our next destination: Cinque Terre. This place is DEFINATELY my favorite place in all of Italy. Cinque Terre is off the coast of the Italian Riviera on the western coast, and it consists of five different towns along the coast of the Mediterranean that span across seven miles. Each town is so unique in its own way and each so very cute!!! LA and stayed in the first town called Riomaggiore. I really liked the first town because there weren't as many tourists staying in that town, so we didn't feel like we were surrounded by tourists. While in Cinque Terre, we hiked from the first town to the fifth town (seven miles of intense mountainous hiking!!!!), laid out and relaxed on the beach, and then hiked the seven miles back to Riomaggiorre. All along the hike, there are lemon vineyards, and orange vineyards and beautiful gardens of all the locals who live in the towns. It was such an amazing view during our entire hike. It was hard to stay focused on how tired you were because the Mediterranean was on your left and then these amazing vineyards and gardens would be to your right, and above you and you really couldnt think about the pain your body was going through. Another pirk that I love about Cinque Terre is that it is the place where foccacia bread and pesto originated!! So naturally those two items of food are quite popular there, and naturally, I was in heaven!! If you havent ever been to Cinque Terre before, I highly recommend going there at least once in your life, because it is so incredible and serene and beautiful. It's a great vacations spot. After our lovely traveling of Italy, we left for Switzerland early Sunday morning, where we met up with our friends, Caitlin and Katy for some hardcore extreme sporting activities. Let me just point out that I want to live the rest of my life in Switzerland, ideally, but somewhere else with lots of mountains and nature would suffice I guess. I will give you the juicy details of good ole Switzerland tomorrow, as I have run out of time for today....until next time....stay posted!!