Cinque Terre: Matt

We finally have solid internet after a few days without it so we are catching up on our blog entries. Rome was interesting...didn't really know what expect. I had heard both good and bad things about it. I left the city still unsure how I felt about it. As Tim said before I was pretty bummed to miss out on the Sistine Chapel. But with that said it wasn't the end of the world...just the end of my day! Looking back at least we have a sweet story to explain why we didn't get to see it, because it's not like we didn't try. So when we heard the Obama's were coming in we went out to the square to watch the motorcade go by as Tim already said. It was pretty sweet...while we were waiting I noticed some people looking at us. Pretty soon after that a guy in a suit walked over from a cordoned off area and talked to them while looking over at us. The next thing I know he is tapping me on the shoulder asking to search my bag. I let him and then the other plain clothes guys came over as Tim and Mike had their bags searched. We must have looked suspicious somehow...my guess is that we all had the same backpacks. Anyway it was crazy how many plain clothes security officials were in the crowd. Here is a picture with our new SPU friends!

I was very excited to get out of a busy city and off to a more relaxing place. We heard a lot about the Cinque Terre from fellow travelers and before the trip Alli (a friend and my house cook from college) told me about it. Alli loves the place and after visiting so do I! We stayed in Vernazza for two nights. Here's a picture of Vernazza. We enjoyed swimming, hiking, laying in the sun and eating overpriced food. The second day we hiked down to the first town of the five (we were staying in the fourth). The hike was beautiful at parts and lots of fun! It was basically along cliffs next to the Mediterranean sea. The walk between town 1 and 2 is apparently the lovers walk. It is called something in Italian, maybe...via di amore. Anyway there were lots of locks on railings and graffiti from various couples on the walls. You know...name + name inside of a heart with the date, like what you do in first grade... Definitely looking forward to taking a special lady there someday... I think it was at this point Tim and Mike really missed their girlfriends (well...I think they constantly miss them). We ended up meeting some girls from Florida in Vernazza that swear I look like their friend back home named Austin Bliss. Cool I guess... Anyway they were lots of fun and they OOO'd and Aww'd as Tim and Mike answered questions about their girlfriends. We went cliff jumping with them which was tons of fun! I think we maybe jumped off the rock from 20 feet. Here's a picture of Tim jumping.


Today we took a train from Vernazza to Florence. We stopped in Pisa and explored the area. We basically just went to the leaning tower and took the stereotypical tourist photo with it...


Currently we are chilling in Florence. And when I say chilling I mean relaxing because the weather is very hot here...I don't think we have stopped sweating today. We will get out and explore Florence tomorrow...including getting gelato at a place on the end of that famous bridge which I still can't remember the name of, but no worries we will find it!

I think Tim was accurate with the previous blog post but I don't think we are putting on a facade for any of our friends. It's just when you have more people added to a small group it is fun to hang out with them when you have been with the same few people for so long. I think that is why it helps to meet others along the way and spend time with them. We have seen couples arguing and getting upset at each other (usually when it involves directions or navigating the train system). It's just part of life and we are slowly getting used to getting along in this context. At least we are learning a lot about how to find solutions to various problems involving traveling and being with the each other for so long. I am hoping to do lots of traveling when I am older so I guess it is best to learn from traveling mistakes early on and it will save some grief down the road. But with that said we are fast learners and are doing better getting along and navigating unknown territory everyday.