Cinque Terre was beautiful. But leave it to me to mess things up. Half way through our first day (Saturday in Camoglia, St. Margherita, San Frutuosso and Chialvari), I got lost. Yep—after eating some focaccia (yummy bread famous in this region of Italy) I felt rather sick. So after spending some time in a tiny bathroom—I realized it was time to catch my boat. The boat left the port at 3:30. After sprinting across the pebbled beach I showed up at 3:31. Illness and instant panic attack set in. I WAS STUCK ON AN ISLAND. My mind began reeling with what I was going to do—and being the stressed out, high-wired girl that I am, I began to freak. That was until I saw my cute little professor, Franco, at the dock next to me. Turns out, the boat left him, too. We ended up having to catch a different boat out of San Fruttuoso to a Camoglia (the island we had just come from an hour before), catch a train to St. Margherita and meet the rest of our group in the tour bus. Needless to say, Franco saved me from a major panic attack and I got to know the European transportation system quite well.

Today (Sunday) we visited the 5 towns of Cinque Terre (“five lands”). They were all beautiful in their own respects. A group of girls and I hiked from coast to coast—this may not sound difficult but it is fair to say that Italian beaches are a mix of mountain and coast. There are steep cliffs that drop off to rocky, black sand beaches. So hiking the mountains in between successfully worked off all the carbs I have consumed since arriving in Italy.

Cinque Terre and the rest of the little towns were gorgeous. Blue water, good food, interesting people and tons of sights to see. Sometimes I still think that this is all a dream.