Weekend Trips in Italy

Weekend Trips 

One of the first weekends we travelled to the beach to get away from the heat of Florence. However the closest beach, Viareggio, was about two hours away and we had to use the train. We bought some cheap train tickets that had two connections one of which was only five minutes. Trying to find the connecting train and boarding it within five minutes was a very anxiety-inducing five minutes that immediately became comical afterwards.

Cinque Terre

A very popular location that many people on our program wanted to visit was Cinque Terre which consisted of five scenic towns by the sea. We got an Airbnb in the town of La Spezia which we used as a base to explore the five cities. We ate some of the best pizza at a small local shop close to our Airbnb apartment. 

We started a hike through some of the towns the first being Corniglia. We stumbled upon a secluded cove area where the water was very clear. It was a very beautiful location and probably the spot that makes Corniglia my favorite town. However, there were a lot of jellyfish and I got a painful sting.

The hike had beautiful views from the winding path along the coast that gained quite a lot of altitude. 

The other city that was fun to visit was Manarola. It had an area that was perfect for cliff jumping and even a smaller one for those that are less risky. It had a great view of the sunset while we were in the water which was lukewarm despite how late in the day it was. The last town which was Monterosso was the most popular therefore very busy and crowded especially on the beach. It was also the one with the more urban feel. 

Cinque Terre was an amazing spot in my entire time studying abroad since it was very much like a National Geographic magazine cover come to life. It was definitely a memorable experience in addition to the excursions of the program itself.