Last weekend was incredible. Absolutely incredible. My (very awesome) roommates and I decided to head northwards, to northwestern Tuscany. We hauled ourselves out of bed at 4am (there were serious struggles happening) and managed to get to Termini (the central train station in Roma) and on our 6:00 train to Pisa. Once there, we wandered a bit (a lot; we get lost sometimes) and headed to the Piazza dei Miracoli. After discovering that the torre leans a lot more in real life than in pictures, we went into the battistero and the cattedrale. Both of those edifices are super interesting because they have a lot of Eastern influences (ie arched windows) mixed in with their traditional Pisan Romanesque style. Il battistero has an absolutely huge baptismal font directly under the vaulted dome, and once an hour a security guard stands almost in the center and sings. The acoustics are amazing; the tones overlap and reverberate until her one voice sounds like five or six. While she was singing everyone in the battistero shut up and watched her in awe. It was amazing. After exploring around a bit, we headed to la cattedrale. I was particularly fascinated by the doors; there are an older pair on the back and more recent editions to the front. I had a nerd moment and enjoyed comparing the different uses of space and perspectival strategies. When we were done at the cattedrale we moved on to our hostel, where we got a delicious homemade dinner for just the price of our drinks. Italy calls that an aperitivo; it's meant to just be pre-dinner drinks and a buffet, but you can definitely make a meal of it.
On Saturday morning we got up early (again) to catch a train to La Spezia, a small town and regional train hub, to buy tickets to the Cinque Terre park trail. Cinque Terre is a series of five lovely little villages along Italy's northwestern coast connected by hiking trails through the mountains. We hiked the length of the easiest trail (about 11km), stopping in each town as we went. The view along the Ligurian coast is legitimately one of the most gorgeous things I've ever seen. The water is a deep, clear blue (not teal like in Greece, but straight up blue) and the plants along the mountain side are vibrantly green. A lot of locals have small vineyards planted amongst the wild plants in the mountains as well, and the houses in the villages are all painted in bright colors that are reminiscent of the flowers surrounding them, which makes for quite a scenic hike. Also, the food in Tuscany is amazing; I ate the best focaccia of my life on that hike. I also had a dumb moment: my friend Sarah and I had been talking about cactus fruit. She's from California, where it is a common food, but I've never eaten one. So, naturally, when we came across a cactus with ripe fruit along the trail we decided to pick some. This was a BAD IDEA. I am still picking needles out of my hand, 4 days later. Whoops.
Once we finished the hike, which proved to be really pretty difficult, we spent some time on the beach and then headed back to La Spezia to get a train to Lucca, where we had hostel reservations for the night. Lucca is about an hour inland of Pisa, southeast of La Spezia. It is still entirely within its medieval city walls, and just about the greatest town I've seen. The people were incredibly friendly, our hostel was quirky and amazing, and the town is beautiful. On Sunday we came across an open air market selling everything from frate (it's like a lemony sugar doughnut that you can get dipped in warm Nutella) to 2 euro bras to pretty scarves and jewelry. We also walked along the city wall and wandered into the cattedrale, where we saw a Tintoretto. By the end of the day we were completely exhausted, but getting back to Rome from Lucca requires that you stop in Pisa; it was rather late when we finally dragged ourselves up the stairs of our apartment, but the weekend was well worth the exhaustion.
Side note: I love the ease with which one can get from place to place and find a place to crash in in Europe. It takes very little planning and very little money to get on a train and sleep in a hostel. America should really work on that.
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