So update, update! Over my past weekend I traveled finally, to Cinque Terre. Words cannot do it justice, it was unreal. Cinque Terre is located in northern Italy along the coast. It is five small towns strewn about along the coast that closely resembles what I think looked like Hawaii. Complete mountains and hiking paths to each town and a small train that ran from one end to the other. It was so worth the energy it took to travel there and the views were amazing. Cinque Terre is known for it's pesto! and when I mean pesto, I mean pesto! Michael, my faithful traveling friend, and I dined at a cute restaurant in the third town. I had the spaghetti and pesto and he had a dish typical of the town, what looked like a large flat pancake or crepe, sliced into squares and cooked like a pasta, and pesto on top of course. Literally my lips and tongue were green it was intense flavor and so delicious. Saying that Cinque is located in the northern part of Italy you would assume it was cold, but not at all. I left Florence with a hoody, under armor zip up, long sleeve t-shirt and a tank top, scarf and gloves, it was chilly at 7am. Once we arrived in Pisa to switch trains, it was even colder and we thought we were in for a miserable day of cold along the water in Cinque Terre. Little did we know that the climate there is completely tropical. There was cactus growing, lemon and lime trees bigger than my head! Seriously. It was like a microwave of heat and I loved it. It was a very calming and meditative place, one could sit for hours and listen to the ocean, it was really really beautiful to see.Throughout this week we are off from classes, of course, what good italian student has class everyday? not the agriculture kids, we are doing all workshops this week, unfortunately our last week of workshops :( so we are traveling all around Florence visiting organic (biological farms) their livestock, their means of sustainability, their agriculture, and of course they feed us too. It really is the life.
In the middle of my busy week, we had holiday Monday because of All Saints Day and Tuesday we visited a sustainable internet company here in Florence. The best part of the day was....drum roll please...... the OPERA! The show was absolutely everything I thought it would be and so much more. It was a sold out show and lasted the typical 3-4hours. The length of it killed me, but I barely noticed because I was so involved in the atmosphere of the show, it was awesome. The show I saw was Le Nozza di Figaro. It was all in Italian and it was the typical sounding opera music that I love. It was nothing compared to the woman in the piazza that belts out her opera singing mid-day but it was something to definitely see. I am so glad that I did.
