March 25, 2008

I made it back late last night from out Easter Break trip to Genoa (or Genova if you're Italian), Italy.

We left early Fri morning, around 7 am, from Geneva, and after almost missing our train from Nyon to Geneva and sprinting through the train station, we settled in for the long first train to Milano, Italy. It was nearly blizzarding as we left Switzerland. The first train was about 4 hours and finally we made it to Milano after the incredible tardiness of the train once the Italian authorities took over at the boarder.
From Milano, we took another train that seemed to never end to Genova. Me, Steph, and Kat were on an early train and Chris, Kellen, and Greta were on the later train. So the 3 of us got to the hotel after an insane bus ride, checked in, and headed out to explore. The city was really cool. An interesting mix of old Italian buildings, new high rises, a huge port, and industry. We got a snack and a glass of wine down by the port and chilled until the other 3 got in around 5 pm or so.
Fri night we headed out for some dinner, got a bit drunk, and enjoyed the night out at some bars in a large outdoor area with a few hundred people.

Sat we woke up around 10 am and decided that we all wanted to go to Cinque Terre. This was about a 1.5 - 2 hour ride from Genova but it was def worth it. There are five towns 9 km apart and you can hike from one town to the next.
We started at Monterosso and hiked up into the mountains for the longest of the five hikes (I think). Unfortunately, because we started too late, we ended up only hiking Monterosso and Vernazza, but it was still amazing. You hike up into the mountains, through vineyards and crazy scenery and for about two hours walk along cliffs and the sea. Finally, you round a cliff and there, nestled in a tiny bay, is the small town of Vernazza. It had a ton of great restaurants so we stopped to get some food and then spent another hour or two exploring and enjoying the perfect weather, before catching a train back to Genova.

Sat night put a bit of a damper on things. After a good dinner, we headed out to the outdoor bar area where we were all enjoying ourselves when Greta realized her purse had been stolen. Luckily her passport wasn't in it, but her train tickets and money and stuff was, so it really kinda killed the night. We headed home all a bit down.

We woke up on Sunday (Easter) and decided to go to the famous aquarium in Genova (apparently the second biggest in the world). However, we didn't anticipate that everybody in the entire city would be there because everything else would be closed. So we had to wait on a long line and it was cold and rainy and windy and everybody was a bit grumpy. Once we finally got inside we all were much happier and we browsed the aquatic life along with 1000000000 little screaming Italian kids.
When we got out, we walked around the harbor and the docks for a while taking everything in. Then Greta, Chris, Kellen, and Kat went to go get new train tickets for Greta and Chris and Steph and I went off to explore on our own. We found some cool buildings and a sweet farmer's market with amazing cheese, meats, and wines. We all met back up before dinner.
For dinner we found an amazing pizza place and had a nice long dinner, where eventually the waitstaff forgot about us because the sat us downstairs, away from the main floor of the restaurant (oops haha). We headed back to the hotel and somehow managed to find Casino Royale, the movie, on in English which was perfect.

Sunday, we woke up late, checked out, and explored a bit more until we had to catch our trains home. Finally we got back into Geneva around 9 pm, and I got home to Arzier around 10. Apparently it didn't stop snowing the entire weekend and as of last night, was still snowing! I would say there was about 2 feet down, and would def be considered a blizzard in the US.

Today, seeing as I just woke up, I think I'll stay around the house. I have a take-home exam to do and then class is officially over and our ISP period starts!

Here are pics from this weekend - Part I - Part II