Firenze

Ultimately, I only had about a day to spend exploring Florence. Fortunately, I planned everything out so that I would have enough time to see the top things on my list of what I wanted to see. I woke up early that day, and luckily, I was feeling much better than the evening before. After a quick breakfast, I headed out to the first sight on my list: the Duomo. It didn't take me long to get there, and I bought tickets that would allow me to go inside, and to climb the 463 steps to the very top (and I thought I was done with stairs after Cinque Terre...). Inside the Duomo, the design was much more minimal than the ornate style of the one in Siena, which I think I prefer. I then got in line to ascend the building, and after about a 20 minute wait the line began to move, leading us into the building and up the stairs. After Cinque Terre, the stairs weren't bad, but the narrow, spiraling design of the passageway made it pretty claustrophobic. Finally, I reached the top, and was rewarded with a breathtaking panoramic view of the whole city below.

Once I was back down again on the street below, I decided it was time for me to head to the second big place I planned to visit: The Uffizi Gallery. The museum was extremely close to the Duomo, and only took me about five minutes to get there. Because I had bought my tickets in advance, I wasn't forced to stand in the very long line to enter the building. I absolutely love art museums, but visiting the Uffizi Gallery was special, since I was experiencing artwork that I had actually studied in art history classes during previous semesters. I spent about three hours inside the museum, walking around the corridors and galleries and admiring works by Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Carravaggio, and the like. Afterward, I did my usual routine of visiting the gift shop to pick up a few postcards of my favorite works. 

I left the museum, and wandered around the streets of Florence for a little while. I met back up with two people from my group for what was to be my last supper in Italy (unsurprisingly, it was delicious) By the time we finished dinner, the sun as about to set, so we rushed off to see the sunset from the Ponte Vecchio, Florence's most beloved bridge. Watching the sky turn pink and the lights of the city illuminate the river was definitely one of my favorite moments of the entire trip. I stood there watching the sky for at least half an hour, until it was completely dark. The city itself had such a different but equally alluring quality to it at night. Musicians, artists, and vendors all filled the streets, and walking back to the hostel allowed me to experience Florence through a different lens, and provided a near-perfect end to my Italy adventure.

Parting ways

The program came to it's bittersweet conclusion on the morning of June 2nd. After breakfast, we all packed up our belongings-- my suitcase was undoubtedly heavier with the souvenirs I was bringing home. We had a final critique of all the artwork, both finished and WIP, that we had produced over the course of the program. It was great to see how everyone developed their own style and became more comfortable and familiar with different mediums. The critique concluded the class, and we all found ourselves going our separate ways. A few others in the group, including myself, were all headed to Florence, so we decided to travel there together. We boarded the train once again, but this time headed in the opposite direction, out of Cinque Terre. The journey to Florence went fairly smoothly, although we did almost miss one of our trains. Once in Florence, our group got even smaller, since we were staying in different hostels. Two others and I decided to walk to our hostel from the train station at the center of town. Although it was initially a bit confusing to figure out the directions I had, we made it to the hostel, panting and with our luggage in tow. The hostel was about a 15 minute walk from all the major attractions of the town, making it pretty convenient. We walked around a bit, got a bite to eat for lunch, and then decided to rest back at the hostel. We had planned to meet up with the other two girls from our group later that evening for one last dinner, but unfortunately I got sick and decided it was best to stay in for the rest of the day. I made sure to get plenty of rest so I would feel better in the morning, since that would be the only day I'd have to see the city.

The last sunset at Cinque Terre.

I also said goodbye to this grumpy cat that was always lingering around the front of our hotel.

This was the view from the window of the room in the hostel I stayed while in Florence for a few nights. I booked a single bed in a female room of  four beds, so I got to see a few other people come and go while I spent my time there.

Sore legs and salty hair

The last couple days in Cinque Terre were pretty much spent doing everything we'd wanted to do but hadn't yet gotten the chance to. A few of the others in the group and I traveled back to Corniglia via train, simply because we wanted to experience the beauty of the town for a second time. Then, we quickly dropped by Vernazza where I returned to a little shop I had peeked in the day before, and bought a ring for myself. One girl really wanted to return to a gelato place near the bay to have an encore of the cinnamon gelato she had gotten the first day we visited the town. We decided to return to Riomaggiore, and spend the rest of the day working on some of our art at the hotel; leaving the windows open so that we could still smell the sea and hear the bustle of the town below. Our final day, was deemed a beach day, and some of us returned to Monterosso to finallly actually relax from all the hiking, walking, and stair-climbing that we'd done the entire week.

(Above) Some more images from my second visit to Corniglia.

An unfinished picture of my chalk pastel drawing of the cove in Corniglia.

Below are pictures taken during our return to beautiful Monterosso.

The view from above

The next day had us returning to the panoramic vista of Vernazza that concluded our day before, but not before we visited Monterosso. Monterosso is considered to be the beach town of the Cinque Terre, and it's located the furthest away from Riomaggiore. It was great to finally see and experience the town that before I had only seen as a thin strip of lights in the distance. The first part of the day in Monterosso was spent on the beach enjoying the beautiful, partially humid, 80-something degree weather. It was undeniably the largest and most crowded of the the five towns, most likely because of the beach access that just isn't available in the other four. After walking for a short bit around the main area of the town, we set out to the trailhead that would eventually bring us back up to the location we sat drawing the day before. After panting and climbing up the stairs at the initial part of the hike, the rest was actually pretty enjoyable, and before we knew it we were overlooking Vernazza once again. We spent was was left of the afternoon here, and I finished up my drawing. As the sun began to set, we traveled back down the path and once again arrived in Vernazza, only stopping briefly for gelato before catching the train back to Riomaggiore.

 

The sights in Monterosso! In the very first image you can see the crowds of people walking and stopping throughout the street. The picture right above this caption shows the path leading up to the trailhead that we took, and the image below captures the amazing view of the Mediterranean sea once we got on the trail.

So, finally, this was the amazing view of Vernazza that I've been talking about for the last two posts! The colors of both the city and the blue water were so vibrant and absolutely gorgeous in the golden light of the afternoon.

Going back down to Vernazza.

Corniglia & Vernazza

The day following our trek to Manarola, we visited two more of the five towns: Corniglia and Vernazza. Looking back on the experience now, these two were probably by favorite of the five towns at Cinque Terre. We took the train this day, much to to that excitement of my aching legs. However, after exiting the platform at Corniglia, we found ourselves facing a tall, seemingly endless, flight of stairs! After about five minutes (it felt like an eternity) we reached the top, and followed the road down and into the town's main area. From there, we were pretty much free to explore for ourselves for a couple of hours. With a couple other people from my group, I walked through the small town via narrow streets, popping in and out of local shops. Following a sign "Alla Marina," "To the sea," we found ourselves overlooking the Mediterranean on one side, and hills of terraces grapevines on the other. Below us was a small cove of beautiful turquoise water, but, because of time, we were unable to climb down yet another flight of stairs that would lead us there. Corniglia was so quaint, and I absolutely fell in love with the way the light and color from the buildings magically reflected off surrounding walls.

After leaving this third town, we jumped back on the train and five minutes later, we found ourselves in Vernazza. Town number four was different from Corniglia, but equally amazing. It was much more crowded, and it's main street was wider which allowed for more crowds of tourists to make their way through. In Vernazza, we were also given a couple of hours to relax, because after this, we were going to be hiking once again. These couple hours provided just enough time to grab a bite to eat (olive foccacia, of course) and then sit by the bay. A few of us found ourselves a large rock, partly submerged in the sea, and relaxed here in our swimsuits for the remaining time. The hours passed by quickly, and before we knew it, we were hiking up and up the hill next to Vernazza, the town slowly growing smaller and smaller. The trail we were on would eventually lead to Monterosso, the fifth and final town. However, we would be saving that for another day. A little under halfway up the path, our instructor stopped us at a lookout point where we'd be drawing for another couple of hours. The view was amazing; giving us nearly a birds eye perspective on the town below. We would be returning to this location a couple days later to finish the art that we started. 

The above images are all from Corniglia; taken as I explored the town. The rest of the photos below show Vernazza, and the beautiful trail we took that overlooked the town and the sea.