cinque terre

25 Places I Visited in 2012

December 30, 2012 Filed Under: Pictures, Reminiscing, Travel Tagged With: amalfi coast, beach, brazil, buckingham palace, capri, chateau versailles, cinque terre, colosseum, cornigilia, da michele, eiffel tower, england, europe, florida, france, guarapari, hard rock cafe, hiking trails, ibituruna, italy, king's cross, leaning tower of pisa, london, louvre, max brenner, monterosso, naples, new york city, orlando, pisa, pizza, places I visited in 2012, platform 9 3/4, radio city music hall, rialto bridge, rome, sorrento, times square, Travel, tumiritinga, universal studios, valadares, venice, versailles, wizarding world of harry potter

While deciding what kind of posts to write as re-caps for 2012, I came across this one on Elle’s blog, and I knew I just had to steal it! This year was all about travel for me, and I want to look back on the most memorable places I saw for a long time. Although Elle made it 10 places she visited, I found that there were at least 25 I wanted to look back on in 2012!

#1 The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Orlando, Florida

#2 Universal Studios – Orlando, Florida

#3 Valadares, Brazil

#4 Tumiritinga, Brazil

#5 Guarapari Beach, Brazil

#6 Ibituruna, Brazil

#7 The Colosseum – Rome, Italy

#8 Da Michele Pizzeria – Naples, Italy

#9 Capri, Italy

#10 The Amalfi Coast- Sorrento, Italy

#11 The Leaning Tower of Pisa- Pisa, Italy

#12 Monterosso Beach – Cinque Terre, Italy

#13 The Corniglia Hiking trail- Cinque Terre, Italy

#14 The Rialto Bridge – Venice, Italy

#15 The Hard Rock Cafe – London, England

#16 Buckingham Palace – London, England

#17 Platform 9 and 3/4 at Kings Cross- London, England

#18 Chateau Versailles- Versailles (Ile de France), France

#19 The Eiffel Tower- Paris, France

#20 The Louvre Museum – Paris, France

#21 Burlington – Vermont, USA

#22 Belleville – Ontario, Canada

#23 Max Brenner – New York City, USA

#24 Times Square – New York City, USA

#25 Radio City Music Hall – New York City, USA

What are some memorable places you got to see this year?

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Cinque Terre (Day 3 & 4), Italy

September 12, 2012 Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: cinque terre, corniglia, dolce vita, manarola, monterosso, riomaggiore, sunset, Travel, vernazza, via dell'amore

Our last day day in Cinque Terre was just as amazing as the rest of our time there.

We woke up and enjoyed our delicious breakfast (I still miss it!) before heading out to explore Manarola, the town where our hostel was located. We’d heard that if you walked to the coast where the town ended, you could walk up a little bit and get some breathtaking views. We’re all about views, so that’s what we decided to do first and foremost.

If I wasn’t already completely in love with Cinque, this is the moment it truly happened. In the words of Elizabeth Gilbert from Eat, Pray, Love: “My heart skipped a beat and then flat-out tripped over itself and fell on its face.” It really was that kind of love.

The view from the bottom of the cliffs before we started hiking up

Swoooon.

We weren’t sure where the path we were taking upwards would lead, because we knew the hiking trail between our town and the neighboring one (in this direction) was shut down. We ended up following it a little further and discovering some panoramic landscape view points. More gorgeousness followed.

After just kind of standing in this area and soaking in the beauty around us, we walked back into Manarola and hopped a train to the town of Vernazza. There was a small beach here and we really wanted to spend an hour or two just relaxing there!

Although not as striking as the other beaches we’d seen, we relaxed here for a little bit and looked out into this little bay of water where people could rent kayaks, and where boats were constantly coming and going with passengers to what looked like excursions.

Around this time, we discovered the existence of a necklace called the “step by step”. Basically, you each of the five towns had ONE shop that sold a bead that hand-engraved the name of their town on a bead (silver, white metal or bronze) and you could accumulate all 5 only by visiting each town and each specific shop. I tried to hold back from this, but the idea completely took hold of me and I just HAD to have this necklace. & so began the most ridiculous adventure of trying to see each of the five towns for a SECOND time before we left the next morning.

We left Vernazza (bead number 1) and took the train to the next town over, Corniglia. Although we’d been through there for our hike, we hadn’t properly SEEN the town. We took the bus to the city center (where I quickly found the shop and bead number 2) and enjoyed walking around and seeing some of the things we missed the previous day!

I wasn’t nearly as enchanted with Corniglia as I was with Manarola, but I’m still happy we made a point of going INSIDE each of the five towns to visit them. Many people will only go to Cinque Terre and stay long enough to experience the hiking trails, but we got to see all the little things that the locals get to enjoy; little bistros in the alleys, shops & boutiques that sometimes go unnoticed, and all the little vendors or musicians that spent their days in the street trying to make a little bit of money.

After a morning and afternoon of exploring, we headed back to our hostel for a few hours of down-time. We really wanted to go out for our last night, so we made a point of getting a bit of relaxation in before putting on cute dresses and going out for dinner.

We decided that we’d do the Via Dell’Amore walk at sunset and then have dinner in our town. The walk, if you remember, is the 25 minute one that goes along high on the cliffs & is filled with graffiti and padlocks. Around 7:30ish we headed out from our hostel and made the leisurely sunset walk.

Sunset over Manarola

As if we didn’t absolutely adore this walk the first time around, watching the sun set over the cliffs made me fall even more totally head over heels for this place. It was reminiscent of the beauty I saw in Greece last year; and I’ve missed it ever since. We took our time and walked to about the halfway point, where we almost walked into the worlds’ most romantic proposal. We kept our distance as we watched the guy propose to his sobbing girlfriend, and then we realized how we happened to be doing the most romantic walk ever & then we decided to turn back around and grab some dinner!

But first? We had to leave our graffiti mark with everyone else!

Caught in the act- and of course the quotes we decided to leave behind. I’m determined to find them whenever I go back!

We wandered back into Manarola for an amazing seafood dinner. SO GOOD. You can’t go to Cinque and not try out their seafood dishes. We followed this by a walk back up the cliffs to see our favorite little town lit up at night. It was absolutely breathtaking, but neither of our cameras were able to get any good photos of it.

The next morning was hustle time. I still had two beads left to complete my necklace & I was determined to get them before catching our train to Venice. We made our way to Riomaggiore (the small town on the other side of the graffiti and padlocks) and I picked up my bead there really quick. We also stayed a little bit to enjoy the cuteness of this place- perhaps the smallest of the five towns.

At this point I had 4 out of the 5 beads for my necklace. We were catching our train to Venice from Monterosso (the beach town ALL THE WAY at the other end) so we left Rio pretty quickly and headed that way.

After the worst, sweatiest, longest, most grueling 20 minute train ride of my life (have you ever attempted to take an Italian train with 45 pounds on your back when it’s 40 degrees outside?!) we finally arrived in Monterosso. This city was BIG, so there was no way we’d find the one single shop for my bead with all our weight. I left Agnes by the beach with our stuff, and headed out on a small adventure of my own. I felt so light and free without my backpack on me, and the whole walk through the town was a million times more enjoyable because of it. I finally found the store, the woman gave me my final bead, and on my way back to Agnes I bought a freshly squeezed lemonade-slush to cool off. I listened to the most talented pianist as I walked through the tunnel towards the beach, and with my 5 beads I really felt like I had come to Cinque Terre and understood it properly. I felt so accomplished!

Sitting at the Monterosso train station, ready for Venice after conquering the last town of Cinque Terre. & yes, that’s my 5-bead necklace that I immediately put on after getting that final one!

Close-up of my necklace, you can see the engraving of each town on the beads!

I was leaving Cinque Terre with a kind of sadness, but also an elation at having been able to see each of the five places… TWICE. It was definitely one of my favorite stops in all of Italy, and I knew that leaving there meant going to my LAST STOP in Italy before moving to a new country. It was bittersweet, but in the beautiful Italian sun that day we were ready to get a move on and see the city of merchants, canals, and Murano glass!

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Cinque Terre (Day 1 & 2), Italy

September 11, 2012 Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: cinque terre, corniglia, hostel 5 terre, hostel life, italy, manarola, monterosso, paris, riomaggiore, Travel, vernazza, via dell'amore

My Eurotrip re-caps ended last in Pisa, where we had a pit stop on our way to our final destination of Cinque Terre.

When I think back to my time in Cinque Terre, it is essentially what I think of as *true* Italy. Maybe I was finally settling into the fact that I was traveling through one of the most beautiful countries, but by the time I hit CT I remember thinking to myself: “Now THIS is what I imagine Italy to be like.” Everything about that place was a dream come true.

Cinque is basically 5 small towns along the coast of the Mediterranean, all closely linked by hiking trails and trains. It’s a popular place to travel to BECAUSE of the hikes; they include the most beautiful, panoramic scenes of Italy I’ve ever seen.

We booked a hostel in the second town over, Manarola, and arrived there in the late evening. We were, in one word, EXHAUSTED; more than we’d been so far in our trip. We made the conscious decision to get to our hostel, unpack a little bit (we’d be there 3 nights) and SPEND A NIGHT IN, using the internet, and just enjoying the hostel! Although a big part of me wanted to put on a cute dress and go out to dinner with some new hostel friends, I knew that I needed this night to just decompress, and I know Agnes felt the same way.

Arrival at the train station (where the HECK is the exit?) & the view from our hostel window

Dinner at the hostel was the best penne pesto I’ve ever had, and it only cost me 5 Euros! Also our hostel room was nice and big, but the bunk bed (I’m that top one) was terrifyingly unstable.

After an amazing dinner in the hostel common room, we got to experience the strangest shower ever. The common girls’ bathroom had only TWO showers, and they worked with coins. You inserted your coin (one free coin per day, ladies!) and had between 5 and 7 minutes before your water automatically turned off. Yep. I didn’t know I even had it in me to shower that quickly, but turns out I managed just fine!

Our first night was all about making friends (the girls in our room were hilarious and from Spain) and basically just trying to take a few steps back before a busy next couple days. I was just SO HAPPY to finally be in Cinque Terre. It had been one of my dream destinations on this trip from the very start, and I remember just sitting in my hostel and feeling like anything was possible.

Our first FULL day in Cinque Terre was complete insanity.

After the most amazing breakfast (the food at our hostel was SERIOUSLY good) and some chatting with a couple girls from France who helped us decide what to do with our day, we headed out to make the best of it.

We started our day bright & early with the Via Dell’Amore walk; it’s the shortest hike, a mere 25 minutes to the farthest town (the one next to ours). It’s famous not only for it’s stunning views, but because everyone goes there and leaves their mark in either graffiti or by leaving a padlock on one of the many fences along the way.

After our walk to the town of Riomaggiore, we took the local train through the cliffs all the way to the opposite end of the coastline. We wanted to visit the town of Monterosso; the biggest of the five, known above all for its gorgeous beach.

We spent a big part of the afternoon here. After walking around a little bit, we settled ourselves on the public beach for some sun and reading.

Monterosso was gorgeous, and definitely one of my favorite towns. There was just so much action & always something to see. The beach was also absolutely stunning- I could have gone back there again and again… & again.

I loved watching this girl paint all the gorgeous scenes in front of her. How inspiring!

But we only had two full days in Cinque, so we had to split our time up well if we wanted to see the whole coast. We did the beach thing until about 4:30pm and hoped that the sun would cool off so we could do a hike. The sun did NOT cool off… But that didn’t stop us. We hopped another train to the town next to Monterosso (Vernazza) and did the hiking trail between Vernazza & the neighboring town of Corniglia.

Already tired, and all we’d done so far was the hundreds of stairs out of Vernazza! The view was stunning, but I knew there was an intense 2 and a half hours ahead of me.

The trail was ridiculously gorgeous. It took us up hundreds AND HUNDREDS of stairs- it never ended- all through cliffs and small forests, through man-made paths and others less so. When we got to the top and saw Corniglia in the far away distance below, it was the most rewarding feeling I ever remember having. I remember being SO nervous before starting that hike, afraid that I wouldn’t be able to get through it; I’m so happy I pushed through those nerves and made it happen. One of the highlights of my three week trip!

Once we got to the top, we knew the rest wouldn’t be nearly as bad. We were SO hot and running out of water… But nothing beats that rush of adrenaline!

As we neared the end of our hike around 7pm, the exhaustion really started to set in. We’re not normally hikers, so this was a huge thing for both of us. We walked into Corniglia and briefly visited the town before heading back to our hostel for a few relaxing hours before bed.

We had another amazing night at the hostel. Despite the RIDICULOUS hill to get there (and those 5 minute showers), I think I’d stay in the exact same place next time. It quickly felt like home, and that’s such a rare feeling when you’re moving from city to city every few days. Our roomies changed entirely that night, and we ended up meeting two girls who live just a couple hours away from us here in Montreal. We’d spend more time with them the following day, but that night at dinner we met back up with the two girls from France from earlier that morning. They spent over an hour with us talking about our trip to Paris and writing us the most in-depth list of things to do once we got there EVER.

We all spoke French together, and although they teased us a little bit about our accent (meanwhile I adored theirs, I just love Parisian French!) I quickly became really fond of the two of them. I still have that list in my bag of things that came home from Europe with me.

It was such a lovely, relaxing way to end an intense day. We were so tired but felt so GREAT about ourselves and we were really and truly settling into the beautiful life in Italy. We went to sleep excited for another full day in Cinque, but sad because it would be our last!

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Europe Planning 2012

June 11, 2012 Filed Under: SO EXCITING!, Travel Tagged With: amalfi coast, capri, cinque terre, cote d'azur, england, europe, france, harry potter studios, italy, london, paris, rome, sorrento, Travel, venice, WB studios

In exactly 2 months, I’ll be traveling Europe with one of my best friends. It’s been a long-time dream of mine to travel through the beautiful, historical cities of Europe with only a backpack, a journal, and a camera, so basically in 2 months I’ll be living another one of my dreams. Not to mention I’ll be crossing off a handful of items on my Life List.

I’ve written about my love of trip planning before, but as things start falling in place for this trip (and the frustrations of not being sure WHERE to start fade away) I can’t help but feel EXTREMELY giddy about it.

Last year, planning Greece with 3 of my best friends was one of my favorite parts of my whole summer. We spent countless nights around my kitchen table with coffees, dessert, our computers, and travel guides trying to figure out which hotels to stay at & which islands to see. It was very time consuming because we were FOUR people that had to agree on all decisions, but that didn’t make it any less fun. We always followed our intuition and we ended up loving our two hotels more than anything. They were some of the highlights of my trip.

This time around, it’s just two of us, so the planning has gone much more quickly. In just a couple get-togethers we’ve managed to figure out our itinerary, our traveling, and more than half of the hostels we’ll be staying at. We’ll be moving around A LOT more than we did last year, so we’ve spent a lot of time deciding how long we want to stay and most importantly, WHERE.

19 days isn’t a very long time to backpack through Europe, so we’re trying to visit the places that are new and exciting for both of us.

Needless to say I’m ecstatic about all the places we’ve chosen. Not to mention we’re ending the entire trip with a visit to the Harry Potter WB studios just out of London. I mean, best way to end off a trip to Europe ever? Probably.

Here are the places I’m extremely excited to see:

Rome, Italy

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We’ll be spending a day and a half in Rome when we land, and I just cannot wait. I’ve been infatuated with the idea of this city and all of the history it holds for QUITE some time!

Amalfi Coast, Italy

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I didn’t know much about this area of Italy until we started planning, but beaches are some of my favorite things to see in Europe and I heard these are BEAUTIFUL. We’ll be seeing Sorrento, Capri & the Amalfi Coast within a couple days. Oh and of course a quick visit to the lost city of Pompeii & the Vesuvius volcano!

Cinque Terre, Italy

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By far one of the most beautiful, picturesque looking places I have ever seen, I can’t wait to visit these 5 villages and do the hike between all of them. THE PICTURES will be so worth it.

Venice, Italy

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You can’t go to Italy and not visit Venice. We’ll be stopping through this city on our way out of Italy for one full day and night. I’ve heard mixed things about Venice, but I can’t imagine not at least SEEING it for myself.

Cote D’Azur, France

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After a hectic 9 days in Italy, I think we’ll both be relieved to unpack our bags for 4 whole days on the beautiful beaches of Nice, Monaco, and Cannes. We’ve chosen to stay in Nice & travel from there to see the rest of the French Riviera. If anything, the hotel we chose is the reason I’m MOST excited to go here. It looks gorgeous.

Paris, France

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The Eiffel Tower, Versailles Palace, The Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, a language I can understand & endless more sights to see… Paris was a BIG must for us on this trip. We’ll be there over 2 and a half days which isn’t nearly long enough, but it just gives me an excuse to go BACK some time!

London, England

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I wish we had more time to see more of England, but one full day and night in London will have to do this time around. We’re planning on hitting the big sights and just getting a taste for the city after the Olympics before heading back to Paris and then, home. Oh and of course a quick stop-over to WB Studios for Harry Potter! Can I just run into Rupert Grint? PLEASE?

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That’s the main itinerary behind our trip, more or less in order. In total we’ll be spending 9 days in Italy, 7 days in France, and 2 days in London. I truly wish we could spend more time in each place we’re seeing, but hopefully when I come back home at the end of August I’ll have had a true taste of the Italian culture, which is the one I’m MOST anxious to see first hand!

Have you ever been to any of these places? Any hostels, restaurants, or sights that you’d recommend to someone who’s never been?

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A new countdown begins!

May 21, 2012 Filed Under: SO EXCITING!, Summer Time!, Travel Tagged With: capri, cinque terre, england, france, italy, paris, rome, Travel

It’s no secret that I’ve caught the traveling bug, and I think after going to Europe last summer for the very first time it got even worse. I vaguely remember coming home after 3 weeks in Greece with 3 of my best friends and feeling like my ACTUAL home would never be the same to me again. I was wrong, of course, but when that travel high went away I realized that what I REALLY wanted was simply to have the opportunity to travel MORE. Instead of spending all my money on ALL THE THINGS that didn’t matter, I wanted to save & see the world.

Coming home from Greece last year I remember feeling one thing for certain. I LOVED Europe & I wanted to go back and see many more of the countries there. However as a student, that trip was extremely expensive for me. I told myself that I would go back when I was no longer a student struggling my way through expenses.

Turns out, I just can’ t stay away from Europe.

If you follow me on Twitter, Instagram or if we’re friends on Facebook you may have already seen my news but… I’m going back to Europe for almost THREE weeks in August! I’ll be spending 19 days with my best friend traveling through Italy, France, and parts of England. Things may change a little bit here and there (we’re still figuring out our itinerary) but basically that is what we have planned.

I’m SO excited. We’ve been talking about this trip for weeks now, but as of Saturday our flight to Rome (and leaving Paris) is BOOKED!

I’m so nervous, to be honest. I love talking about traveling the world but I think this trip will be my scariest yet. I have to find a backpack. I’m going to be traveling into different COUNTRIES. Just the two of us. Probably staying in hostels with strangers. I’m nervous because I’m going back to a country I LOVE and I have all these memories from my last trip. I know that traveling has been SO good for me. I’ve ultimately changed as a person for it. It makes me nervous to see who I’ll be when I get home on August 26th after three weeks of living from a backpack. Last summer I had so much trouble re-adjusting to being home and I just don’t want to go through that again.

But most of all? I’m excited. I’m SO excited. I’m going back to Europe.

I’m visiting places like this:

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