What April Has Been Like

Since I haven’t posted at all during the month of April I thought that now would be a could time. I cant believe how difficult updating a blog could be, I just never seem to be able to find the time. This is funny however, because all I really have is free time here.

A lot has happened since my last post. I’ve abandoned writing about all of my trips in chronological order and am skipping ahead to what’s going on now.

Dad visited over a month ago, for about two weeks. It was great because we did a lot of traveling from the Amafli Coast to Venice, Florence and Assisi. Mom came to visit during Easter week. We got to do a lot of great things. Two of the biggest highlights were going to St. Peters for Easter Mass and Castello Banfi, one of the largest wineries in Italy. Overall, it was really nice having my parents here, but it was definitely an exhausting three weeks.

Me and Dad in Amafli

Me and Mom in front of St. Peters

Since that I have done a bunch of traveling. Two weeks ago I went with a bunch of friends to Trapani, which is on the northwestern most tip of Sicily. We stayed in a really nice apartment and cooked a lot of our meals there. It was great because I could finally cook American breakfast, something that I have been really missing. The weather was perfect for all three days that we were there. Even though it was in the 60’s and 70’s the Italians were still in jeans, heavy jackets and scarves, we definitely got our share of weird looks since we were all in shorts and t-shirts.

Trapani, Sicily

This past weekend a group of us headed north up the Italian coast to Cinque Terre. This was the one trip that I knew I really wanted to do before even leaving the US. Cinque Terre is a collection of five towns all along the coast and connected to each other by trails through the hills. We got another apartment, which was one of the highest points in our town of Monterosso. This had to be one of the most beautiful places I have been while abroad. We spent all of our second day there hiking from town to town, up and down the mountains, through the woods and along the coast; it was a unique experience. It took about five hours to make it from our town to the last one. When we arrive in a new town we stopped for a different thing to eat and take in the surroundings. One time it was fruit, another time frozen yogurt, and finally focaccia pizza (a specialty of the area). After the hike we took a ferry back to our town, so we got to see everything from the water.

The view from our balcony in Monterosso

Vernazza, my favorite town in Cinque Terre

There was nothing better than waking up every morning and looking out from our balcony with a view of the ocean, the beach and a few of the other towns. We got to eat breakfast down in the town, right along the beach. It really felt like summer and there was no way it could better.