Off to Bologna we go!

Today we finished seeing Riomaggiore the only town we missed yesterday before heading off to Bologna.

We walked down early in the morning to get a good view of Manarola from the sea since we weren't able to walk along the coastal path. We were the only people there because it was still early but low and behold guess who comes strolling along the path? Krysta and Alex! We said our final goodbye to them.

Manarola in the morning.

As we were looking through the shops in Riomaggiore look who we found:

Taryn, Carlee and the birthday girl Brittany! I feel like I live in Italy because everywhere I go I run into friends.

The best part in Riomaggiore was a cool shop we found with hand-crafted jewellery made in Italy. It was called Art in Banchi and it had a sign that said "If you have done a lot of miles to come to Italy, make no mistake, buy Italian." Mom and I spent a long time looking through the different pieces. I ended up buying this ring, which I promise looks better in person than in this picture.

Since we spent so long looking in that store we had to race to the train to go back to Manarola to pick up our luggage and then catch the train to Bologna.

We made the mistake of sitting in the back of the train where at some of the stations you weren't able to see any of the signs of what station you were at so we were quite lost many of the times and never sure when to get off for Parma to transfer. 

We ended up making it without too many problems. This is the view of Bologna from our balcony

We had many people question us about why we were going to Bologna, even one lady who had lived there asked us why we were going but I do not regret coming here. Although there isn't "things" to see, like big tourist attractions, it is gorgeous and the architecture is stunning so I am extremely happy we came and I have enjoyed it immensely. We didn't really plan anything so we just wandered around the main square, the Piazza Maggiore and went to a bunch of different shops around it. There was a little market on as well and we found some more cool jewlery that we spent a long time looking at. We wanted the whole booth so we had to spend a long time picking exactly what we wanted so we didn't spend too much money. We think there is some kind of event going on the next few weeks here but we have to look more into what it is tonight.

There was a lot of live music in the streets and it was nice to sit against the buildings and listen to the guitar and saxaphone. 

I had some interesting gelato here today one was called Bologna Ride and had cremino, salsa nutella and riso croccante. The other scoop was Inferno, which I didn't like as much and it had cioccolato bianco, galak, variegato amarena and wafer loacker.

I took this picture for KK since he loves biking and everyone here is whizzing through the streets on their bikes. I even saw a young girl about 9 years old get hit by someone on a bike today. 

For dinner we had Bolognese and another pasta with zucchini and shrimp

The two people sitting beside us at dinner asked us if they could smoke and it reminded me of the funny experience Brittany and I had in Ischia. In Canada, as pharmacists, we always talk to patients about smoking and assess their stage of wanting to quit. When we talked to the Italian pharmacist that visited our class he looked at us as if we were crazy when we asked if he told his patients to stop smoking. Since smoking is so common in Italy he said he only talks to them if they come to him wanting to quit. One night after this when we were with the boys they started smoking and Brittany and I started "playing" pharmacist with them and asking them on a scale of 1 to 10 how ready were they to quit smoking and what was their biggest barrier to quitting. They didn't really understand with the language barrier but it was funny to us so we kept asking questions. Basically they didn't want to quit at all. Right after this we were at a bar and people asked in Italian if it was okay to smoke beside us. The boys answered back yes and Brittany and I said what?! After we just told you how bad it was to smoke and how it can cause lung cancer! We were mostly just joking (we didn't want to smell smoke at all but we also didn't want them to go back and tell them no) but before we knew it he starts speaking Italian back to them and all we picked up was farmacista, studentessa and cancer, so we knew he was telling them something like no you actually cannot smoke here because these girls are pharmacy students and they think it causes lung cancer. It was really funny and embarrassing and we tried to tell them no, no it's okay, but then everyone was getting confused by the yes, no, yes, no, so they just ended up leaving and smoking outside. All in all we didn't really adopt the culture that night and fit in. Oh well, at least our lungs are still pure. (except that after this ordeal I told the man tonight it was okay because I didn't want to go through this again)

-A

Cinque Terre

This was the path I tortured her with the see a panoramic view. Little did we know this was the start to our hike the next day.

Yesterday evening my mom and I made it to Manarola it was too late to go out and do a lot so we just walked a little bit around the town and ate dinner. Today we woke up and really hadn't planned anything so when we went to buy our park passes for the walk between the 5 towns we found out that only the walk between Vernazza and Monterosso were open and the rest were having problems. I didn't want to be boring and just take the train between each town so i convinced my mom to take the back hike that is free from Manarola to Corniglia. I think I almost killed her off. It was a semi-difficult hike mostly because it was extremely hot and humid and the majority of it was up-hill with a lot of switchbacks. My sister also convinced her not to bring runners so she was doing it in Birkenstock's which were okay but probably not the best support on the small rock paths. It was really worth it though because for me it was really fun and the views were amazing. It was also kind of similar to the Path of the Gods in Positano because you got to see a lot of the garden areas with grape vines. 

It took us around 2 hours to do the hike. 

Manarola

Corniglia

Twins

Look who we ran into! It's Sean and Krysta (and Alex hiding inside)

Mom had blisters so we went to the train station to make our way to Vernazza

Vernazza

We had a lot of fun shopping for bracelets here 

We also visted a beach and ate calamari, shrimp and anchovies (I did NOT eat the anchovies, I hate seafood so I can only be daring to a certain extent)

Look who we ran into again. Sean and Alex. Krysta was off enjoying the good shopping for jewlery as well 

Ricotta and Figs and Lemon and Basil

From Vernazza we decided to do the coastal walk to Monterosso which was 7 euros. I really think it should have been less since the rest of the paths between the other towns were closed off. 

Looking back at Vernazza

The narrow path we were on

We found Krysta and Alex once again in Monterosso. Sean had left for Milan.

We ended the night back in Manarola for dinner. The Colella family has really ruined Italian food for me. I ate some gnocci and it was horrible compared to theirs. I miss La Casereccia and how every single thing they made for us was amazing. Now I can't eat any other Italian meal without comparing it to theirs and so far nothing has measured up. 

-A