Pisa and Cinque Terre

Hello again!

This weekend we had our first excursion with our program to Pisa and Cinque Terre. It was a wonderful weekend filled with lots of sunshine, lots of laughter, and lots of beautiful scenery. Saturday morning we were up bright and early to ride the bus to Pisa. At the beginning of the weekend, I was only mildly excited about going to Pisa, but I really enjoyed my time there. We took a short tour around the Piazza dei Miracoli:

The tour also included a trip to the Arno River, which is the river that also flows through Florence:

Some fabulous girls on the Arno River!

And then of course we saw the leaning tower of Pisa. I was in absolute awe of this building. While it was slightly shorter than I imagined, it also leaned quite a bit more than it seems to in pictures. Not to mention, I've seen pictures of it hundreds of times throughout my life, and then I was finally standing right in front of it, taking my own pictures. It was an incredible experience, and I highly recommend seeing the tower if you ever get the chance.

I had to do the classic picture. I had to.

After Pisa, we spent the afternoon at the beach in Viareggio, another seaside town. It was so nice to lay on the beach for a couple of hours with some girls, just chatting and laughing.

Molly, Natalie and I at the beach in Viareggio.

On Sunday, we spent the day touring Portvenere, and Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre are five small villages (Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore) that line the coast of Italy. They are all comprised of beautiful terraces built on the steep landscape, and all of them overlook the Mediterranean Sea in all its glory.

This is Portovenere. The Cinque Terre villages look fairly similar to this.

Between two of the villages, there is a half-mile path called Lover's Lane:

The story behind the path is that it used to be the meeting point for two lovers, each from one of the different villages. It now remains a short, but inspiring walk along the beautiful coastline. Many couples will come and write their names along the path. A recent trend has been to attach a lock to a wire or rope somewhere along the path and throw the lock in the sea:

The writing and the locks are symbols of your hope for everlasting love between you and your lover.

A cute little bench on Lover's Lane. You can see the hundreds of locks attached on either side.

Our walk down Lover's Lane was the end of our lovely weekend. We got back on the bus, exhausted, and drove "home" to Florence. I hope you all had a lovely weekend as well!

One more thing- If you would like to send me mail, my address is:

Sarah Bundrick
C/O Scuola Lorenzo de' Medici
Via del Melarancio, 6/r
50123 Florence ITALY

I appreciate any mail and will even write back!

Ciao,

Sarah