Barcelona, Italia! Milano, Cinque Terre (I suppose I forgot to publish this...

Ciao bellas

Oh me, oh my.
Looking back on the past year of my life, I am constantly amazed by how fantastic all of my trips have been. Thankfully this trend continued with my Spring Break 2012 or "Semana Santa", which lasted 13 days. 13 days of friends, airplanes, trains, pastries, pizza, pasta, and gelato. It was amazing and I am so grateful to everyone who was able to be apart of it! Luckily I documented my trip each day, just so I wouldn't skimp on the details during my blog entry! So without further ado, I present my trip to Barcelona, Milan, Cinque Terre, Florence, and Rome!

Barcelona, Spain: Reuniting with my UCSB friends from across the pond!

I started my trip on March 28, 2012, on which I flew from Madrid to Barcelona. Upon arrival I took a train into the city center and wandered through the architectural beauty of Barcelona. I arrived at my place to stay: the apartment of my friend Jess Perez. She has been great friend throughout my college experience, and is also studying abroad in Spain. Already at the apartment were two of my closest friends from UCSB, Priscilla and Amanda, as well as Christian and Michael. I was so excited to see them all, and to have a little bit of California brought to Spain. Overall, our trip was spent laying around and catching up, as a stomach sickness had spread throughout the apartment. Luckily I did not catch it, and was able to have a great three days in Barcelona. During my visit, we walked around the streets of Barcelona, checked out the Catalan nightlife, experienced the chaos of the spanish strikes, tasted champagne at a champagnería, and enjoyed home cooked meals from Jess's mom Beth, who was also visiting with Jess's sister. I would like to give and big thanks to Jess for letting us all stay with her, and I am so thankful that I was able to see a few of my UCSB friends! (Oh and did I mention Jess's apartment had a view of the Sagrada Familia? That place never gets old!)

Night out in Barcelona with Amanda, Priscilla, and Jess

Group shot: near the Barcelona waterfront

P and I at the Champagnería

A little Gaudí

Fire in the distance from the strikes and riots

Milan, Italy: Gelato, Selene, and Nicole

On the Friday I flew from Barcelona to Milan. I was met at the airport by my friend Selene, who was my housemate last semester. Selene is from Busto Arsizio, a town outside of Milan. She was kind enough to let me stay with her family for two nights, and to show me around her town and Milan. Her father speaks some english, but her mother, sister, and grandmother speak only italian. When Selene and I speak to each other, we speak in spanish. Quite a mix of languages!

Immediately from the airport, Selene took me to the best gelato in her town. I selected the flavors Tiramisu and Crema. (Some of you would say boring to crema (vanilla-type flavor) but I get my appreciation for this simple flavor from my dad!) This gelato was delicious. In fact, it might have been the best gelato from my whole trip. Whether this was because it was from a small town gelateria, immediately after a long flight, or shared with a good friend, I don't know. But it was delicious.

Before heading to Selene's home we stopped by her grandmother's house. It was such a cute experience. Her little cousin and grandmother speak no english, so the only thing I understood was a. her grandmother was adorable, b. that she was watching the italian version of Big Brother, c. her little cousin was too cute, and that d. her grandmother grabbed my cheeks and said "que bella!". It was amazing.
The trip just kept getting better once we returned to Selene's home. After putting down my luggage, Selene and I got down to work. What kind of work? The only necessary thing to do as a tourist in Italy: make a home-made pizza! Selene had made dough for the crust earlier on in the day, and so it was all ready for our margarita pizzas! We rolled the dough, spread the sauce, added cheese, and then cooked those delicious creations. What a great way to start my trip! Eating gelato and home-made pizza!

That night, Selene and I dressed up, and were picked up by her friend. We then drove to a club somewhere, where we hung out and danced for the night. Sounds normal enough, other than the major factor that I've left out: none of Selene's friends spoke enough english or spanish to communicate with me, nor did any other person in the club. I am fairly sure that I was the only person in that location who was not from Italy. It was such an interesting experience! (Side note: I now know where the Jersey Shore "italian-inspired" style comes from: Milan. The majority of the guys at the club were dressed exactly like the guys on the show. It was hilarious.)

The next morning, Selene and I caught the train into Milan, where we walked around the cute italian city streets. It wasn't at all what I had expected. From hearing other people's reviews of the city, I expected it to be all glitzed and glammed out with designer stores. Turns out there is only one street in the city, Monte Napoleone, where you'll find that stereotype. The street even reminded me a bit of San Jose's own Santana Row.
While in Milan, we wandered to the building where the "Last Supper" is. Sadly the tickets were sold out, but hey at least I've been outside the building! I then ate my first (of oh so many) croissant and cafe. We walked around for about half the day, and then headed back to the train station to meet one of my best friends Nicole. She is another one of my friends that I travel very with. Nicole had flown from California to Milan, to join me on my Italy trip as she had just finished up all of her courses at UCLA. It was amazing to see her again, as we had not been together since she returned back to California after my first week in Madrid. The rest of the day Nicole and Selene got to know each other, as it turns out Selene can speak a lot more english than she will admit to. We walked through the city to the Duomo, or cathedral, and had a look inside of the beautiful building. After, we walked through the galleria and headed up Monte Napoleone. By then, we were exhausted and caught the train back to Selene's town. That night she cooked us a FEAST. The feast included: pasta, tomato sauce, two pans of veggies, and polenta with a creamy sauce. It was amazing and I was beyond full. Somehow, Nicole and I still wanted gelato. So we dragged our food coma bodies out of the house and into the car, and drove downtown. Now to a normal person from California, this concept seems, well, normal. But after living in Madrid for about 8 months now, I am very adjusted to using public transportation. Because of this, traveling in a car felt like such a luxury! We drove into the main part of Busto Arsizio, and chowed down another (but perhaps not as delicious) gelato. After, we met a few of Selene's friends, who spoke a mixture of italian, spanish, and english, so the conversation was quite comedic. We then returned home, packed up our belonging and had a nice nights sleep before our train trip to Cinque Terre.
I had such a great time visiting Selene in Milan, and am so thankful to her family for their hospitality! It was such a wonderful introduction to Italy!

More pizza

Nicole arrives (and drags suitcase around Milan)

Reunited!

Cats climbing up a wall?

My wonderful friend Selene

Il Duomo

Dead guy, check out his head

The Galleria

Another home-made meal

Polenta with a cheese sauce

Cinque Terre: Is this real life?

Nicole and I boarded a train from Milano Centrale to Sestri Levante, where we were stranded for multiple hours due to train strikes in Cinque Terre. Often strikes are seen as ineffective, but because Cinque Terre is ONLY accessible via train due to the cliff side location (no roads) and flood damage (no hiking trails), this one was very effective. The lack of knowledge about this strike among ourselves and other passengers headed to Cinque Terre, along with the woman working at the train station's inability to speak english, lead us to feel rather stranded as we sat and hoped that the strike would end by 5 (according to our limited understanding of a few train workers). Finally the train taking us to our destination rolled into the station just after five, and we were finally on our way. Nicole and I stayed in the fifth town of Cinque Terre (Five Towns), named Riomaggiore. It is a beautiful and very very small town, actually I'm not even sure I would call it a town. Perhaps village at most, as Riomaggiore has only one street. At the bottom of the street lies the small harbor, surrounded by rock formations. There are little fishing boats that float atop the ocean water, moving back and forth with the tide. Nicole and I stayed in a room, mid street, owned by La Dolce Vita. Below us is the street, and the buildings lining it are all different colors. Upon our arrival in Riomaggiore, we dropped of our luggage, changed and then headed to the water front. We walked up some stairs to a small bar on the edge of the cliff, where we ate a focaccia eggplant sandwich and drank a glass of white wine, while looking out into the sea and breathing in the fresh air. It was an incredible experience, which honestly made me ask: "Is this real life?"

The next morning we woke up and headed to the cafe on the ground floor of the building next to ours. We sat on the patio, while drinking tea and eating a croissant. To be honest, I'm not sure if there are many morning situations better than what I've just mentioned. After finishing our tea, we headed to the tourist office to buy a hiking/ train pass, and then continued on foot to the Via dell' Amore, which links the towns of Riomaggiore and Manarola. The Via dell' Amore is where countless people have walked, many declaring their love through the use of locks or writing on the walls of the tunneled area. The path  hugs the cliffs, and provides incredible views. The rest of the day we traveled from town to town on the train, as many of the hiking trails were destroyed in the floods of October 25, 2011. Cinque Terre is a gorgeous place, with delicious food, and amazing sites, and although we were warned about the flood damage, the only place is was fully prominent was in the town of Vernazza. Vernazza is typically the town that you see when you google Cinque Terre, so it was sad to see some of the beauty taken away from such an incredible place. Still, Nicole and I had an amazing time walking through the small streets of each of the five towns, and can affirm that Cinque Terre is one of the most breath taking places I have ever been (and will probably ever go to).

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