Monterosso

DAY TWENTY-ONE: 7.7.18

This morning I woke up, still completely sore from our hike down the mountain, and exhausted from a few nights of not really sleeping well. While the hotel in Chamonix was incredible, the bed for some reason was awful and I didn’t get the best nights sleep (or maybe it was all in my head). None the less, I woke up, grabbed breakfast, and then with a few friends ran out to the Saturday farmers market before we had to be on the bus to leave. It was just your standard farmers market, but it was full of meats and cheeses, and so many vegetables. All I wanted was to stay a few more days, but somewhere with a kitchen so I could cook and finally eat green things again. I’ve never craved broccoli and zucchini as much as I do lately. And a big spinach salad.

Then we climbed onto the bus and headed off! We drove THROUGH Mont Blanc, through a giant tunnel! That was honestly pretty cool. When we came out the other side, we were in Italy! I’ve been wanting to get back to Italy for 4 years now, so it was amazing to finally be back.

We drove out to the coast, to Cinque Terre, and it was breath taking. The whole area looks so tropical, like you’re in central America rather than Italy. We pulled up to a train station, and our professors announced that we’d be walking to catch a train, and then walking about ½ mile uphill from the train station to our hotel. You would’ve thought they’d said we would be walking the entire way on our own by the reactions of some of my classmates (these would be the same ones who have looked at me like I’m crazy when I grab my bag and head for the stairs rather than wait for 60 people to get through an elevator at our previous hotels). Not that I was excited about it either, it’s not like my bag is crazy light or anything. The train was easy enough, it was just one stop until Monterosso, the town we’re staying in. Then came the walking. ½ mile was an optimistic estimation. It was probably closer to a mile from the train station, and steep uphill the entire way. I’ve never been more grateful for a suitcase that rolls, and I’ve never wished I cared less about my appearance (and therefore packed less) than I did on that walk. It was rough, and we were all literally dripping sweat by the time we made it up, thanks to being back in heat and humidity. I was missing the ice cave in that moment more than I can describe.

The hotel is cute, and nicer that the hostel, but barely. There isn’t any wifi, and the rooms are tight. But I do get to room with a couple girls who seem so nice that I haven’t gotten to spend much time with yet, so that’s good!

We pretty much immediately changed into swimsuits and headed down to the beach (it was 5pm by this point). We found the free public beach, and spread our stuff out, taking turns staying with it while others got in the water. The water felt amazing. It was pleasantly warm but still cool, and so so salty! I had to think for a moment to figure out where I was and what body of water I was even in (the Mediterranean Sea), but when I did, it was another out of body moment. I still can’t believe that I’m on this trip and doing all these things!

Monterosso is a very touristy town, and so there are Americans everywhere, and as terrible as it is to say this, I love it. Its so nice to hear English being spoken in the streets and to see a large majority of signs both in Italian and English. It adds a much needed sense of familiarity to somewhere so far from home.

After a bit of time on the beach and in the water, we packed up and started wandering to find food and see what there is. We found a street pizza place for dinner, and had cheap Italian pizza that was so good. Then we kept wandering and exploring, through shops and different parts of town. It was super hot and there was a place selling frozen lemon slush for 3 Euros, so we grabbed some. It was a small cup, and it was good for about the first half, and then I couldn’t handle the tartness anymore. I didn’t want to waste it, so I gave it to one of the other girls in the group and she finished it off. The boys were hungry again, so we found a pasta place for them to grab to go, and sat by the water while they ate. We were all feeling tired at that point, so we wandered back towards the hotel, stopping for gelato on the way (coconut and Nutella, side note, can you tell what my favorite gelato flavor is?). It seriously hit the spot, and helped with the uphill climb back to the hotel.

My roommates weren’t back, and they had the key, so I couldn’t shower like I wanted to. Instead I hung out outside with a bunch of the other students. There ended up being a big group of us hanging out and talking, and it was great! But I also really wanted to shower, so I finally texted one of them to see when they’d be back, and ended up walking halfway down to meet them to grab the key. After a long hot shower, I’m feeling so much better about life in general and ready to crash so I can be ready for the morning.

DAY TWENTY-TWO: 7.8.18

I love Sundays! We woke up and caught a train in Monterosso off to La Spezia. Getting the whole group onto a train on time can be an effort, and so I’ve learned that as long as I make it onto the train, I don’t care what happens to anyone else. It’s not my problem if they’re running late or not. But we all made it, and made it to La Spezia. Then we walked a bit from the train station and caught a bus. Again, imagine cramming 60 Americans onto a tiny little Italian bus. It was a struggle, and we definitely didn’t pay for the bus. I don’t know how it worked out or what happened, but I was told to get on the bus and so I got on the bus. We got off a little while later, and walked a couple blocks to the church building. It was small and unassuming, but also looked like a church from back home when you walked in, which was really nice. There was a sense of familiarity in all the same art that you’re used to seeing in church. The meeting was fantastic. It was in Italian, but between the branch president and a returned missionary who happened to be there, the whole thing was translated into English. So the members still gave their talks and testimonies in Italian, but we got to hear what they were saying in English. They also asked one of my professors to bear his testimony, and it was another opportunity that I loved, to see a professor in that church setting, and hear what he knows and loves about the gospel. It was really amazing and unique. We also sang all the hymns in Italian, and that was a bit of a struggle. We were butchering them left and right, but it was a cool experience, and now I can say that I’ve sung hymns in Italian!

After church, we walked about a mile down to the pier to catch a ferry back to monterosso. We had a while before the ferry arrived, so we just kind of hung out on the pier and enjoy the blazing hot sunshine and humidity (aka dripped in sweat). It was finally time to get on the ferry, so we got on and walked up to the top to grab seats in the open air. The ride was super cool, but it was also much slower than we expected, and stopped in like every town along the way. We had some insane views though, ones we wouldn’t have had otherwise.

We ended up getting off in vernazza, a stop early, to go find lunch. Someone had said that Vernazza was the best place to get pasta, so we all wandered a bit (while hangry) to find food. We settled on a place, and I got gnocchi with pesto because someone had had it and said it was amazing but I wasn’t impressed. It was actually pretty bland, and as awful as this sounds, the Costco pesto back home tastes waaaay more flavorful. We caught the train back into monterosso and headed up to the monastery where we all took afternoon naps. It was so ridiculously hot that napping in the AC was the only thing that sounded mildly appealing. We walked down into town to grab food, and had some incredibly amazing pizza. It was life changing. I got the vegetarian pizza, and it had peppers and tomatoes and zucchini and eggplant on it, and it was everything my stomach and heart needed.

Then we walked back up to the monastery for a Sunday night devotional that we were having. The professors all introduced their wives one by one, and they all took a few minutes to talk to us about whatever they felt like. For about a day beforehand, I had been feeling really stressed and anxious, and just kind of unhappy in general. However, the words these women spoke somehow calmed my mind and heart exactly as I needed, and it was a wonderful night. Hillary talked about trusting in the path of the

Lord, and mentioned a scripture that says something along the lines of who trusteth in the Lord, happy is he. Korri talked about expectations and comparisons, and something that stuck out to me was when she said that comparison drains our ability to thrive. Layne talked about a scripture story, and the gist of it was that there is no evidence of a lack of God, but everything around us on this incredible planet is evidence of God. Finally Sharon, the grandma on the trip, talked about how we can’t just endure to the end, we have to prepare our way to get there, and it’s something that we need to be working on every single day. That was really impactful, and made me think about what I need to be doing to get where I want to be going. After the devotional, a bunch of us stayed up outside in the lounge chairs, just enjoying each others company and the weather (since it had cooled down a lot). It was such a great night! I love getting to know a wide variety of people and learning from everyone’s life experiences. I honestly really enjoy being around the majority of the people on this trip!

DAY TWENTY-THREE: 7.9.18

This morning I woke up for bootcamp, and then promptly rolled back over and went to sleep. I was tired and exhausted and decided I was much better off getting an extra hour and a half of sleep, and I was right. After breakfast (which is not amazing here, but hey, free food is free food), we had class! I only had MBH today, but it was fantastic. We talked about anxiety and what it does to the body, and a little bit about depression. It was a really good talk, and after all the worrying I’ve been doing lately, it was what I needed to hear. I feel like it was the capstone to finishing my thoughts about Prague and my worries there, and helping me be able to enjoy the moment here in Italy while I’m here.

Then we went down to the beach! We have spaces on the beach reserved today and Wednesday, so we walked down and claimed our lounge chairs, and promptly got in the water because of how hot it is. The water here is amazing. It is so incredibly salty, you float without any effort. I literally just lay back on the water, and float. All the reserved beach lounge chairs have umbrellas with them, so it was perfect to alternate between being cool in the water and just relaxing in the shade. I grabbed focchia with cheese, zucchini, and sausage for lunch, and then bartered my way to a linen blanket that I liked. It’s massive and beautiful, and I was able to get it for 10 Euros (which is probably still a rip off considering it’s a giant piece of fabric, but the guy was trying to sell it for 35 Euros, so I’ll call it a win). We found a place that had gelato for super cheap, and of course grabbed gelato (coconut and dark chocolate-it was like eating a frozen mounds bar), and then enjoyed the beach more!

I stayed in the water until I was fully pruny, and then napped in the lounge chair for a while. I headed back up to the Monastery where we’re staying in the late afternoon with some dinner for a friend who wasn’t feeling well and stayed home today. Then I enjoyed the AC, changed out of my suit, and recharged my phone for a bit.

After relaxing a bit, I headed back down to the beach with one of the girls. We grabbed pizza and sat and ate on thhe water front. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and the pizza was honestly life changing. It’s one of those meals that I’ll never be able to forget. About halfway through our dinner, someone somewhere started to play the piano, and so we had this flawless dinner on the waterfront with incredible music playing from behind us. It was one of the best nights I’ve ever had. Then we walked in the rocks on the beach, and found seaglass! It was really cool to find, because you can find not only seaglass, but also bits of ceramic tiles that have undergone the same process, so they’re smooth and small, but you can still see the painted side of them. We met up with the group for FHE on the beach. It was fun to have it right next to the water, at sunset. We learned about the early years of the Church in Italy, and heard a story and testimony from one of the professors. It’s been a really cool experience to see these professors outside of class, and see them in the church settings and in their families. Honestly, it’s been one of the best parts of the trip in my opinion. After that, they bought us all gelato at a little place on the beach (strawberry, mango, and of course, coconut). Then we went home, and just called it a night!

DAY TWENTY-FOUR: 7.10.18

Today was the group hike day. Due to the heat and the size of the trail, it was decided that it would be better if everyone went off on their own in small groups. I started off with a group of 6, and we hit the road at about 9am. The trail is a path that links all of the towns in Cinque Terre together. The five towns are Monterosso (where we’re staying), Vernazza, Carneglia, Monorolo, and Riogmatti. It was a bit of a hike-as-far-as-you-can-and-take-the-train-back kind of a deal. We made it to Vernazza, but barely. Some of my friends here are not great hikers, and it was an intense hike. Very steep, and tons of stairs. I would say its about 50/50 for up and down hill, but almost entirely stairs. We kept each other entertained by essentially ruining a bunch of classic chick flicks for the boys by rehashing the entire movie and telling them all the details of the plot. It made the hike go so fast. At Vernazza, we left two behind to take the train back, and then kept going. It was slow going because one of the girls who stayed with us was not a very good hiker, but we didn’t want to be mean and tell her to stay behind for everyone’s benefit. So we kept going. About halfway to Carneglia was the peak between the two, and it had a couple little shops. We just kept going, and made it down into the town. We were all dripping sweat this entire time, it is so hot and humid. At Carneglia, we left the other two girls to take the trian back, and Chris and I kept going. We wanted to make it all the way, but the trail between Carneglia and Monorola had washed out, and the detour was adding a few hours onto the journey, so we decided to just hike all the way back instead. So back we went, up all the stairs we’d come down and down all the stairs we’d come up. It was a long hike, but we cut our time going back in half by going at the pace that we preferred rather than the pace of the group.

We were so thirsty and hungry by the time we got back, it was about 2:30 and we really hadn’t stopped at all the whole way, and both of us had drained both our waterbottles. We grabbed pizza and refilled our bottles at the sketchy spicket before heading back up the hill to the monastery (side note, if I die on this trip, it will be from one of two possible causes: dehydration, or some bacteria I pick up drinking water from not amazing sources). After a long cold shower and some food, we both felt significantly better.

 I had class, so I headed off to one of my professors Airbnb’s because he had wifi and so he wanted to hold class there. It was weird to have class in my professors living room, but it was fun! We talked about the importance of friendship and connections, and the difference they make in your physical health. Turns out that loneliness is one of the leading causes of death in the US, and its something that can really only be combatted if both the person who is lonely and the people around them are trying to fix it. It made me think a lot about what I can do to reach out to those around me, because I know what it’s like to be super lonely, and so it’s up to me to try and keep others from feeling that way.

Then we ran back up to the monastery for dinner! They had this amazing meal planned and prepared for us. It started off with an incredible seafood risotto, possibly the best I’ve ever had in my life. It was so amazing. Following that, there was a course of a seafood stew. It was so good. The seafood in it was a little sketch, you could definitely see tentacles and such, but I loved it. It tasted so good. However, a large majority of the group did not have the same feelings as I did, and they made it obvious. Barely picking at food, asking if they had anything else to eat or if they could just make a salad, being loud and frankly rude. I was so embarrassed and horrified. These people, to whom food is so important in their culture, had taken this time to make this amazing meal, and people were being rude. It was just said. To finish off dinner, they had fresh watermelon and a custard dessert, and they were both so so good! Honestly, the whole meal was amazing and was a highlight of the trip for me.

After dinner, I went out to talk to Savannah. She’d thrown her back out the previous morning, and had spent the last couple days laying in bed or on the floor in the monastery, basically completely alone. She needed a chiropractor, but there were none in Monterosso, or even in La Spezia, the closest city. We talked about how her day was, and she shared how lonely she’d been. This is where things got interesting in my head. There was a group going to Pisa the next day, and they had invited me to join them. I’ve always wanted to go to Pisa and see the leaning tower, but for some reason on this trip, I’ve had no desire to go. At all. Any time anyone mentioned it, my only thoughts were “meh” which was strange because it’s always been something I wanted to do. But in that moment, I realized that it was because I was supposed to spend the day with Savannah, just keeping her company, and this way I didn’t have to make a hard choice, it was easy to decide what to do. I decided to google where the nearest chiropractor was, and it was in a city called Genoa, about an hour and a half from Monterosso. I checked the train schedule, and there was a train leaving Monterosso at 11 am that was directly to Genoa Brignole. I ran off to Savannahs room to see if she wanted to make the trip to try and make it work, and she did! We made plans for the morning, and then headed off to bed. Before I crashed, I texted my family to ask them to pray for us the next day, as it was going to take a miracle or two to not only find the chiropractor, but also one who spoke English and was able to help her. It’s interesting, with how much I’ve been reading in the scriptures, and all the miracles that I’ve been reading about, there was no doubt in my mind that if we prayed and put all the work into the effort that we could, then we would find the solution to the problem and things would get worked out. On that note, I went to bed!

DAY TWENTY-FIVE: 7.11.18

We woke up today and got ready to trek off to Genoa! It’s interesting, when this trip started, there was either a morning workout or group run every single day, but now, more often than not, we’re all too tired to care and no one wants to get up and put forth the effort. Or maybe it’s just cause its so hot and hilly here in Cinque Terre. We’ll see if it changes in Sweden or not.

After breakfast, we checked the train schedule, and found a train that ran directly from Monterosso to Genoa. Then we found that there was a chiropractor directly across the street from the train station. This was all good and uplifting, so off we went! We got to the station and bought our tickets, and found our platform. Literally, like 3 minutes before our train was supposed to arrive, they changed the platform. So we rushed off to the other one, and right as we got to the other one, they switched it back. So we had to rush against traffic of tons of people to get back, and all of this while Savannah’s back is killing her and walking is difficult. But we made it in time and got on the train! We didn’t realize we had assigned seats, so it wasn’t until a couple stops later when a couple people arrived to where we were sitting that we realized we had to move, but we got it figured out, and after about an hour and fifteen minutes on the train, we were in Genoa! It was about 12:30 at this point, and when we got to the chiropractor, they didn’t open until 2. We walked down the street to the local McDonalds to grab lunch, and discovered that McDonalds in Italy has both Mozzarella bites and bacon cheese fries, so of course we bought both. While in line, someone asked if we were enjoying Genoa, and we were both a little confused because a)we’d literally never heard of this place before googling “chiropractors near me” and b)we didn’t really think there was anything to see or do here. While eating, we checked to see how far the other chiropractors we’d seen were, and we found one that was a three minute walk from the McDonalds that closed at 2. It was a little after 1, so we figured we’d go give it a try. While walking over, we found the insane beauty of Genoa. It was incredible! The architecture was amazing, the streets were gorgeous, it was such a hidden gem!

Then we found the chiropractor. We rang the bell because we couldn’t figure out how to open the door, and a lady answered, looked at us, asked “English?” and when we said yes, she goes “I thought so. Come in” and just walked away! So we walked in, and a doctor came around the corner! Turns out he studied in Canada, so he spoke fluent English! It was really incredible. He dropped the price of an alignment down so that Savannah could afford it, and after she filled some paperwork out, he invited both of us back into his office. I was a little confused why I was going into her appointment, but oh well, I went. He asked her a couple questions, and then told her to take her clothes off. We just kinda looked at him. He laughed, and said that in Italy, chiropractors need to feel the body to fix the body, and that was why I was there, as a chaperone. It was weird, but she stripped to her underwear and climbed onto his inversion table. He started with her neck and worked his way down her spine, chatting with us and explaining what he was doing to her. It was interesting, it turns out he is never in his office at those hours, but happened to be there today because one of his regular clients needed their appointment later in the day than usual. It really was nothing more than a string of miracles that allowed everything to come together, and he was able to fix her so that she wasn’t in pain! After he finished, I asked if there was anything in Genoa that we should see before leaving, and he looked at me surprised, and said “everything!” And then just started rattling off a list of things that I couldn’t even keep up with. I clearly need to do more research into Genoa and everything about it cause I am missing something here. We ended up walking down the street further to see this really cool fountain and a square that had some museums. When we got to the fountain, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the miracles that had occurred to get us to the Chiropractor, and how much I knew it was the Lord’s hand, and so we stopped next to the fountain, sat down, and said a prayer of gratitude for the amazing blessings that we had received.

Then we kept wandering the streets and alleyways to see what there was, and wandered back towards the train station. There was a little bakery on the way that had Nutella filled cannoli’s for a euro, so obviously we stopped and grabbed cannoli’s. After that we spotted this really cool street/alley thing that had an art installation of rainbow umbrellas!

We took some pictures and just loved life, and headed back to the train station to get tickets home. We just missed a train, so we had an hour to wait. We walked to a park nearby and sat and talked for the hour, and then caught our train!

This time we knew that we needed to be in a certain seat, so we found the right car and seat, but there were people in it. We showed them our ticket, but they showed us theirs that said the same thing, and then started talking in rapid fire Italian, so we just walked away cause we didn’t know what else to do. The whole train was full, so there wasn’t really anywhere else for us to go, so we moved to a car that had some open standing space and just kind of chilled there. Turns out we were right next to a train officials office, so he came by and said “go sit in your seat”. We explained the situation, and he grabbed our tickets to check them, and after checking the tickets and a computer screen and other things on a tablet he had, he handed us back our tickets and said “just go sit in first class”. We were surprised, but we didn’t ask any questions and off we went! It really wasn’t that different from any other train car, but we did have way more leg room and a nicer seat. It was so nice that we actually ended up missing our stop, so we ended in La Spezia instead of Monterosso. We were going to grab a ticket back to Monterosso since you can’t ride the trains without them, but the next train to Monterosso was leaving right when we got there, so we just took a chance and hopped on. Right as we pulled into the station, the train official came by checking tickets, but we got off the train before he checked for ours, so all was well.

We walked straight down to the beach to find the group, and the waves were insane. It had been stormy all day, and so they were crashing down left and right. All of the reserved beach spaces had to adjust and pull out the front row of lounge chairs because of how far up the beach the waves were crashing. I was almost a little sad that I didn’t had a suit on, because it would have been so fun to be out in the water! I split off from the group to grab a pizza before heading back up to the Monastery for our class that night, which was book group. We had read the book French Women Don’t Get Fat, with the plan to spend time in France and Italy talking about diet and such. Most people in the group didn’t love the book because it makes a lot of sweeping generalizations about Americans, and the authors doesn’t have a ton of credentials, but I actually really enjoyed it (and would recommend reading it). We talked about her suggestions of life changes (regarding diet and exercise), and created our list of our top favorites. Then we all chose one in specific and set a goal regarding it to be better about it somehow. The one I chose was enjoying the ritual of planning and preparing meals, so I’m going to try and be better about meal planning in the future. We followed that up by talking about the Mediterranean Diet, which is really more of a lifestyle than a weight related thing, and it was interesting to talk about. It’s something that I think I would enjoy trying to implement in my life more, so that’s something I’ll have to look into as I start meal planning more.

After that, some friends and I walked back down to the beach to get gelato again (coconut and mango!) and enjoy the beach for our last night there. It was so beautiful and just surreal. It’s really an amazing place to be, and I loved the opportunity I had to be there and to see and do everything!  

When I got back up to my room, we had lost power in the room. We got the professors to reset the circuit breaker and get power back, but the electrical outlets never came back on. To top it off, somehow in the power outage, my power converter had stopped working, and my phone was totally dead. I went to borrow one from a friend for a couple minutes, and it turns out she had an extra, so I still have one to use for the rest of the trip! Hopefully mine will work if I try again tomorrow. I sat out in the hall (where there was a working outlet) and read my scriptures for a while and just enjoyed life. I feel like I’ve been getting so much out of them by reading them so frequently and really trying to meet this goal that I’ve set to read the whole book of Mormon on this trip, it’s pretty incredible.