Back to Paris, and back home to our Moms :)

We booked our final train from Nice to Paris for early in the afternoon so we could have one last leisurely morning. Heather hit the seaside running trail again only to take in the typical sights lining the shore. The early morning picnickers, the runners, bikers, and dog walkers, the metal-detector scavengers, a few backpackers sleeping on the rocks, and the odd group of youth leftover from yesterday. A perfectly refreshing run. We went for the standard French breakfast of coffee, croissants, baguette and jam with a side order of people watching. Delicieux! After carb-loading we tried to loiter at McDonalds to use their wifi but were thwarted once again. For whatever reason, the high technological powers do not wish for us to be able to post any blogs until Paris. Our apologies, but you really haven’t missed much in the last few days. We have been trying to get a good dose of relaxation in before returning to the real world.

Our final train to Paris was an emotional journey. We laughed, cried, and made a blood pact to return again. Actually we just ate lunch, watched Pirates of the Caribbean, and composed this post! We did reflect on the trip earlier (likely during an intoxicated state experience during an early morning hike, gelato high, or bottle of wine) and have learned so many things. We are so thankful for where we come from, for our family and friends, and to have the opportunity to travel and appreciate the world. We have decided that our next trip will be completely different from this one, but it was a essential trip to take. We have a deeper appreciation of history, language, culture, and food! We agree that our next trip will need to have more hiking, breathtaking views, and fewer crowds of tourists. We have come to appreciate each other so much more as friends and travel partners, and couldn’t imagine doing the trip with anyone else. We are very excited to be returning home to structure, our families and our comfort zones, and know that there will be many escapades to come. Thank you to everyone who helped to make our trip better than we could have imagined. The contact from home, the new friends that we met, and the general inspiration that we have gained from everyone has made our trip the entertaining adventure that it was. Until then, these two girls are headed home to start the next chapters as they return to the confines of textbooks and new patients.

Nice is so nice

The train rides from Cinque Terre to Nice involved a few connections, layovers, but managed to get us into the village around 2pm. Not too shabby and left us enough time to wander around Nice and discover a few good deals in the many stores that lined the streets. Our hostel was close to the train station and an easy 15 minute walk from the water which we visited for dinner. It was nice to be back in France and able to practice a little more of our rusty French.

Heather went for a beautiful run along the waterfront before we set out to do some serious relaxing. We even splurged and purchased lounge chairs, or “transats,” and a space on the stony beach. Lather on sunscreen, soak up rays, wipe sweat off brow, flip over, soak up rays, cool down with a swim, and repeat. Our day was as indulgent and idle as we could manage. We managed to sneak in some bites of fresh fruit event though picnics were strictly forbidden on our private, restaurant-backed beach. When we couldn’t bear the sun and stillness any longer we threw on some respectable outfits and made way to the swanky Monte Carlo casino in Monaco. Entry to the casino requires a day pass (or week/month/year/life membership) and minimum bet starts at 75 Euro. We decided to bet on something less risky and took a gamble on some new gelato flavours. JACKPOT!!!! We walked around the beautiful gardens, enjoyed some wine from Provence overlooking the marina, and took note of the glamorous cars that inhabited the city.

Cinque Terre: Five villages

We boarded the direct train to La Spezia and enjoyed coastal views along the way. With only one short stop to change trains we made it into Riomaggiore, the most Southern of the five towns that make up Cinque Terre. Wow! Tourist time is over; let the nature worshipping begin! Cinque Terre is a national park that is a collection of five coastal towns with hiking trails between and stunning views at every cliff. We picked up our hiking pass to the park and then went in search of the hostel. We checked in at the main office then the man took us to our dorm room, which was up an impressive flight of stairs. This was one of many times we were very thankful to have packs as opposed to rolling suitcases. We clambered up the flights of stairs flanked by colourful houses, freshly hung washing, and the occasional neighbourhood cats scurrying past our feet. We quickly changed into our bathers, chatted with our new roommates before picking up some fresh foccacia and heading down to the water. As there is only one beach in Cinque Terre at it rests in Monterosso, the most northern town, we made ourselves comfortable on a private rock next to the ocean. We found entertainment with some crabs on neighbouring rocks (luckily not the one we were on!) and the usual people watching. When we couldn’t resist the water any longer we scrambled over to the pebble beach and went for the first swim of the trip. Pure bliss! We hung out in the waves until we decided to replace the salt-water taste in our mouths with gelato. Yes, gelato again. Janelle has had gelato every day (save for two) that we have been in Italy, and for good reason! This gelato was right up there with the best we’ve had. We had to “hike” to the next town over, Manarola, for the one shop. We say “hike” because it is listed as a 30min walk entitled “The Lover’s Walk,” but is a paved 1km coastal trail that really only took us 10 minutes to walk. Such an inviting trail to walk and worth paying for the hiking pass for the day in order to use it. You have to purchase a hiking pass so that they are able to preserve the national park, something we definitely hope they continue to do.

We treated ourselves to a fresh, authentic dinner and shared plates of an oven-roasted sea bass (head, scales, tail and all!) and tagliatelli with prawns, truffle sauce and zucchini. Delicious! Revelling in the afterglow of dinner (could have been the local olive oil, or wine) we headed down to the water and made some friends as we sat on the rocks to catch the sunset. Our Swiss Army knives were in high demand to help everyone open their wine and we spent the evening chatting to a group from Australia and South Africa. We met Amelia, native of Manly Beach in Sydney, AUS, and full of life. We invited her to join us on our hike between the villages the next day, and when she heard we were leaving at 5:30am to catch the sunrise, she was sold. We love it when we find people just as crazy as we are.

We met her at the start of the trail before sun-up and set out on our adventure at a quick pace. Riomaggiore to Manarole = piece of cake. The sun still had yet to show its face so we continued up into the mountains. There had been landslides on the easy coastal route between Manarola and Corniglia we were forced to take an alternate route with an estimated hike time of 2.5 hours. We couldn’t entirely find the path so we made our own. We mounted a mountain of stairs and scaled cliffs alongside grapevines. We had to backtrack a few times to find a successful route but we found a breathtaking spot to enjoy our breakfast. Great company, a physical challenge, and fresh air made this another highlight of our trip. We made it to Corniglia in just under 2 hours and set off to the next town, Vernazza. This time we stuck to the well-marked trail that was seaside and snapped even more stunning photos and memories. By the time we made it to Vernazza, around 8:45am, Amelia had to leave us to return back to Riomaggiore and check out of her hostel. We took our time in Vernazza, enjoyed more giant, juicy peaches and nectarines, some coffee and a break for our legs before starting the last hike of the series. The final hike was advertised as the hardest: 1.5 hours of walking with steep ascents and descents. Heidi and Caitlin had also warned us that we would get a good sweat going. We had been sweating since our first hike, and we did not stop. We are so thankful to be able to challenge ourselves and complete the demanding route without having to take too many breaks. We stopped to snap photos that don’t quite capture the vast beauty, and thoroughly enjoyed the hike in the fresh mountain air and growing company of other hikers. By the time we made it to Monterosso (10:30am, only an hour from leaving Vernazza) we were covered in sweat, dust and aching for a swim. We pulled a Superman and spun around quickly in a phonebooth to emerge in our spandex uniforms. We heard there was trouble on the beach, so we hustled over to take care of villains. Everything was in order when we arrived so we took a deep breath and decided we’d relax until they showed their faces again. Luckily for them they stayed away.

We read, soaked up some vitamin D, listened to music, and cooled off in the ocean. We didn’t want to turn into raisins so after we rinsed off the salt we sat down at a restaurant for a delicious lunch. Heather feasted on fresh mussels and Janelle ordered yet another pizza. Rather than hike off our lunch, we lingered a little while around the town before catching a train back to our hometown. We crafted a healthy home made salad for dinner and then walked along the lover’s walk to catch a stunning sunset. How romantic!

Rome: Vatican City

As we had worn out our gladiator sandals for the day we stepped into our heels before heading out for dinner. Our mouths were watering at the prospect of a restaurant “owned by a little old Italian man who doesn’t speak any English.” Unfortunately we didn’t get to taste any of this food as the restaurant was closed for construction. What is a girl to do? We asked a nearby hotel for a recommendation and then went in search. The restaurant was completely empty and the menu was written in comic sans, so we vetoed that choice. We may be backpackers on a budget, but if we’re going to spend money on a nice meal it had better be authentic, delicious food! Especially since we had to endure walking cobble stone streets in heels, and the millions (yes, millions lol) of Italian cat-calls we received on our trek. We kept walking until we came across a place a little ways up a side street. Our waiter at Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale spoke very little English, but paired with Heather’s very limited Italian we were able to order a delicious meal. We shared a bottle of house wine, melon and prosciutto, penne amatriciana with fresh basil, and baked chicken filets with parmesan cheese. To top it off, the persistence of our waiter and our soft spot for delicious baked goods and sweets, landed us a plate of tirimisu. When in Rome!

After dinner we strutted up to “The Yellow,” a local backpacker bar and looked slightly out of place with our polished appearance and glasses of wine (only 2.10Euro!). We enjoyed them over the company of a pair of cousins from St. Louis and chatted about Canadian/US differences (only taboo topics of course: taxes, politics, health care, dating history, dead people, student loans, religion……).

We made sure not to stay out too late and woke bright-eyed and bushy-haired to grab a quick breakfast and bus over to the Vatican. The Vatican was quite the adventure with several failed attempts to gain entrance. Who would have thought we would have such trouble getting in.

Attempt 1: Wait in line to go through security for St. Peter’s Basilica and realize our handy Swiss Army knives are not allowed in. Apparently someone once attacked the statue of Mary Magdalene holding Jesus with an axe; so even pocketknives are completely banned. Entrance denied.

So we stashed our knives in a potted tree not too far from the entrance. Problem solved.

Attempt 2: We knew that bare shoulders, shorts, and miniskirts were not allowed into the Basilica as it is disrespectful but we didn’t realize that dresses just above the knee were unacceptable. Entrance denied.

So we bought some great souvenir t-shirts and fashioned our dresses into appropriate length skirts and marched our fashion-statement selves back through security. Problem solved.

Attempt 3: Entrance granted!

After the Basilica we found our way to the long line for the Vatican Museum and only 1.5 hours and 83 private tour offers later we had made it in. The rooms were incredible to the point of sensory overload. The amount of time and effort that went into every room is simply astounding and unfathomable. Our appreciation of the art was nearly at its limit when we reached the Sistine Chapel. Pictures can’t quite convey the sheer size of the room and the detail of the works. We didn’t spend nearly enough time to truly appreciate everything but we were satisfied with our time spent there, and the waves of pushy camera holders were enough to affirm our decision to leave.

After recovering our contraband from the potted tree we hopped a bus back to the hostel and picked up some salads. We napped for a good part of the afternoon before doing some shopping. Inspired by the history of the city we borrowed the movie Gladiator from the reception desk and watched as much of the damaged disk as we could. Then it was off to bed at a respectable hour to get ready for the next leg of our journey.

WE ARE ALIVE!

Hey sports fans,

We unfortunately didnt have internet when in Cinque Terre as you can tell by our absence on the blog :( We do have them typed on our laptop with many many pictures and were really excited to send out the blogs from our visit to Vatican City, and our 2 days in Cinque Terre. Unfortunately the wifi doesnt work in the hostel. Just our luck. Although they do have computers for us to connect with life back home, we don't have the time or patience to retype the post. If we can get to an internet cafe we will connect the laptop and post.

If not, see you in 3 days!

xo Heather and Janelle

Rome: Roads Well Traveled

We highly recommend you watch the new season of Jersey Shore for a thoughtful commentary on the role of diction and imported goods that has influenced the development of local food specialties in the Tuscan region.  Kidding. BUT you should watch it if you have too many brain cells and you can afford to lose a few for a glimpse of the tantalizing pizzeria we dined at. Like the classy backpackers we are we ordered our pizzas to go and sat on the curb to devour an entire pizza each. Janelle ordered the Pauly D’s Pizza with spicy salami and Heather stuck to the original margherita pizza. Alexandra’s choice did not disappoint the taste buds. With full mouths and pizza sauce all over our face and hands, we still managed to draw attention from talkative Italian boys who were quite surprised when they realized Ally understood their Italian. We knew there was a reason to keep her around!

After dinner we put on our faces and dancing shoes (finally we got to use the heels we packed!), and had a moment of bliss with the girls’ hair straightener. We shared some drinking games (Tourettes, Dutch Die, and Electricity) and “enjoyed” our boxes of 1.10 Euro wine (we only settle for the best boxed wine). We made our way to an outdoor club Ally had raved about only to find it was merely a park. Closed for the season? Did they not know we were coming?!

Figure 183

Rather than making our own party we went to an establishment known as SPACE. Canadian bars had not prepared us for the potent men and drinks the bar served. We let Stacey do her thing at karaoke and we managed to get into the VIP section and away from the flocks of Italians. Survival of the fittest at its finest.

The next morning we made the most of the hotel’s breakfast (aka stuffed our backpack with as many non-perishable items as we could) before boarding the train. As the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words (Figure 183)

Roman Forum (top) Colosseum (bottom)

Our hostel in Rome was fortunately only 152 steps from the train station so we dropped our packs and wasted no time before sight seeing. Holy tourist town. We checked out the Colosseum and almost got suckered in to a tour, or waiting in line. Heather’s impatience and detective skills proved to be of great use as we decided to find a faster way to buy our tickets. We bought them at the Roman Forum where there was a wait of -1.3 seconds and laughed maliciously at the mindless schools of tourists that wasted 3+ hours more than we did.

Rome: 0. Blonde Canadians: 1.

After admitting that we didn’t have our tourist legs on for the day (we probably left them in Space) we went in search of gelato and then stumbled upon the Trevi Fountain. No wonder that gelato was awful – it was a stone’s throw away from the fountain, and had ice cream cones for garbage cans. We didn’t think there could be such thing but there definitely can.  Rome 1. Canadian Blondes: 1.

We got an ego boost from the whistles we received while walking the streets, so didn’t have to eat our feelings. However we did anyway with a snack at the hostel before our nap. Re-energized we ventured off to the Spanish steps to take in a few more sights of the city before calling it a night.

Spanish Steps

Dear Rome,

You are impressive and much older and wiser than ourselves. We will see you in the morning.

Love, Heather and Janelle

Spanish Steps

With a good night’s sleep under our belts we ate breakfast at the hostel (chocolate crispy cereal was offered once again!) and then braved the crowds and sun in the Colosseum. We couldn’t help be think of how exciting it would be to be at one of the gladiator matches and have decided the next movie we watch will have to be Gladiator. We maxed out the volume and recordings on our audio guide before we called it quits and moved on to something just as ancient. The Roman Forum was impressive and thankfully not as packed as the Colosseum. The age of the ruins is profound and the impact they have is simply untouchable.

Trevi Fountain

We also visited the Pantheon and had lunch in Piazza Navona overlooking the stunning fountains, artists and pigeons. We went in search of a breeze and settled for the river lined with open air markets and more imposing buildings. Good thing we are always carrying our camera because you never know when a Kodak-moment will hit you. We put our maps away and decided we would just explore for a bit. “Do you want to walk towards that big building thing?” “Sure, why not?” And that’s how we arrived at the Vatican City. We apologize if we offended anyone and assure you we are adequately educated individuals. We decided that it was too late in the day to stand in the lines and will return tomorrow bright and early. We might even attend mass at 8:30 tomorrow morning!

Pantheon

St. Peter's at the end

Our evening thus far has consisted of wine of the 7.90euro selection rather than the 1.00euro, and will soon be made whole by a visit to La Carbonara a restaurant recommendation made to us by Caitlin and Heidi (our Canadian friends from Paris). Perhaps a stop to a local bar will cap off the relaxed evening. Talk to you soon, our hungry stomachs are calling! PIctures to come soon, the internet is slower than our patience can handle.

Florence: An Amazing Taste of Tuscany

This has probably been one of the highlights of the trip. I think this post needs to be savoured like some of the wine we have had so far. Sip by sip, letting the rich flavour spread across your body and seep into your mind until you can't contain it any longer and have to let out your inner Mona Lisa. Here comes the poetic painting brush, so sit back and hopefully our description of the past two days will allow you to enjoy our experience of Florence as much as we have.

We arrive after a short and sweet train ride and check into our hotel which is conveniently located next to the train station. Unfortunately Heather booked the reservation for August 1st instead of the 9th and 10th, so we were lucky to get a room at a good price. No sleeping on the streets for us! Well worth it for the location, air conditioned climate, breakfast spread, and fact that our friends are staying at the same place. We dropped off our packs before we reunited with Heather's high school friends Alexandra and Stacey. They are also traveling with a great girl named Tamara, so we have expanded our posse to five Canadian girls who have traveled the world over. Alexandra has been doing an internship near Florence all summer so she was the perfect tour guide for the city. Her fluent Italian is an amazing bonus! Making reservations, grabbing taxis, talking to locals, deciphering the menus, and simply being able to bridge the language barrier we have is handier than Janelle's new Swiss Army knife.

We went on a whirlwind tour of Florence stopping into some of the amazing churches (with our shawls to cover our shoulders). We went into Santa Maria Novello, San Lorenzo, and Santa Croce where Galileo, Michelangelo, Rossino, Machiavelli, and Dante are buried. Intensely high ceilings, walls covered with what remains of vast paintings, and light that streams through beautiful stained glass walls. Truly breathtaking cathedrals.

We also stopped by the Duomo, walked across Ponte Vecchio, and admired the replica of Michelangelo's David that stands where the original once did (now inside Academia which had a line we did not want to wait in). We appeased our stomachs with fresh sandwiches and amazing gelato. What have we been eating until now?! Probably not a great idea to eat such delicious food as there is a chance we could turn into gelato snobs. Oh wait, that probably won't happen. We'll take just about any gelato you feed us! After touring several churches, and side stepping the pigeons and tourist groups, we caught up on each others' lives as the Italians would: over wine. After some of the house wine we caught cabs up to the best view of town. We stepped inside San Miniato Church which overlooks all of Florence, and were hypnotized by the sound of chanting monks. We sat and listened to their beautiful, deep voices and got lost in their faith and song.

We snapped some photos with the unbelievable backdrop before walking down to dinner. Delicious meals were shared between our group: seafood pasta, traditional soups, ZaZa's salad, white beans, and bruschetta. We couldn't even finish our salad, which is saying something! After dinner we walked to an international summer festival where we chatted with vendors and admired shiny things.

This morning we woke and devoured a great continental breakfast at the hotel. Scrambled eggs? YES PLEASE! Cereal, granola, yogurt, watermelon, coffee and croissants. Heck yes! We then headed off to catch our ride into the gorgeous Tuscan Valley. Our guide/employee for the day turned out to be quite the music junkie, supplying us with great hits from Blink 182 to LMFAO to entertain us on our journey. Rolling through the country side, he stopped multiple times to let us out for "peecture tyyyme" to capture some shots along the way. Unfortunately our pictures don't quite do it justice.

About an hour or so later we ended up at the ranch where we slipped on some riding shoes, slapped on our sunscreen and got directer towards our muscular stallions who were to sweep us off our feet and guide us around for the afternoon (sadly these were not hunky men like you may be thinking). Janelle was feeling a little anxious, as she has never really ridden a horse before, however, to her great relief she was given the grandmother of the bunch who was blind in one eye (24 years old). Heather, a more experienced rider, was introduced to her stud of a horse who was equivalent to the grandson of Janelle's (a 7 year old with a good deal of spunk). We then rode off into the Tuscan Valley with our horses and we vowed never to return. All you need is love, wine and great conversation right? Done. So, as we sit here in an abandoned house on the countryside (where we luckily scored some free wifi) we are debating whether we actually brought enough wine to enjoy each others' company for much longer. KIDDING - if we haven't gotten sick of one another thus far, we are in the clear.

The hour and a half horseback ride turned out to be quite relaxing as we marched in single file, with some occasional horse back kicks and potty breaks. We made it back in one piece minus our sore tushes. Thankfully they had wine waiting for us on our return. Following our departure from the ranch they brought us to rustic little square that housed a few restaurants and shops, enclosed by what looked like a castle wall. We enjoyed some great bruschetta, cheese, bread, olive oil and prosciutto, followed by some delicious Italian pastas of gnocchi with ground meat, and tomato spaghetti. All followed by panna cotta with wild berries for dessert and a wine tasting! Amazing and everything only for 110 Euro. We definitely recommend :)

We are now about to grab some pizza at one of Alexandra's favourite joints, also made famous by recent Jersey Shore season (fist pump!), then come back and strap on our dancing shoes and dresses for a night on the town. Supposedly we are going to Central Park where they have an outdoor club to rave about. As long as they have great music and a dancefloor, these girls are set!

As the internet here is quite slow, we will post some pictures tomorrow when we get to Roma. Ciao for now!