Four Cities, One Weekend

With only one month and limited free days without classes to explore an entire country, trips are packed like sardines (which I had my share of in Naples on this trip) in a can. A good piece of advice I try to follow when traveling is "sleep when you're dead." I promise the hotel bed isn't comfortable enough to skip out on fun activities. Moments I spend sleeping or resting feel like memories missed. Besides, I have an 11 hour plane ride home to sleep. With that in mind, all 22 of my classmates and I packed a duffle and boarded a bus to Pisa on Friday just as Arezzo was starting to get its sunny morning glow.

Pisa is a single box on a long bucket list you have to check while visiting Italy. Even though you only need about an hour to soak it all in, an extra half hour if you have tickets to climb it, see the tower feels like walking into a painting. In fact, if all of Italy had a label it would probably look something like this:

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Italy

Ingredients: History, Fashion, Religion, Myth, Food

Side Effects: Disbelief resulting in self-pinching, General tardiness, Raised standards for the rest of your life

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I walked into the grounds with the basilica and tower just like I would walk into a dog park in Oklahoma. Instead of a couple mutts and a scared pug, I saw a world-renowned, historical monument people have been writing and reveling about for hundreds of years. It is hard to convince yourself it is really in front of you and not a picture or greenscreen. Seeing Italian monuments, or even the winding streets and towering buildings shown in pictures, is literally unbelievable.

As a typical type-A Gen Z, I had been concerned about getting the must-have pictures with the Leaning Tower the whole trip. It takes time to find a good spot, line your hands up just right and make sure there are no other tourists in the background just visible enough to steal the spotlight of your picture. But, quite anticlimactically, I got my coveted tourist pictures. The disappointed feeling you get after getting your way but not experiencing the perfect contented bliss you imagine set in. I realized the pictures I enjoyed more were the ones not everyone had taken. I like the poorly lit selfies my friends and I took while running home at night, the ones before we all lined up to pose laughing and tripping over our feet. So I saw the tower, got my picture and even climbed up it. But after the wobbly walk up the stairs (which the tilt made feel suspiciously similar to our walks home Friday evenings), I realized the typical tourist picture was the least exciting thing I gained from the trip. I was really there. On top with all my friends looking out at the whole city of Pisa. Seeing the landmarks is incredible and truly breathtaking. But, appreciating your own unique experiences along the way and capturing your individual experiences is what I will remember and cherish most.

Cinque Terre (affectionately known as Chinky Chinky) was my favorite place in Italy. Translating to five lands, the area consists of five different towns, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso, and one central shopping area, La Spezia. When I first jumped off the bus in La Spezia, I chose to leave my backpack with my bathing suit on the bus and just walk around and shop that day. When the bus took off, I turned around and saw the clear blue water dazzling in the sunlight and dashed to the nearest store to buy a new suit. My friends and I quickly changed into the first suits we found, gave the store owner 20 euro each and ran to the shore. Planning pays off, but spontaneity makes for better stories.

The beach wasn't the classic, sandy American beaches loitered with umbrellas I know. Instead there were massive, moss-covered stones we had to crawl over Spider-Man style to get to the water. I waded in up to my knees and then fell forward letting the salty water wash over my face and lighten my hair. I swam in the little Mediterranean cove, looked up to see the city of Riomaggiore and knew instantly that this moment would be a landmark in the timeline of my life. I floated in the water, looking at the colorful city on the cliff side illuminated by the sun and any worries I had floated out of my body and off to wait patiently for my return in my apartment in Norman, Oklahoma. We found our friends and raced off to the second Island of Manarola. Warm pesto-covered noodles with fresh clam jumped out at my on t lunch and I looked out off the balcony to the sea. The clam shells in my pasta were almost enough to distracted me enough from the kids jumping from a cliff into the bright blue abyss. With a good story and strong adrenaline rush as my motivators, I took off with my two friends to the cliff. I scrambled up the side of the cliff and had a single moment of fear before launching myself off the side. I flew into the air and splashed down in the water. Boxes were being checked and my bucket list was getting shorter everyday. Luckily for me, I'm in no shortage of things I want to do. We woke up early the next morning to take a train to Monterosso, the fifth island. After another morning in paradise, we were off for a less exciting, seven-hour train ride.

Turns out just because Cinque Terre and Amalfi are both on the Mediterranean coast does not mean they are close. At all. However, it wasn't bad with friends: the catalyst for long train rides. We arrived late that evening and were thankfully able to catch dinner at a restaurant. The best part about Italian dining is being able to get a full plate of pasta at 11p.m.

After a deep six hours of sleep brought to you by a huge dinner, we were up and going again. Today's agenda: a Mamma Mia-esque boat ride down the Amalfi Coast. Nothing short of the average study abroad day. We took a Twizzler of a car ride to the coast that probably would have been my last attraction in Italy if I were driving. It was like a roller coaster; you do high-speed loops that somebody else is in control of and you're pretty sure you'll end up alive and safe but you're not exactly sure how. The boat ride was an absolute dream. We visited Positano and Amalfi on the coast and did a considerable about of shopping with a lemon gelato in hand. While boating may seem like a superficial fun thing to do that doesn't lead to any self-reflecting (other than the one in your friend's sunglasses), I had a surprisingly insightful takeaway in between the chorus and the verse of "Honey, Honey". Even though I thought adventure and discovery would bring my the most fulfillment in life, it wasn’t enough. I sailed through paradise, walked through history, and tasted exquisite culture and realized that I would just be checking items off a list if I didn’t have people I cared about with me. I don’t need validation of hundreds of likes from nameless people on social media (I would still like them, though @_rachelorland). Experiences turn into lonely, fleeting memories if you don't have people to share in the happiness. I was sitting on the boat having the wind tangling my hair like tagliatelle with all my friends before I realized they were really what made the cliffside cities of Amalfi and the roaring waves of the sea perfect.

The morning after the boat day, we slumped out of bed like a limp toddler that no longer wants to be held, piled our luggage on like pack mules and drug ourselves downstairs to check out. We started out into the hot street and to the train station. The heat from the sun zapped my energy and the wait for the train seemed never-ending. It idid, of course, eventually come to whisk us off to the ruins and remains of the ancient city of Pompeii. Ten years ago, I would have been frustrated probably to the point of tears at myself for wanting to walk all around the historic site and see a bunch of stone. Thankfully, current me has a greater appreciation for things that aren't automatically visually appealing and colorful, which were my only criteria for things gaining my interest as a 10-year-old. It doesn't seem right that I am able to pay 18 euro to walk through history. However, I couldn't be upset that they put a price, a reasonable one at that, on the experience as I walked through miraculously preserved artifacts. As morbid and horrible as the catastrophe was, you can't help but be thankful that the complete and total eradication of the city also resulted in the preservation. Pompeii, touristy as it is, shows the duality of everything in life. Even catastrophic eruptions.

I would be lying if I said that I wasn't relieved to be home Tuesday evening. Cinque Terre was beautiful and visiting the Amalfi coast was one of my favorite things I have ever done. But, there is something to be said for stability and familiarity. Adventures can only be special and exciting if you have a relaxing home base to bask in the habituality.