Milano, Genoa and Chinqe Terre!

Last Saturday we left Catania on a plane to Milan. We only had a couple hours in Milan, so we took the metro to the Piazza Duomo. It was insane. That might be putting it lightly! That was the day of the Inter Milan and Munich Soccer game...apparently a big one? There were thouands of people wearing black and blue, screaming, dancing, throwing fireworks and smoke bombs and blowing horns. It was nuts!! We toured the Duomo as much as we could with all of the festivities going on and also saw the Galleria. My thoughts of Milan will always be amazing because of the craziness that was taking place in the Piazza Duomo that day!
We got on a train that afternoon to Genoa where we stayed at Clemson university's villa. Genoa was beautiful! We got to the villa just around sunset and the views from the balcony were stunning. I cant wait to post pictures so that you all can see! Our time in Genoa was a bit slower pace than it had been before and it was really nice! Hans gave us a tour of Genoa and we did a bit of drawing and a bit of shopping ;) Genoa wasn't touristy at all and there was a beutiful water front and harbor where Renzo Piano's Aquarium was.
Our second day in Genoa was spent at Chinqe Terre!! Chinqe Terre literaly translates to 5 lands. It basically is 5 small towns located on the Mediterranean sea and connected by hiking trails. Each town is between a quarter mile and 2 miles apart from the next. We started the day in the first town and spent two hours at the beach, which we were all stoked about after the let down from the Syracusa "beach" aka rock! After that several of us took the ferry to the third town where we did some shopping and found a really cool store\gallery of this guy who was trained as a graphc designer and architect but now just lives at Chinque Terre and makes and sells art, amazing. Epicness occured in the third town when we found a bunch of students, like ourselves, jumping off of this huge rock into the water. Of course we had to do it, and it was a blast!! It was maybe 15 or 20 feet tall. I got a bit cut up climbing up, but it was definetly worth it! After that we took the ferry again to the fourth town and had dinner. North Italy is known for its Pesto, so that is what we had! It was delicious. And, fyi, Pesto translates to Basil Sauce in English...i thougt that was kind of funny. We "hiked" (but really just followed a nice paved path along the mountain side) to town number 5. We chilled on this super huge rock for a while before getting on the train to go back to Genoa. Chinque Terre was definetly a highlite of the trip for me. The water was as clear and as blue as the carribbean (although it was much colder) and the views were stunning. Italians definetly get props for painting their buildings beautiful sunset colors to contrast the mountains and the water, every view could have been a painting. What a life that would be to be like the artist that we met.... live in a beatiful place, paint a few pictures, eat some delicious pesto...wow.