From Newark to Toronto to Rome...phew! I finally made it. On the flight to Rome, I woke up to the Alps out my window, followed by my first sight of the Mediterranean Sea. I didn't really grasp the full reality of where I was until we began our descent, and I got to see from above the settlements that have existed for thousands of years. Italy is really far from North America. I am now closer to Africa and the Middle East than I am to home. It is such a weird thought to geographically place myself on the other side of the globe. This made me think of how far people traveled to come to America, to fight in WWI, WWII, or to travel for other reasons, with or without modern technology to guide them.
I
met up with the rest of our group and we set out from Rome to La Spezia
by van. As we drove, I thought of all my preconceived notions about
Italy, which honestly have been romanticized by movies like Gladiator
and cartoon drawings in textbooks: bright sun, tall skinny shrub trees
neatly lining dirt paths, lots of olives. These, in fact, turned out to
be true. It struck me that I hadn't connected my thoughts about Italy
with the reality that people live here, and have for thousands of years.
The land felt old to me, as it has been used over and over by
civilizations for the betterment of their people.
After hours in the van, we finally made it to La Spezia to the hostel where we will be spending the next two days. The hostel is located up the mountain from La Spezia, and driving up the switchbacks made me finally feel like I was in Italy: windy, narrow roads with mossy stone wall reinforcements, little Fiats and vespas zooming past us. From the hostel, we overlook the port and the Alpi Apuane, guarding the quarries of the famous white Italian marble. I hope to get a picture of the landscape tomorrow. We will visit these quarries during our travels here.
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| Flying over the Maritime Alps. |
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| My first view of the Italian countryside. |
After hours in the van, we finally made it to La Spezia to the hostel where we will be spending the next two days. The hostel is located up the mountain from La Spezia, and driving up the switchbacks made me finally feel like I was in Italy: windy, narrow roads with mossy stone wall reinforcements, little Fiats and vespas zooming past us. From the hostel, we overlook the port and the Alpi Apuane, guarding the quarries of the famous white Italian marble. I hope to get a picture of the landscape tomorrow. We will visit these quarries during our travels here.
Tomorrow, our group will explore the geology of the Cinque Terre and have dinner along the coast. Stay tuned!
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