Cinque Terre!

Hi everyone!
Hi! This is Kayleigh Sharp, the new add on to the trip as of Paris, here to inform you that everyone is indeed alive and well. We arrived in beautiful Cinque Terre yesterday afternoon after an interesting array of confusing train rides and all of us watching in horror/laughing as we rolled away on the train and watched Brent Baber chase us down the platform. But not to worry, as I said we are all alive and well, and this includes Mr. Baber :).
So far, I think we can all agree that Italy has proved to be one of the most beautiful destinations. Small grapefruit-colored houses trimmed with worn out turquoise window shutters paint the mountain side, and the lush green trees seem to swallow the villages as to keep them discreet and well preserved. All the details seem to work together-- whether it be a simple window with old shutters, a small backyard vineyard, or an old cobble stone street-- to make Cinque Terre a masterpiece. There is the constant sound of loud Italian bicker and conversation which sounds just like music to our foreign ears and adds more to the Italian-esque feel that this amazing place holds.
Our first night in Cinque Terre we arrived at our quaint hostel overlooking a small village, put down our incredibly heavy bags, and followed our noses and hungry bellies to an amazing pizzeria just a two minute walk from our hostel. There we put our struggling mix of Italian and Spanish to the test (Spitalian??) and were more than pleased with our efforts when steaming hot plates of pizza, calzone, homemade pesto, anchovies, and pasta all came out on steaming plates just for us. As the wine and conversation flowed about how lucky we were, we all stopped mid-sentence to enjoy the sound of a random Italian man performing an Oprah concert for us unknowingly in his shower.
Afterwards, we decided it was quite necessary that we experience the italian culture to the fullest and get ourselves some gelato and espresso. We felt that by not having an amazing Italian dessert we would be limiting ourselves in our indulgence in the Italian culture, so we paid our wonderfully cheap bill which was a relief on our student budgets, and set out on our quest for some flavorful, yummy goodness :). We stumbled across our Italian-gelato-tour-guides when we ran into a loud bunch of Italy's gelato-consuming youth. Lets just say they were more than helpful and I'm pretty sure the small village had never experienced such a riot... The kids (about 8 I'd say) were going insane, yelling at us where the gelato was and exploding into uncontrollable fits of laughter as we all stood there, Americans and Italianos, completely lost in translation. The good thing was that eventually, with the help of our staggering 'Spitalian' and their exaggerated Italian body language, found the gelato and left feeling extremely cultured and satisfied.
So that's it for now! Ciao!
xxx
-Kayleigh