The Fantastic Five

For those of you who have not heard of Cinque Terre, then here is the breakdown. It is small stretch on the North-Eastern coast of Italy consisting of five towns, Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manorla, and Riomaggiore. As you will see from the pictures below, all the towns are impossibly situated on cliffs, rocks and gorgeous beaches. Cinque Terre has been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. It is definitely worth a visit, but make sure you bring a good pair of shoes to hike through the all five towns.



The docking area for boats in Vernazza.



Gorgeous beach in Monterosso.




Hiking up the trail of Vernazza to get to Corniglia.



Vernazza.



Riomaggiore.



When you do the hike, you get amazing panoramas of the coastline like this.



Vernazza from above.

Now Lean Back

Pisa is not much of city/town, but its convenient to stop at when the train goes through there. I had about a 3 hour adventure in Pisa just to see the tower and have lunch. It was fun!



The leaning tower of Pisa!




Look, it's straight, I swear.



The Cathedral of Pisa.



I got it, I got it, no worries! (By the way, its "fun" having a random tourist try to take this picture for me.)

The Eternal City

Ok, so Rome wasn't part of the itinerary, but I couldn't just go from Naples to Genoa without stopping in the eternal city for a quick see. I don't think I have ever done so much walking in such a short period of time, but it was well worth it. I can't wait to come back here one day and take my time with the city!



The Roman Forum.



The seven hills of Rome, or some of them at least.




The Coliseum and Arch of Constantine.



Everyone stood in the rain to hear the Pope give mass, my Italy travel guide book got soaked!




The Coliseum at night!



The oculus of the Pantheon.



More of the Pantheon.


The Trevi Fountain, I definitely threw a coin in over my shoulder, hopefully it will work.



The Spanish Steps.



St. Peter's Basilica, simply an amazing church!

Former Capital and PIZZA!

Naples used to be the capital of Southern Italy back before it was unified by Garibaldi, when it was the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. (How about that, I actually remembered something from AP European History back in 10th grade) Needless to say Naples was an important point along the coast of Italy and the Mediterranean. Right now it seems as if the modern city is trying to catch up to the rest of Italy and the Mediterranean for that matter, but it has a good start. The port needs some help, but as far a rich place to visit, this is it. Hopefully some big projects can get built throughout the city and waterfront to make the city thrive again as it once did.

Also, the city that gave birth to the pizza definately still has the touch, there was amazing pizza and it was affordable to too, compared to other places in Italy.



The Municipal Palace.



Castel Nouvo.



Really cool hanging gardens in the middle of the street.




An even cooler hanging garden in this courtyard of the oldest and first aquarium ever in Europe.



Walking through the gorgeous park, we need more places like these in the US.



Castel d'el ovo. Napoli was a pretty well fortified place, back in the day.



So this is what people do when there is no sand for the beach.



Panorama from my day trip to Pompeii.



The marina of Naples with Mt Vesuvius in the background.



A smaller marina right next to Castel d'el Ovo.




This park sits about 500 meters up the hill from the main port and ferry terminal, construction is occurring right now (behind where I am standing) hopefully to continue the green link down to the water.

Palermo, Sicily

Palermo was a great city to visit. Unfortunately the waterfront needs a little bit of help, but it seems to have all the elements to make a lively waterfront, they just need an architect (*cough*, like myself, *cough*) to come in and make some changes. But the city centre is very diverse and lively and the Sicilians sure know how to eat. If and when I come back here it will be interesting to see what kind of changes will have happened. The city is divided into 2 parts, the old and the new, and it seems like the two are butting heads rather than working off one another to enrich the livelihood in Palermo.



Gorgeous beach called Mondello, right on the west side of Mt. Peligrino.



Entrance to the botanical gardens.



Bougainvilleas everywhere!!



Probably the coolest sun dial I have seen.



Kinda reminds me of Beverley Hills.



La Cattedrale di Palermo.



Great park right on the waterfront, but not very populated.


La Cala, the old marina in Palermo.



The famous Teatro Massimo.



The famous street markets of Palermo.

Aboard the Holo Kai

Chase Leavitt, the man responsible for my fellowship happened to be in Sicily at the same time I was there aboard his brand new boat, the Holo Kai, which means Traveller by Sea. Also, Diana, a friend of mine who was studing in Lake Como the whole semester (refer back to my visit of Lake Como to see the beauty of that place) met up with me in Sicily for a short stay.

Mr. Leavitt was king enough to invite us both aboard the Holo Kai for the day (and night) and spend some time with him and his friends that had been travelling down from Italy for the past two weeks.

His crew aboard the Holo Kai prepared an amazing four-course meal for all us (probably the best meal I have had this whole trip) and we spent an amazing evening sharing travel stories and just relaxing over some beers, dinner and wine!



Crew member Charlotte setting up the table for dinner, she was very meticulous in the placement of everything, hehe.




Lots of wine, food and good times.



Steve talking about his tee time that he had to get back to LA for in a couple of days.



We all went to a karaoke bar after dinner, Diana sang to No Doubt.



Chase's Navy. (From left to right: Jim, Chase, Paul, Steve, wheres Tom?)




Chase instructing the crew to bring out more wine.



Lots of clams on that plate.



Diana and I.



There's Tom, he a bit too much wine I think.



The probably where the swordfish came from last night, mmm it was tasty.



The Holo Kai.



The Holo Kai, and Mt Etna in the background.



The crew of the Holo Kai and I.



Chase and I at the helm.