Cinque Terre-A fall that was worth it...Kinda.

Hello there friends! I know it's been a while since I've updated, so I wanted to tell you about a few trips I've taken recently. Let's start with the infamous Cinque Terre!! It is said by some to be the most beautiful place in Italy. It is the place that we were originally supposed to go to for an overnight trip with our program, but was changed to Verona due to weather conditions. They claimed it was to dangerous to go to while it was raining, apparently it's not the safest place to go to in beautiful weather either. Now, Cinque Terre means five towns. These towns are con

nected by four trails. People go, not just to enjoy the beautiful beach water, but also to hike. Yes, I said HIKE. Now if you know Roni, you know Roni is not a HIKER. Roni can barely go up a hill without wanting to turn around. Roni is a full blown LA city girl, that has never even embraced nature until I came here. Now that you know that, I'll tell my story. We wake up early Friday morning excited to go to the lovely Cinque Terre. I originally plan to put on a dress, but I see everyone in shorts and decide to change. One of my roommates comes in and asks why I'm wearing sandals. I reply, "Isn't it like the beach?" She says yes, but we're hiking. I felt like she was speaking in Italian to me, because I didn't understand. "Welll I was just planning to lay out at the beach, but I guess I can go with you guys" I think to change my shoes, but somehow I forget. Once we arrive, the place is realllly as amazing as everyone says it is. We sit down on the beach and eat our lunches we brought. "This is my kind of day," I thought. One of my roommate suggests we start the hike. Ianne tells me we'll just go for a while, and come back to the water. Talking myself into trying something new, I agree to go. We start walking. We go up several steps, and of course I take several pauses. I think more than once to turn around, but I keep pushing. We pass sooo much beauty on the trail, I begin to get excited. We stop at a waterfall, and I indulge in it. I put my feet in, and take some pictures. I was really having a good time. We continue walking, but somehow we get off the path. The path we're on is very narrow. I tell Ianne "Oh my gosh, my friends wouldn't believe I'm doing this!" I also say, "Did I mention how bad my balance is?" This is when I start looking at how high up we are. We keep walking and realized the path is closed off. We turn around, and as we head back, my foot slips down off the side of the cliff, and my body follows it. Now don't ask me why there was not a rail or anything between us and the edge, because guess what, I DON'T KNOW! Before I knew it, I was grabbing onto Ianne's hand trying to hold on for dear life! All I could think was if I let go, my life is over! No my life didn't flash before my eyes, because I knew it wasn't my time. All that went on in my head was I have to get up from here, NOW! I kept looking up at my roommates who were screaming for someone to get help. I then realized I was in excruciating pain! I was stuck in a thornbush! I begin to scream, "I'm in pain, I'm in pain"! Ianne, who is my hero, jumped down and pulled me up! Little did I know, there was some leveled ground beneath me, and I wasn't about to roll down the hill. I wiped my legs that were covered and blood , and finally found a way back up. We rushed to this booth that wasn't that far to get help. When we got there, the lady saw my legs and instantly began shaking her head in anger. She was Brazilian, and she had a little feisty attitude. My legs hurt so bad, I snapped and said, "I don't need your attitude, I need your help!" She ended up being very nice, and gave me disinfectant for my legs. My roommates picked thorns out of my cuts, and my legs looked pretty awful. They're currently still healing. I was ready to just head home, but they talked me into just going to the next town which "wasn't that far away", to just relax there. I reluctantly agreed, and after about TWO hours, we finally made it to that town. I have to admit that I'm glad I continued on the path, it was really a wonderful place. It would have been better if that didn't happen, but no sense of crying over spilt milk. It was really a great place, and I still suggest you go BUT Moral of the story: When hiking, wear PROPER shoes.