Maggi's in Italy!

So, before I get down to the weekend full of meeting the family, hearing about all the relatives I don't know, and seeing where everyone lived, I'll give a brief recap of my week of midterms and family:
Monday: Marketing Midterm, Italian Class, Met Mom, Dad and Uncle Danny and Aunti Marty at the Duomo and went to dinner and then the hotel bar for drinks with the rest of the family before the 30 minute walk back to my apartment.

Top of the Duomo, minus Uncle Mike

(gotta give him credit for hiking those 400 and something steps.

Tuesday: art midterm where I got to stare at a still life for 5.5 hours, met family at San Lorenzo markets for some bargain shopping, went home to attempt studying, hiked the Duomo with the brave family members, dinner, hotel for drinks, long walk back, maybe 30 mins of studying before crashing.
Wednesday: up early to study for my Ethics midterm at noon, lunch and more bargain shopping as Jen needed help getting people gifts, back to school to study for Italian, Italian midterm, dinner and then Shots bar!
Thursday: up early to study for my Mafia midterm, Mafia midterm, dinner, and then I can't remember.

Shots Bar

Ponte Vecchio with some random girl

         Finally, after that long week of late nights hanging out with the family and early mornings waking up to cram for my midterms, i was whisked away to the beautiful town of Santa Margherita, only after a few travel delays, of course. The hotel was beautiful (props to Uncle Danny), and we started off the vacation with a nice walk along the water and into the town for appetizers and drinks before it was time to get ready to meet the extended family for dinner.
         Dinner was an interesting experience. Speaking my kind of Italian to people who speak their own dialect (and fluently, might I add) was a special challenge. Although I think my Aunts made a breakthrough that needs to be shared with anyone struggling with language barriers or who wants to learn a new language: if you shout what you want to say, it's basically the equivalent of speaking the other person's language! Aunti Ju was a natural! Just kiddinnngggg. Everyone was really great, and they tried really hard to understand the points we were trying to get across. I didn't know how much family we still had in Italy. I think I remember hearing there were about 40 of us altogether? Anways, dinner was a madhouse, and I felt sorry for all the other customers at the restaraunt because we kind of took over. But, I guess that's to be expected when you have such a large group. After a few hours of non-stop Italian, my brain was friend and I was exhausted. I'm pretty sure I slept like a baby that night.
          The next morning, a few of us ventured out to Portofino, which was about a 10-minute drive from our hotel (or a very expensive cab ride if cab drivers know you are a tourist). Anyways, Portofino is this really quant port with huge yachts and designer stores that are obviously geared towards the famous people like Beyonce, Jay Z, and Simon Cowell that are frequent visitors. We stuck to the gift shops and free sightseeing. There wasn't much to Portofino except the pretty port and the nice restaurants that lined the water, but it was nice for a few snapshots and to be able to say we've been there.
          After Portofino, it was family time again. Some of us made the trek up the mountain on a giant bus to the little town of Uscio, where our family lives, to have a long visit and see the history of our family. We met this cute little old lady who saw us all from her window while we were gathered in the square taking pictures. She came down to as us what our story was and it turned out her son works for our cousin's company. Small world! And it goes to show how nice and connected people are in a small town.
          Once our cousins arrived, they gave us a little walking tour (great idea to walk, Dad). It was a little more than the "10 minutes down the road" than we were led to believe, but it eventually brought us to some distant relative's house and land. It was really cool because our other relatives lived right next door and they invited us in for the best focaccia I've ever tasted. Their house was also beautiful and we spent too much time there getting to know them/trying to converse with them and checking out their house and views. I always see houess on tops of hills and wonder what it's like from up there so it was cool to finally know what it looks like from the top.

          From there we hiked (literally) on over to the cemetery, which is not like the cemeteries we have in America. First of all, they are visited way more often in Italy. Second, there are very few headstones in the graves, but rather little blocks of stones on the walls. (I forget the actual word for them, but the Italian way of burying people is way less creepy.) We got to see our relatives and their little room with their plaques. I was surprised by the amount of flowers that were brought to the graves of everyone, and how pretty they were. Then Lexi had to go and ruin it by telling my the flowers were fake, so it seemed like the people visited more often than they actually did. Thanks, Lex. But the wide range of colors that the flowers added was a nice touch in comparison to the dullness of the gray and black that usually dominates a cemetery.
After the cemetery, we were pressed for time to catch the last bus down the windy hill, so we had to say our goodbyes without visiting the homes of our cousins. That night we went down into town to get diner, and I had he most delicious gnocchi with pesto, but they were thin, tiny strips of gnocchi that weren't so heavy. Dinner was awesome (good job Lex, making a comeback after letting out the truth of the fake flowers). The following morninr, Sunday, my mom, dad and I were up early to catch a train to Cinque Terre for the night. Naturally, our train was delayed. Once we finally made it onto the train, and were on our way, being the small world that it is, we stopped at the next station to be met by our family waiting for another train. We opened our window, shouted our goodbyes again, and were on our way. Once we finally reached Monterosso, the village we were staying at, we checked into our hotel, changed, and were on our way to check out the famous 5 villages. We took the train to the farthest village, Riomaggiore, and walked up the street. There wasn't much to that place, so we decided to start our walk to the next village. This was a really nice walk as it was along the water and the weather wasn't too hot or cold. There were a lot of locks, as this was the "lover's path," and I believe the locks are put up by couples who walk together and it's supposed to bring them good luck and fortune in their relationships. We ended up taking a train to the next couple cities because we weren't feeling the walk, and our favorite village was Vernazza, which had the most beautiful port and we happened to catch it right at sunset, which was even better. We battled the wind and hiked up to this little lookout balcony spot and hung out there for a few minutes before making our way back down. Our family's clock was on the church tower, so that was another bonus for Vernazza! Our plan was to return there for dinner, since the restaurants weren't opening for a few more hours, but by the time we made it to our hotel on Monterosso, we were pretty tired. We headed around the corner for our last meal and then made it to the gelato shop before they closed! Then it was bedtime. 

           The next day we weren't so lucky with the weather. It was pouring rain, and our train was delayed over an hour and a half. This meant we would miss our train from Pisa to Florence as well, so lucky us! After many hours of waiting, we finally boarded our train and were on our way! Naturally, right as we pull into Pisa Centrale and are waiting for the doors to open, we see our train to Florence leaving. So there went another half hour of waiting. Finally, we made it back to Florence, unpacked and rearranged our suitcases, got some gelato, and walked the Ponte Vecchio. Then it was to the taxi stop in Piazza della Republica to say goodbye. Jen and Doug were so much fun and I was sad to see them go, but I was only allowed about 6 hours of relaxation time before it was more planes, trains, and automobiles taking me to GREECE!