This past weekend, I went to Le Cinque Terre. It is a collection of five small villages along the west coast of Italy, next to the Ligurian Sea.

This is a view of Vernazza, the second village, from our hike.

This weekend was full of nature adventures and local foods. There are no huge mountains in Kansas, so I was so excited to get to go hiking once again, as that is a rare activity for me.

We watched the sun rise over the mountains on Saturday morning.

There are a few different hiking paths that are available between the villages. The most basic path connects Monterosso al Mare to Vernazza and Vernazza to Corniglia. From Corniglia to Manarola, you can take a higher altitude hike or ride the train. From Manarola to Riomaggiore, you can ride the train, take a ferry, or the higher hike. We decided to do the hike for the first three villages and then took a train to the last two and then took a ferry back to Monterosso al Mare where our Airbnb was.

This is another picture from our hike. Again, the most amazing views.

Anchovies are very popular in Cinque Terre, so I definitely wanted to get my hands on that. I had a focaccia bread sandwich with anchovies and garlic, which was a very strong taste but I liked it. I had stuffed and fried anchovies as well. Our Airbnb host grew sweet lemon trees, as does everyone else in Cinque Terre, so you know there were so many foods incorporating the yummy yellow citrus fruit. My personal favorite was the lemon granite, perfect for the warm days. I want to go back to Cinque Terre so badly. Next time, I plan on taking the higher hikes.

I took this picture right after we boarded the ferry to go back to Monterosso from Riomaggiore.

– Kolbyn is a spring 2017 SAI Milan student from Kansas State University.