Our second week of teaching was similar to the first. Less children attended the second week of camp so we each had slightly less children (I had 11 instead of 18), although Craig still had the biggest class of 15 students. The smaller class sizes made a big difference and my classroom was definitely quieter than the first week (but I’m not sure Craig’s was). However, the Italian helpers weren’t around as much so it was a little harder to get ideas across to the kids. On Wednesday we watched Monsters Inc (in English with Italian subtitles) because it was monsters week and there were exams going on in the school so we needed something to keep the little angels quiet! Towards the end of the quiz I came up with a few simple quiz questions to help with English practise after the film, but without the Italian helpers the class really struggled, even though the questions were based around English that they know, such as colours and numbers. Me and Craig have both found that the Italian helpers repeating what we say in English with an Italian accent seems to be a lot easier for the kids to understand.
A reporter called by the school and took some photos and an article was published in a local newspaper “Gardaweek”. I have no idea what the article says though.
On Tuesday I went out for pizza with my host family to a place called Revolution in Desanzano del Garda, a beautiful village on Lake Garda. The pizza was amazing! Quite a thick, crispy base, topped with sicilian sausage, mozzarella, tomatoes and pesto! Soooo good.
It was sad to say goodbye to the other tutors and Antonella on Friday, it has been great working with them for 2 weeks! But Sandhra and Alice are both studying in Edinburgh so we might just see them again in the future!
I met Craig at Desenzano train station at 10am on Saturday and we hopped on a train to La Spezia- a town near Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is made up of 5 coastal villages in a National Park. They are pedestrianised towns that you get to via train or by hiking between them. We chose to stay in La Spezia as it was cheaper than staying in Cinque Terre itself, and is only a 10 minute train ride from the towns so seemed like the best option. In La Spezia we stayed in an Airbnb apartment, partly as a treat to ourselves after the teaching and partly because it didn’t really cost any more than staying in a hostel. The apartment was great, it was so nice to have our own space again with a kitchen and living room, and it was only a 3 minute walk to La Spezia train station.
On Saturday afternoon we got the train from La Spezia to Manarola. There were ALOT of tourists around! We walked through the village and along to the marina. There was less to the village than I was expecting- just one short main street with a couple of shops and restaurants. We walked up the hill to the right of the marina to Nessun Dorma, a restaurant I found online before we arrived and had been dreaming of all week at Summer Camp! There was a bit of a queue to get in, but it only took 10 minutes to get to the front. And I am so glad we waited! We got a table with great views, I had a limoncello spritz as a treat (prosecco, limoncello, and mint) and we ordered way too much food. We had the meat and cheese sharing platter, and some bruschetta with pesto, tomatoes, and cheese. The Cinque Terre area is known for its pesto, hence the bruschetta choice. The food was amazing. We ate and ate and ate. We left the restaurant at about 7.45pm and the queue was much longer than it had been at 5.30pm so I was glad we opted for an early dinner. We'd definitely recommend Nessun Dorma for drinks and/or food to anyone heading to Cinque Terre/Manarola. After dinner we grabbed a beer from a little shop and sat out while the sun set so I could take a picture of Manarola after dark.
We started on Sunday by getting the train to Riomaggiore - the most southern town of Cinque Terre - and the plan was to work our way north from here. The queues to buy train tickets were quite long and we only just made our train, even though we allowed 20 minutes. We bought the Cinque Terre card that lets us hop on and off any trains going between the towns. This was €16 and so was just slightly cheaper than buying singles all day (at €4 each). We headed to Riomaggiore first and sat out on the rocks and watched the waves crashing. We headed to Corniglia in time for lunch. After getting off the train at Corniglia you climb ~300 steps up to the village on top of the cliff. Corniglia had loads of narrow little streets with loads of cafe, bars, and shops. We found a nice little square with a few cafes for lunch and chose Caffe Matteo- a slightly more budget option. The waitress at Caffe Matteo was amazing, she really made a good lunch spot great. We ordered our drinks (€6 for 1/2L wine) and they arrived with olives and crisps to snack on. Craig had lasagne for lunch and I went for Focacce with proscuitto, goats cheese, tomatoes and rocket. It was perfect.
After lunch we headed to Vernazza. We walked down to the Marina and found a little spot for a swim. The weather forecast for the day was thunderstorms but although it was cloudy and humid the rain held off until Vernazza, where we had a couple of showers. The water was the perfect temperature for a swim and it was great to cool off from the very muggy air!
Last but not least we headed to Montorosso. Monterosso is a lot more beachy than the other towns- we walked along past the beaches and into the village centre. We found a nice wine bar for an evening drink before heading home and cooking tortellini with pesto in our apartment.
We really enjoyed our trip to Cinque Terre. Our favourite village was definitely Corniglia even though it's less photogenic than Manarola.
We didn't make plans for the rest of the week in Italy. We have accommodation booked in Venice for Thursday night, but we left Monday-Thursday free. On Sunday night we decided that on Monday we would get the train the from La Spezia to Florence. The good thing about Italy is that regional trains are a set price so no need to book in advance. Trains from La Spezia to Florence change at Pisa so we stopped here for a few hours to see the leaning tower (of course) and grab some lunch.
After arriving in Florence we had a nice chilled walk into the centre and down to the river and along Ponte Vecchio, a bridge lined with jewellery shops. Our hotel was in a great location, just a couple of minutes walk from the duomo so we didn't have far to go. It was scorching on Monday and after carrying our bags and walking around Pisa at lunch time it was nice to have a relaxed walk (without heavy bags!) and get a feel for the area with nothing particular in mind. For dinner we found a little sandwich shop (these are really common in Florence) tucked away on Via dei Cimatori (we can't remember the name but it was next to the pizza place). The staff were great and gave us some tasters of the meat before making us up a sandwich each. We sat outside and had a couple of drinks and enjoyed a nice budget, but very yummy dinner!
We've been loving Workaway but it's also been nice to have a few nights to ourselves.
Amount spent between two: €1025
Amount spent between two: €1025
No comments:
Post a Comment