Week 2 Update: Dynamo Camp, Cinque Terre, and Pisa!

Clinic: 

This was our second (and final) week at Prosperius, the outpatient clinic we were set up at while our main clinic was down to bare-bones for Italian holiday. We continued to learn Italian phrases that would help us in the clinic and were able to work hands-on with the patients. However, because it it August and pretty much everyone in Italy goes on vacation in August, the patient load was very low which lead to lots of down time. We still had a great time at the clinic and the free time allowed us to get used to being in another country before jumping right in to a busy facility. Lorenzo (our CI) and all of the other PTs were incredibly nice and patient with us as we learned Italian!

~Me, Lorenzo, and Janet on our last day~

Dynamo Camp:

Wednesday, Janet and I were able to go visit Dynamo Camp, a camp for children with special needs who are unable to attend a regular summer camp! I. Love. This. Place. 

~Dynamo Camp~

Kids are able to go to the camp for free and the entire campus is amazing and brand new looking! We spent the morning in the pool with a group of the older kids - first they performed three dances in the pool in an X-Factor-like competition and we were dressed up in costumes and acted as the judges. 

~X Factor Judges~

~Reporting for duty~ 

~The entire campus is gorgeous~

After that, we just played in the pool with the kids until it was time for lunch. Lunch was amazing - it was family-style bowls of delicious pasta and veggies, and we each got an entire ball of mozzarella - my kind of meal! After lunch, we went and toured a long term living facility near the camp and met some other American PT students working at that clinic. When we returned to Dynamo Camp later in the day, we got a full tour of the facilities - a theater for drama lesson, pottery studio, ropes course, rock climbing wall, archery, pool, and a barn with horses, donkeys, and goats. Even though we did nothing PT related at the camp, it was one of my favorite days so far! The entire staff was so incredibly nice and the facility was just amazing! Janet and I decided we just want to live at Dynamo. :)

~Goat!~

~More campus~

Cinque Terre:

~Leaving Monterosso~

One of the places I was most excited to go in Italy was Cinque Terre for the hiking and amazing views - and it did not disappoint (though my legs disagree this week after all the stairs!!) My dad had another trip to Italy and this time my brother, Scott, joined him. We all met in Cinque Terre on Friday (after an eventful first Italian train ride - including missing our train) - by the time we got there, we just got dinner and gelato and walked around the town we were staying in that night - Monterosso.  The next morning, we got up and had breakfast at the hotel then were off on our hike to Vernazza. The hike took 2 hours with frequent rest and picture stops, including some of the most amazing views!!

~Stunning views the entire hike~

When we got to Vernazza, we stopped for lunch and then dad and Scott had to catch the train to Milan for their flight home. Janet and I spent a little more time in Vernazza to get in the water and cool off some! 

~Lunch~

~Cooling off before hike #2~

Then the two of us were off on our hike to the third town, Corniglia. This hike was much more difficult because it was steeper hills, more stairs, and much hotter now that it was midday! We took a lot of rest breaks and finally somehow made it to the end! 

~And then there were two...~

The hikes from Corniglia to Manarola and from Manarola to Riomaggiore were closed due to unsafe conditions (not that we had any energy left to even attempt these hikes) so we took the train straight from Cornelia to Riomaggiore where our hostel was for the night. It was our first night staying in a hostel and were a little nervous about the accommodations but the place was nice and had a great view from the balcony! The one negative about this place was we had to climb 245 stairs from the main street to get to the room which was quite difficult after how many stairs and miles our legs had taken us that day. (Also, having never stayed in a hostel before, we didn't know it was common knowledge that bath towels are often not included!! Oops...) We met a nice girl from Germany staying in our room and got gelato that night and breakfast the next morning with her! Overall, our first hostel experience was definitely better than expected.

~View from our hostel balcony~

Pisa:

~If you go to Pisa and don't take this picture, did you really go?~

After missing our nonstop train to Cinque Terre on Friday and needing to transfer trains in Pisa to get there that night, we got the idea to stop in Pisa on our way home Sunday! Everyone told us that we really only needed an hour or so in Pisa - "it's just a small town, the only thing in it is the leaning tower." So we assumed that the tower would be really close to the train station and we could just walk out of the station, check out the tower, take some pics, and be on our merry way. Wrong. First, my makeup bag fell out of my bag/got stolen on the train from Cinque Terre to Pisa, so when we passed a make-up store while looking for the tower, we made a pit stop in there for a bit. Then, everyone we asked for directions pointed us in a direction and said we were about 15 minutes away from the tower... about an hour later, just before giving up and going home, we FINALLY found the tower - note to self and anyone else planning to visit Pisa - this is not something you want to walk to, especially the day after hiking half of Cinque Terre! The tower was great and we got all of our stereotypical tourist pictures then promptly asked someone where to catch the bus back to the train station because we were not about to do that walk again! After the 3 hour "quick pit stop," we were finally back on a train headed home, completely exhausted!

Home:

After an eventful and jam-packed weekend of travel, we were very glad to be home! I love all of the travel we've done and getting to see different parts of Italy, but there is something about San Casciano that is just very inviting and it really does feel like home now! We got home just in time for me to walk across the street to the park and watch the sunset - my new favorite part of the day!

~Sunset in San Casciano~

We started work at our new facility on Monday and it is great!! But I'll talk more about that in my next post this weekend! We don't have any travel plans for this weekend yet - just planning to stay around town and rest up some after two big travel weekends!

Ciao for now!