Days 11 & 12: Apricot and Creme of Hazelnut, respectively

My apologies for the lack of blogging in the last couple days. Wifi here is scarce. I'll do my best to remember the details of the past 2 days.

We left off in the evening of our first night in Milan. Amy, Sarah, and I went out to dinner quite late. We couldn't find many places open, but a local pointed us in the direction of Via Orti, where we could find places serving food late. We ended up at Ristorante Setteorti. This was the bet meal we have had in Italy, by far. Amy ordered a delicious lasagna with tomato, sheep cheese, and a special kind of noodles.
Sarah had a pasta with basil-mint pesto and sundries tomatoes. I had fried octopus and shrimp kabobs on an arugula salad. All three dishes were incredible. Even though we were quite full, we stayed for dessert because we just wanted to eat more yummy food! I ordered a chocolate cake, Amy had a blueberry tart, and Sarah had what is called, "coffee cream," which was a cold ball of ice cream-like coffee with a slight crunch. All the desserts were just as delicious as the meal. (photos of all this food below.)

After our fabulous dinner, we had the adventure of getting home. It was close to midnight and the teams were just about to stop running for the evening. Amy, Sarah, and I saw a tram from far away and tried to reach it but we didn't think Amy could reach it because she cannot run. Instead, we started heading toward the next stop and waved down the driver to stop for us...and at the next stop, he did! He stopped for so long that he missed the green light while we tried to hurry along, making Amy walk her absolute fastest. By the time we got there there was quite the traffic jam. However we got home safe and sound.

The next day was our trip to Lake Como. The lake was gorgeous and the town was full of interesting statues. We accidentally took the slow boat across the lake instead of the fast one wasting two and a half hours of the day. We enjoyed the town a bit before it started to rain and we had to head home. There we had our daily gelato, of which our favorite was apricot.

Once we arrived back in Milan, we went out for dinner in the Brera neighborhood, which was a lively area full of students and young people. Getting there was a challenge. We waited for the metro for almost an hour. When we finally got there we were super hungry. I tried the Milanese risotto, made with Milan's famous saffron, and Amy had a different saffron pasta. We were not that impressed with the famous Milanese saffron, but it was certainly interesting.

The next day was another travel day. We woke up early so we could eat Belgian waffles and a nearby breakfast place. While the waffles were very sweet, they were delightful. (photo below)

Then we headed to our train. The ride was scenic and comfortable. We somehow even ended up in first class when we only bought a second class ticket. When we got to Cinque Terre we had to walk up a giant hill to reach our hostel, where we had a room connected to a living space shared with six other girls. While the bathroom is quite busy with so many people sharing, we do have a full kitchen. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the beach and having dinner at a restaurant near the hostel. The place smelled wonderful but the food was average. Amy and I tried stuffed mussels, which were interesting but slightly overwhelming in their flavor. Sarah tried the fresh anchovies famous to the area in a pasta. The anchovies were actually pretty flavorless.

After dinner wandered the town and went down to our rocky beach to enjoy the rest of the evening.