An Italian Affair

As our tour guide continued rattling off her sometimes interesting facts about our next destination, the Cinque Terre, all I can remember thinking at that point was - how much I hated that girl who was sitting two seats up me as she had kept me up the entire night with her bark-like coughing in the bunk underneath me. One of the many highlights of hostel living.
I slowly started to tune back into what the tour guide was saying and realised she was trying to organise a group of volunteers, I wasn't too sure what it was for but decided to sign up anyway.
On the train to Vernazza the next morning one of the 5 towns that make up the Cinque Terre, I was told that during a huge storm a couple of years earlier Vernazza was deverstated by a number of landslides which destroyed the many farms that lined the cliffs of this town, farms that were a sole source of income for a majority of the residents of Vernazza, so our job was to help rebuild these farms.
When we had finished for the day we were then treated to a delicious home cooked real Italian meal by the farmer. As we walked down to his property I was in absolute awe at the sheer beauty we were overlooking at that point. It was like I was staring directly at an image I had found on google when searching Cinque Terre, an image I thought had to have been retouched. I never believed it could be as colourful or as stunning as it was in that picture, but it was even better. If I had decided to be selfish that morning and have that sleep in that I was craving I would have missed seeing this sight, a sight that inspired me to travel to Italy. It was during this one selfless act that I was able to experience something so beautiful and gain one of the most treasured memories I have from my three months abroad.