I've heard of this place by name but never actually took effort to remember anything of it. But before reaching,the research gave me a beautiful expectation of what was awaiting me.
We were advised to stay in La Spezia and do day trips as it was notoriously expensive in any of the Cinque Terre locations.
Cinque-FIVE
Terre- areas/villages
Another place much recommended by the Italians to us was PortoVenere.
So we decided to split the visits into 3 days.
1st-PortoVenere
2nd-The beaches
3rd-Cinque Terre 
Got our boat tickets to Porto venere by the port. portovenere can take a full day,so dont try squeezing everything in one.
It was beautiful. Seriously,magical/mythical castley feel to this place.
Maybe it was the strong winds
Maybe be the clear blue skies and turquoise waters.
Maybe it was the hundreds of seagulls citcling the area..
It was worth e climb to the castle.
There was a fear of the seagulls attacking us,but we got by fine.
The next day, we headed to the beach.
Oh boy.. It started out intimidating,tiny beach. Too many high school kids. But we decided to "rent a bed" 7euros for e whole day!
There,the peace started.
Bonassola beach.
We had a private area to ourselves.
The water was freezing but once you get used to it,it was insanely enjoyable.
The waves were massive. Knocking me over and sometimes spinning me a full round!
I've never been comfortable with my body in the past. But now,who the fuck cares?
After a full day in the sun and getting chao tar. It was time for the main treat.
3 of the 5 villages were chosen as these were the more beautiful ones.
So take your pick from pictures online.
I'm sure the conclusion would be similar.
I loved it. Even though it was a slight rush to complete all 3 in a day. But taking e trains between villages were easy. It was the leaving such beautiful places that was difficult.
There are hiking tracks to connect each village but im too weak and thank god,the easiest one was closed due to weather.
The bump of train strike had been mentioned in a previous post. So we move onto Venice..
This place,i heard so much about.
Top few places to go on my list.. But i was forewarned by a friend not to expect much. In fact,not to expect anything.. I lowered my expectations though the dreamer in me was still excited.
Conclusion: I think my dreamer commited suicide upon reaching Venice.
No romance, no magic.
Water was DIRTY. Gondolas were money making gimmicks (100€ a ride!!) Romantic bridges were filled with people trying to get to the other side.
Venice is lost to me. But at least ive been there,and done..nothing. Lol
Padua/padova was wonderful thanks to the people we met as mentioned in another previous post.
So next,we headed to Milan..
I had read up much of Milan Centrale.
The dozens of people being robbed/pick pocketed/feeling watched and unsafe.
Some even goes to the extent of advising tourists NOT to arrive more than 5mins of their trains departure so as it minimise time spent at the horrendous dangerous station!
I was ready for battle. Ready to hit anyone who came too close.
But the second i walked the whole platform to the main area. I felt nothing.
It looked clean,safe. Very unlike rome.
In fact,it was much better than Rome Termini and i survived that without a scratch.
The next few days,we went back and forth the train station for tkts/postcards/water and it was fine. So dont listen to those dickheads online. Just stay smart and you wont invite trouble.
Milan... Was another place i was sooo excited to hit.
As much as i told myself no more shopping,this place still held hope..
Sadly,our days were wrong. All wrong.
It was the weekends and that monday we had there was an independence day of some sort.
So EVERY SINGLE DAY we had left there was nearly a dead town.
We could barely get water to bring back.
The hostel was pleasant enough. Extremely huge the room was and the toilets were really clean! Location: perfect seeing how we arrived by and left by train. It was an easier street across the main train station.
Of course,we did the famous gothic church.
I got more pandora stuff and that was it for Milan. Off to Bern we went and to the present it is.
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