Hiking up cliffs: FIESOLE!!

It was a random Friday when I decided to text my friend Jessie (my roommate from the ski weekend) because I hadn't seen her in forever! She was going on a hike up in Fiesole and so Emma and I, along with Nicole and Katie (from Gustavus College) joined Jessie and her friends in a day full of getting lost in a small Italian city and hiking giant cliffs!

We took a 30 minute bus from Florence to Fiesole. It's a little town snuggled into the side of a hill/mountain (at least when we were hiking it felt like that), and once we hopped off the bus this is what I saw! A cute bell tower, along with rows of short trees and flower boxes of petunias underneath. 

Around the center of town there were statues and street vendors, but since we were here to go on a hike, we headed right to the tourist office to get a map of where we needed to go. On our way we passed many bakeries and ALMOST got one of those amazing chocolate mousse filled croissants, but I wasn't sure how difficult our hike would be, so I stuck to eating my orange and apple.

With map in hand, we quickly realized how many hiking trails there were in the Florence area. Fiesole is the town directly north east of Florence, but there is a 160 KM hike (or 100 miles) called the Renaissance Loop that goes through all the hills and small Tuscan towns surrounding Florence. We weren't able to do that one today, but maybe sometime in the future I can check that off my bucket list! We did a much shorter route, but to get to the start of the trail we had to walk through town. Every which way we turned, we got to see views like this!

What kind of Italian town would it be if there wasn't a huge church?

After going up a few nice hills and roads (we also passed a school. First one I had seen since being in Florence!), we found the beginning of the trail. It was tucked away behind a restaurant and passed an olive farm and open fields. But quickly came up to the map and we were in the middle of the woods. Felt like I was in the boundary waters again! But without the water. Just lots of trees.

The trail map split into 2, trails A and B. Trail A was a steady incline with a wide path and tini little pebbles lining the way. Trail B was very steep, lots of tree roots and sharp rocks sticking up everywhere, and looked darker: we went with trail A. B can be for another day! We hiked uphill for over an hour, slow and steady pace, stopping to take some pictures and enjoying the Italian country side. Even saw a tractor way down below! 

We made it to the top finally! One of the many great views

Here is where the trail got tricky: we got to hike/climb up that big rock thing there, and it was not easy! Luckily Jessie had gone rock climbing a lot and could seek out the narrow trails along the side of the rocks. If you've seen the Disney movie "Up", you could understand where I started calling everyone a Wilderness Explorer for going up this!

View from the top of the giant rock

Part of the trail on the way back down. We spent a good hour
on top of the rock and we all brought our own lunches! It was so sunny, and was the first day I wore a pair of shorts out. Since it was only about 60, we did get a lot of funny looks from Italians that were still in puffy parkas. That hike was a great workout and after telling my other roommates that didn't go how great it was, we will be heading back up there again before heading home to the states.

So after hiking up rocks, through forests, and the little town of Fiesole, we headed back around dinner time. Emma and I stopped at one of our favorite American restaurants called "The Diner", it's just like Convention Grill with many specialty burgers, breakfast plates, french fries, and milk shakes. I try not going there too often but its so hard to resist a chocolate chip shake after a day full of hiking! This was spray painted a block away from The Diner, and reminded me of home. Even abroad I seem to find MN everywhere! Next stop: SPRING BREAK!!!! Much Love, AF