Cliff diving in Cinque Terre and missing trains in Pisa.

I am going to write instead of doing homework. Don't think any less of me.

My friends and I missed the last train to Florence from Pisa last night at 11:30. Missing trains is my new favorite thing. I like having a general idea of what you want to do when you travel, but I feel like the best kind of traveling is unplanned and spontaneous. Missing trains is a great way to perpetuate this travel style. Not knowing what is going to happen and just going with it is so exciting. We had some time to kill until the 1:15 bus arrived, so we decided to walk to the Leaning Tower of Pisa in our spare time. The incessant rain hindered us in no way and the fact that I had been soaking wet since 3 that afternoon had no affect on my high spirits. It's almost like blunders in this country aren't inconveniences, but little gifts. If you look at everything that way I promise you will never have bad days.

My friend Mark told his Italian teacher this morning that we went cliff diving between Manarola and Corniglia in Cinque Terre yesterday. After he showed her a video of our friend Barbara landing very close to the rocks she said that was a dangerous place to do it and a ton of people had died at that spot. I guess that would have explained the caution signs we later discovered over the spot on maps.

The water was freezing but it was great. We found a little flat platform about 35 feet above a boat ramp. You had to jump out about 8 feet to land in the water and avoid the rocks that sloped from the platform to the waters edge. It was definitely a sketchy spot, but it was totally worth it. I can't imagine how much fun this place would be on a warm summer day, seeing as it was incredibly fun with rain and cloudy skies in the freezing cold water. We hiked to three of the five towns in the short day trip we took. I am still amazed that all these places actually exist.