Canyoning in Cascata delle Marmore

Yesterday was probably one for the best days that we've had since we've been here. Five of us decided to go about an hour north to Terni, which is in the Umbria region of Italy to go canyoning near the largest waterfall in Europe. Canyoning is when a group of people go through canyons by repelling down rocks and waterfalls, swimming, and hiking. None of us had ever done it before, but we all are adrenaline junkies and thought it would be fun. The canyoning place that we went to was amazing. When we got there they gave us full wetsuits, all of our harnesses and gear, and gave us a little explanation of how to repel with the ropes. Soon after that we were on our way up the back roads of the mountain and parked on the side of a small dirt road. We got out of the car and hiked up the rest of the way for about a half and hour until we reached an open field on the top of the mountain where we could change into our wetsuits and gear. We changed and were quickly on our way again to the canyon we would be going through for the rest of the day. We repelled for the first time, which was only about a 10-foot drop that allowed us to get the feel of it before we hit bigger spots. From there we began going down the river, and quickly hit another waterfall that we went down, which was only our second one before we got to go down the biggest one of the day. The biggest drop was a waterfall a bit down the canyon, coming in at about 98 feet tall. We got to the edge of the massive waterfall, looked over the edge, and started to repel one-by-one. When it came to be my turn I got locked in and climbed out onto the ledge of the waterfall and began to repel down. The drop was amazing! At one point the rocks actually are out of reach so you have to let yourself freefall a bit, which is even more amazing to do. When I reached to bottom, the coolest feeling was looking back up at the 98-foot waterfall that I had just done, and watched some of the other people in my group go down it as well. From there we all celebrated for a minute, and then continued through the canyon to the next waterfalls...all 9 of them. Some of them from that point on were about 75 feet high, and some were as small as 20 or 30 feet. The entire journey of climbing, repelling, sliding, and swimming lasted a total of 4 and a half hours.
We finally reached the end and walked back into a small town where we had parked our cars. The "town" consisted of about 5 homes carved into the mountain. Our guides took us to a restaurant that was run by a local, which was really just his house with tables outside. The owner was one of the nicest people I've ever met, and served us dinner, all of which was homemade, consisting of: red wine, break, cheese, sausage, pork, salami, quiche, and desserts. At one point we ran out of wine, and the guy jumped on his moped and went to his vineyard to get us some more fresh from the barrel. As we sat around the table in this small village on the side of a mountain eating everything that was made from scratch, I couldn't help but look at everyone and say "This is Italy. Rome, Florence, and Venice have nothing on this. This is Italy." The Italians we were with thought that was amazing that we as Americans finally understood what the real Italy was like. We all left knowing that we had experienced Italy in it's truest form. We saw the Italy that only Italians see, and just in time before we went back home. While eating dinner our guide, Stefano, uploaded all of the pictures he had taken with his waterproof camera throughout the day, and offered for all of us to buy a CD of them, which we did, making us happy that we had even better memories of our trip. On our way back to the main shop that we went through, our guide asked us how we got there since we didn't have a car. When we told him we had taken a cab from the train station, he immediately insisted that he drive us back, saying that there was no need to spend money on a taxi. The trip ended up being one of the best things I have done in Italy so far, and only reinforced our ideas that we had about how amazing Italy and it's people are, and how welcoming they can really be.
This last week is definitely going to be hectic. Tomorrow is a study day for me, and then I have two finals on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, and then I'm done with classes here. After finals all of us plan on enjoying the city as much as we can before we finally leave on May 5th. Monday the 5th I leave to come home in the morning, and will be back in New York at 6:10 P.M. local time. Although we're all excited to see the people that we miss, we all know that we're really going to miss it here. I can't wait to see everyone soon, and hope that all is well back in the states.

~Mike