Day 13 - Vernazza - Corniglia - Manarola - Riomaggiore - Monterosso

            Today was our hiking day.  We started our day with a nice cup of hot chocolate and a pastry.

 We loaded up on some fruit and snacks for our trekking.  The cities of the Cinque Terra are all connected with footpaths.  Some are direct and flat and hug the ocean while others climb into the mountains and then fall back to the ocean.  We had planned to stick to mostly the flat, easier trails, but unfortunately all of those trails were damaged due to rockslides.  We started out our trek by heading straight up the mountain.  It was a great work out with a scenic view.  Imagine walking stairs for 90 minutes straight.  Our thighs were burning.  We visited Corniglia and walked through the town.  The towns were tiny.  You could see the entire town in about a 15 minutes walk.  Our next town was another straight up, then straight down adventure to Manarola.

 
            Our hope was to take a boat ride from Riomaggiore, the town furthest south, to Monterosso, the town furthest north, but the water was to choppy and no water taxis were running.  Instead we jumped on the train and headed north.  Our final walk/hike for the day was Monterosso to Vernazza.  We arrived in Vernazza just as the sun was setting and once again enjoyed the postcard sunset.

            For the first time of the entire trip we couldn’t come to a consensus for dinner so we split up.  We enjoyed pesto pasta and pizza with the Ludlow’s down on the Harbor outside.  While we were dinning we could hear the 2 couples next to us speaking in English.  Then we started hearing things like ward, missionary, church, and realized they probably were LDS.  Sure enough, next to us was a missionary couple serving in southern Italy with their friends who had come for a visit.  Small world.  We went to bed that night exhausted.  Since we had to switch apartments, we moved our stuff up to an apartment near the top of town and the train station.  Trains can be very noisy!