Steppin'outtamyshoes: Trekking the Cinque Terre

No time for breakfast had to get to the train station to catch the bus for the tour, we started out at 8 am it was sunny in Florence the guides were great and funny. They divided us in 2 groups Chris who was from Florence but who lived a most of his life in Seattle and Stefano. When we were heading for a comfort stop Stefano kept saying it is coming up and when we arrived he said there in the forest haha. Then they told us not to buy any candy at the rest stop as it would not be good to spoil our lunch.

It was cloudy when we arrived in La Spezia I was disappointed but talked myself into not worrying and just enjoy. Chris said first was we had to hurry to make the train and man were we cooking I kept up. I think the first town was Manarola.

Early on I made friends with Debbie from Australia and we tried to keep an eye on each other we took the train to Corniglia and did a quick walk through and then we had to take 365 steps up to the restaurant. Ristorante Cecio I was ready to do it but Debbie was not up to it so we decided to opt for the shuttle to the top along with some other women, the shuttle took forever in coming so most people were partly through their salad. We had a wonderful lunch I was brave and had the seafood the included octopus and squid and it was tasty, also had pesto pasta a first for me it was good. I sat with some other girls from Aussie and one from Baltimore she was on break from college in Brussels I noticed her t-shirt Beatles and we got to talking said her mother was fan and she too loved the Beatles and so did her friend and when they were kids the best part of the day was sit and listening to the Beatles.

Trail in Cinque Terre

Ok I only hiked down

in the Sea the beautiful sea

beautiful art on a wall

Then we had to get going there was no shuttle for the way down we had missed it and we really had to get down those 365 steps fast. Then we were off again for another walk again quite fast and another village I will have to remember the names later and post photos, Then we were really rushed and Chris was walking along side me clapping his hands encouraging me to keep going and counting down to how many minutes. We got there and nothing after awhile we were told the train was deleted and we had to wait and the next one would be about 45 minutes. Of course this was not the tour fault but we were treated to drinks and I had wine.

Finally the lòng hike which I decided not to do between all climbing we would be doing and being even more rushed because of the train. We were told not to get off the train in the next town but go right to Montresso . With the hiking time being shortened and more people dropped out we stayed on train to next stop it was beautiful. Debbi and I took photos of each other and we also went in to the Mediterranean Sea and oh how could I forget the sun finally decided to show up just as we arrived it could not have been more perfect if planned. So the sea was lovely we walked and talked and rested a bit. Then we decided to climb up to the statue of St Francis of Assisi and a dog that was a pretty good climb but the views made it worth it. We then walked a bit though the village looking at the photos from the flood from last October.

Then it was time to take the boat and it was great we passed all the villages again and we got great shots from the boat and then we arrived our last stop and we were able to do the last walk which was Lovers Lane but it was so quick not to miss the train and Chris was coaching me to keep going I made it with minutes to spare this was a great tour.