Saturday July 30th Part 1

Saturday July 30th

What an adventurous night. And we didn't leave the condo.
Due to the lack of air conditioning in our place we left the windows open to attempt to get some air flow through here. HA! FOOLS!
It still says 29 on the thermostat and we had the entertainment of hearing every city noise imaginable all night long!  Every emergency vehicle and train as well as every rabble rouser who wanted to party. Ha! Good thing I'm on holidays because if I had to go to work I'd probably snap. Yikes.
Up at 7 and out the door for the train station for 730 to grab some breakfast before leaving at 755 for our first hike between villages.
We wandered to the train station nearby and grabbed a muffin for the boots then headed toward the ocean at 8 am.
We just missed the 755 train but that gave us a few minutes to gab the boys a muffin and get on the 810 train.  There were surprisingly few people on the train headed for Cinque Terre. It was overcast and cool and a perfect morning for a hike.
We got on the train and headed north for the 5 villages. The majority of the trip along the ocean as in tunnels with the occasional busy of light with an ocean view immediately followed by a plunge into darkness again until our arrival at the third stop Corniglia. Many of the hiking trails were closed for maintenance but Corniglia to Vernazzo was open and highly rated online to see.
We got off at Corniglia and luckily found a local shuttle bus driver who told us to hang on for 10 minutes and he would drop us off at the beginning of the path to hike. No brained.  3 girls in their early 20s decided to sick it up and just start hiking the mountain road to the path. Well we passed them 10 minutes later and went another km before the path started. Not a great choice ladies. We would never see them again.
We got off the bus and began hiking the steps onto the hillside. There were many many many steps up to get the elevation off the ocean so the view improved rapidly as did our heart rate. It was a damn fine workout and not a hike to be taken lightly.
It leveled our for a while as we consumed copious amounts of water we had brought with us frozen from the previous evening. We came to our senses and carried on. We had a significant amount of UP before it levelled out and the views were out of this world. We had climbed 1000 ft and the ocean view was spectacular this beautiful summer morn. Weet very few people travelling the other direction  but it was always interesting to see what people were wearing on their feet. So many girls and guys with sandels..I can't imagine the number of slips and falls on the shiny marble step surfaces.
We eventually leveled off ad took some selfies and panoramic shots of the ocean and countryside as it was spectacular.
We headed down into Vernazzo and found a lovely restaurant on the hillside looking over the ocean but they were only serving expensive lunch. We headed down into town and found a nice breakfast place for toast, bacon and eggs. We did some shopping and grabbed the train to Monterosso to hit the beach. We got to Monterosso and were amazed at how many people there were spread over 1 km. Thousands of umbrellas and deck chairs were set up to rent but it was rather cool and breezy today. 
We found a spot on the beach and set up our towels. I wandered into the water immediately to cool off and it was so refreshing.  I had forgotten how salty the ocean was and how much bounancy assistance there was! I swam out a but and just floated there without moving a muscle. It was insane. Every time I'm in the ocean I'm so incredibly jealous of anyone who grew up near the ocean and learned how to swim.
I had to learn in a frozen northern Saskatchewan lake that had morning to offer but freezing cold temperatures, seaweed and the constant mixing of peers and an angry instructor who would rather have been anywhere but here.
I swam out 100 metres and just floated. I didn't even need to tread water as the salt water buoyancy held me up  with great ease!  This was amazing!!!