Doing what all physically able tourists do in Cinque Terre

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We headed out for our hike about 9:30. The first leg of the hike between the 5 towns is from Monterosso and Vernazza. Some guide books say it takes 2 hours and some say 1.5 hours. With tons of stops for photos we made it in 2 hours which is pretty good for folks on Social Security. The trail wasn't that busy or that difficult. In some places the stairs were steep and it was a little tough for Jack's knees. He found it more difficult than Petra, but it probable had more to do with his overall fitness, than anything else. The view are spectacular which is why so many people come here. We arrived in Vernazza to find it was as crowded at Monterosso. Lots of tours. I was relieved that I hadn't made a mistake in selecting Monterosso as the place to stay. After lunch we decided to take a boat to the next town to see the coastline from the water and because we weren't up for another 2 hour hike. The ferry didn't leave for 2 hours so we took a water taxi. After 20 minutes of beautiful views we were dropped off at Cornaglia. As we approached the town, it became obvious that we were in for a climb. The town is approximately 300 steps up from the beach. That's 20 flights of stairs and by the top we were more than ready to stop. This town was pretty quiet and had fantastic gelato so it was worth the climb. The steps down to the train station were much ease since they were new and gravity helps. At the train station in Monterosso we tried to change our tickets to take an earlier train tomorrow. Unlike the train station in Venice, the clerk didn't speak English and after 30 seconds it was obvious this wasn't going to work, but the Internet did!For dinner we headed back to Marnaola to a restaurant recommended by Jess, Trattoria dal Billy. We hadn't planned on more climbing, but that was silly since nothing here is flat. After climbing for a bit, we saw a sign for the restaurant above the entrance to what looked like a billiards shop. There were a couple of tables, so we thought maybe it was an unconventional recommendation, but it was closed and it didn't feel right. In fact the sign, showed the restaurant was 50 meters up the road. We had their house special seafood antipasto and homemade pasta with seafood. Their pasta is much richer in eggs than what I'm used to in the U.S. and it gives the pasta more bite. I'm definitely going to recreate it when I get back. I think it will be fun to make pasta with Beats when she visits in June.

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