Cinque Terre

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From Chamonix we drove back to Paris to drop the car back at the rental spot. The trek back through Paris was significantly more difficult and stressful than the drive out of the city...to say the least. 
We took the train from Paris to Milan, a trip originally planned in an overnight car, but ended up being an evening trip leaving us with no overnight plans in Milano. We had to try a few different hotels before finding one with vacancy for the night, but eventually ran into some luck and crashed in a beautiful 4 star hotel.
We hopped a train to Cinque Terre the next morning, arriving in Riomaggoire mid afternoon. It took some labored exploration to find our apartment rental, but we eventually found it tucked back in a pedestrian street...very old Italian style. Laundry hanging out windows to dry, narrow winding streets, old buildings and lots of stairs! 
We settled in and set off to do some hiking between towns. We followed the coastline, an absolutely magnificent view, an easy walk from Riomaggoire to the next town. The hikes between towns seemed to get progressively harder as we went along. We climbed 384 stairs into Corniglia alone and ended in Venezia some 3 1/2 hours later. At 37*+ it was quite a workout!! Our timing was perfect to catch the boat back to Riomaggoire, an experience all on it's own! The boat never landed at a dock, it just held steady off the shore, a plank shot out from the nose of the boat, and people walked along the (moving) plank on and off the boat. The most impressive part being the massive waves pushing the boat into the shore...how the boat was held steady, I have no idea. The cruise back along the coast offered some wonderful camera opportunities and a much needed rest. Exhausted, we returned to the apartment to shower, change, and head out to grab a bite before crashing. We had the freshest pasta I've ever tasted from a very simple little restaurant...which was very conveniently located next door to the most amazing crepiere in the world!!
The next morning we set out for a more shopping based exploration day, walking to the neighboring town and then took a train to Montorroso to have a look around. We hiked from there to Venezia, which proved to be much more of a challenge than I had anticipated!!! It took about an hour and a half, but along the way we ran into a nice man from the states that we chatted with for the second half of the hike. Gelato *obviously* followed, some shopping, and then the train back to Riomaggiore. Exhausted again, we headed out for dinner and crashed again...not before a second round of crepes though!

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