2nd day in Vernazza, Italy

On Tuesday morning, we began with a walk up the town's center street for a swing on the swing...

...and buy some fruit at the "Tuesday's market day." 

We took the Cinque Terra Train that connects the five little towns along the Mediterranean Coast. Most trains are only a few minutes between towns. 

We went to RioMaggiore first.

In many of the stations you needed to walk through a tunnel in order to get out to the sunshine. The rocks upon which these towns sit are so steep, you either need to go through the hills or around them. (<Hint> this is foreshadowing....)

It had a pretty harbor... along with a pretty girl above it!

Looking the other way from the harbor, you can see how congested the houses and buildings are. What you see is what you get, however. This is pretty much the whole town. There are narrow alleys that go between the buildings and behind them. The alleys are basically the streets. Very few cars are allowed in these towns.

The girls and I braved the sun and heat of the late morning to find the local beach.

View of some vacationing Italians hanging out on the stony beach. You can see the train bridge above the beach.

We then took the train again to Monterossa. The swankiest of all the five towns. After looking at the pretty beach with the chairs and umbrellas for hire, we went into the old town for a lunch. This place had delicious grilled paninis for only 5 Euros each. We had a lovely lunch and then we felt daring. "Hey," said Zac, "How about we walk back to Vernazza. It is supposed to be the longest walk, but those people we met from Oregon said that it's about 30 minutes to each town. We have some extra water from lunch, let's go!" 

I don't know what gave Zac the energy, maybe it was the panini lunch, but whatever it was, we agreed to go. Well, except for Jaramie. She said she was already hot and tired and she'd like to use the train tickets we already bought to get back to Vernazza within  10 minutes. Dada though persuaded her (and us) that this would be an "adventure to remember." He was right about that. Here we are setting off on the beginning of the trail. It looks harmless and beautiful to begin with.... but you can't see that around the corner were the first 500 stairs carved out of the stone mountain...

It was a trail that did have some beautiful vistas. Unfortunately, we couldn't really see very well past our plastered hair to our face from sweating to the 90+ degree heat and the unrelenting Mediterranean sun. 

Here was the type of trail we had to follow (the drop is only about 50 feet or so...) When we got to the  ticket booth (yes, it cost as much as the train did for us to torture ourselves) the cashier told us that the trail would take about 90 minutes. I guess those people from Oregon were not exactly remembering how long the trails take ...

We rested whenever we could and wherever the trail widened out a bit, or when it was a bit shady and the vegetation grew up enough to break a fall.

The views were breathtaking. By the way, we walked all the way around that mountain...

The camera hung around my neck and every now and then I would hold it in front of me and take a shaky shot. Here there was a handrail! It was a bit wobbly though... Zac kept one hand on Jaramie the whole time, Jesse was the fearless leader, telling us about wobbly rocks or if we needed to move over to  accommodate an accomplished hiker joyously passing us by. Maia was actually terrific. She said later that she didn't find it too difficult and she enjoyed the walk.... 

There were SOS emergency call boxes a few times, but we couldn't figure out  how someone would reach us... and was a "whiny child" or sweltering Mama an emergency? So....we kept walking..... and walking....

We began removing articles of clothing, and rationing the precious little water that was left. 90 minutes had already come and go. Steep uneven stairs and inclines led the way to plunges of descending stairs that were even scarier. At one point, a small rock shower began to come down on my head (I was bringing up the rear) and I skipped ahead as fast as I could.

Finally, a little over 2 hours, Vernazza was in our sights. And what a beauteous sight it was! Although it was still a long way down and back to civilization... 

Jaramie got to drink the last of the water and finally hold onto her bear, Bruno, for the last leg of the trip. We were soaking wet with sweat and shaking from exhaustion, but we had made it.

The trail led us right into one of the alleyways between the stone and plastered walled houses and right back to our own small apartment. We didn't even need to confer. The kids and Zac headed directly home, while I stopped in a little foccaciaria to get big bottles of water.
Although this was a harrowing trip, and Jaramie was too little and we were too inexperienced to perform such a feat, we did get to brag about it for the rest of our Vernazza stay. For entertainment, we liked to sit at the foot of the hill where the alley lets out onto the main street... and smile and the other hikers, who made it too.
It was interesting the varying types of people we met along our journey. I think I said hello in at least 4 different languages and also "pardon" "scusi" and "excuse me." Now that it is over, I can quietly say, I'm glad we did it. :)