Hiking, Thursday May 25

Today's journey: 1.5 hour hike from our home base Volastra to Corniglia, lunch and walking around, 1.5 hours hike to Vernazza, train and bus back to our hill. Dinner of leftover pesto and squid plus sauteed zucchini.

Many surreal postcard views of aquamarine Ligurian Sea below

All the villages resemble this, colorful stucco or cement buildings stuck into the steep cliffs over the sea.

Limones bigger than cojones

My favorite village so far is Corniglia. It is charming, pretty, not too crowded, and has high-quality souvenirs at decent enough prices. Not that I've bought any! Yet. We had an excellent lunch at the Cafe Lavarra---focaccia di tonno (tuna, which here is the darker meat, mixed only with olive oil), salad with fresh greens and tomatoes, ham on the side for Marilyn, and my daily Coke : )

Marilyn and John will stay in Corniglia for a couple of days after I leave for Venice, so we scouted their apartment location and wandered around the non-commercial streets. This involves a lot of stairs everywhere you go. Between that and our two "moderate difficulty" hikes, our legs ended up moltissimo sore! Even Marilyn, who is famed for her Hartman definition of a hike as involving a certain length and rise in elevation, welcomed using some of my Biofreeze on her legs.

Marilyn on the trail to Vernazza

Bus rules for cani

Except for taking the trail from Volastra, we take a little bus down to Manarola to get started, then back up the hill to our apartamente each evening. Unless we want to climb the umpteen stone steps, about a 20 minute steep hike, I think. We have declined to do that so far.