After waking up late because we slept in, we took the train from Riomaggiore to Vernazza, a short 10 minute ride or so. The pizza the night before was so good and so cheap that we decided to have two more before we got started.

The reviews we’d read about the hike from Vernazza to Monterosso were absolutely true. That was one beast of a hike. The trail twisted up and down and up and down the hillside, seemingly needlessly (but I enjoyed it, it made it interesting!) and the path was so narrow that when someone came from the opposite direction, it was all one could do to get out of the way and keep from bumping them off the path and onto the cliffs and water below. As usual, the scenery was spectacular, making it impossible to take a bad picture. We finally got to Monterosso, which had the only sand beach out of the five cities (the rest were rock beaches that had been smoothed out by the Sea). I got scorched (sunburnt) the day before and was concerned about having to carry around my having pack being sunburnt so Paige and Kali spent a few hours in the water while I wandered the town and tried to catch up on my journal of the trip. We met at a predetermined meeting place/time and went to the grocery store so I could try my hand at cooking “real” Italian pasta back at Mama Rosa’s.

The pasta was pretty good but was no match for Diego’s creation of a few days prior. We did get a chance to talk a set of brothers from Portland, Oregon who were staying in one of the other rooms in the house and backpacking together. After a fruitless attempt at locating some beer for a card game, we decided to hit the sack.