Cinque Terre, steps and wonderful views

Massive day today! Our first 20000 step day too. We woke to a very wet Pisa - not that we knew it in our wonderfully double glazed room - and set out to the nearby cafe where our included breakfast was provided, it was yum. While there we decided to pack up and go straight to La Spezia since it was so wet.

Luckily as we did the packing the rain cleared, walking to the station we were so pleased to have backpacks as the cobbles are undulating and hard to navigate in places. We also learned to watch for buses splashing us as they drove through the giant puddles.
In these last Pisa pics - Walking in the rain top left and bottom right, our yummy breakfast included with our accommodation (I asked for apple juice), and top right is the entrance nook into the cluster of apartments we stayed in where people leave notes of thanks on postitnotes, there was a water filter machine, espresso machine and snacks here too. Steve is putting our keycard and tax cash into the lockbox. 



The train ride north was scenic and we quickly saw the snow covered mountain ranges helping reinforce why it was so very cold (8C today). La Spezia is a port town and we chose accommodation closer to the railway station so not in the touristo area, that said we did have a touristo dinner which was overpriced and underwhelming that night. 

It was midday when we arrived and our accommodation wasn't ready yet so we stopped in a tiny restaurant near our apartment and had lunch. No English spoken and it was full of workers - mostly men - so cheap but really hearty. I had an asparagus risotto which was also filled with bacon and steve ordered the Porchetta which was slices of pork with potatoes, so much olive oil (bottom left). But yum with the basket of bread. We both had a cheeky wine and left there feeling like we'd had a real Italian meal experience wondering what the locals thought of us with our backpacks trying to translate the menu with our phones. 
Other pics - our blue decor room, the square near our apartment and bottom right is the view from our balcony, see those orange trees they smell Amazing!

Quick checkin at 1pm and we were on the train to Corneglia a few minutes later. We chose Corneglia because it's the hardest walk and we figured on a cold wet day a walk would warm us up.
Josh of you read this I made it here because of you and those damn drop squats (Josh is my trainer at cardio rehab for everyone else). The first tranche of steps up from the train station were 383, more than Libby's steps! in all we did more than 800 stair steps in the day (I lost count somewhere about 750) amongst our 20,000 walking steps - and believe me my legs can feel them right now. The long covid behaved which is basically due to the fitness regime I have now and the medication. We discussed often how I couldn't have done this 6 months ago not to mention would have whinged the whole time in years gone by but today it was just a climb that had to be done! 

Above photos from top left going clockwise - looking up to where we were going 383 steps from the bottom, then two pics of the steps and finally the view back down from the top with Manarola in the distance and train station on the left. 

And then we were there, in Cinque Terre, it was 9C and the wind was bitterly cold but we walked around the Corneglia and got lost in the tiny alleyways, ate gelato and bought two lucky people tea towels.
It was magic and an emotional wee moment when we got to the top of the hill behind the church and could see Manarola across the bay, all colourful but still slightly covered in cloud (so very hard to photograph). 
Pics - Scenes from the town and a pic of one of the many tiny tiny shops and deli's in the bottoms of these buildings. 
 

Corneglia was pretty much closed, we learned later from an American (whose first words to us were "I'm American") that restaurants are closed on a Tuesday. The bar I wanted to have an Aperol at was closed due to rain so we decided to head back down and jump on the train to Riomaggiore. 

Pics - Scenes from around Corneglia at the top, view from behind the Church where you can see the terraces of grapes in the hillside and Steve eating his gelato in the freezing cold. 

The photo at the top of the blog is Riomaggiore, quintessential Cinque Terre, with a tiny port and buildings rising from the sea painted beautiful colours. To get from the station to the climb into town you start by walking down a long long tunnel which is rock on one side and has a mosaic wall on the other which is beautiful but hard to photograph. We were freezing, completely freezing cold - thanks Karen and Paul for lending us hats cause we needed them so much. One train said it was 0C outside, didn't feel that cold but with windchill it was Wellington southerly like freezing cold - must stop talking about cold. 

So we walked up the hill to the church then looked for a bar. All of the buildings in Riomaggiore are rendered and painted, while the paint is of differing quality, it looks fantastic.
Whereas Corneglia has many explosed stone buildings. In both towns we watched people dragging their giant bags up steps and steep alleyways to their accommodation which will also have flights of steps to navigate once there.
The first bar we chose was on such a steep slope Steve was slipping off his chair, which is when we met the American who told us to go somewhere else, they were not impressed. So we moved down to one with a covered platform outside with plastic sheet walls to keep the wind at bay, there we had 5euro crepes each and Steve had half a litre of red to warm him up. 

With food in our stomachs again we ventured through to the port side and up to the view you see at the top of this blog. The walking tracks go for miles but we only ventured a little way along the cliff fronts here cause the wind was bitter.
Top left is to show you the weather, top right the long tunnel between the station and the bottom of the town, bottom left shows how different the state of buildings can be. And bottom right is the port. 

One steep street we walked up had the rushing of water sound below us and it seemed to be a giant culvert with a raging river running down to the sea trapped below a road with apartment buildings looming up both sides. 

A couple of hours in Riomaggiore and we got back on the train to La Spezia. My plan had been cheap and cheerful dinner of takeaways in our apartment but we somehow convinced ourselves to go to a restaurant where we got touristo'd - food and wine were ok just pricey. 

Last pics - bottom left is one of the mosaic's I was most impressed with and Manarola finally emerged from the cloud. 

Our apartment here for 3 nights is lovely, it has a wee balcony which sits above the orange trees that line the streets of La Spezia. As I said our part of town isn't touristy so nothing around is open at night. We have shutters, a wee table and chairs and mini kitchen. There was a free bottle of wine and again 3 different sets of code locks to get through the many doors, the owners have sent us masses of messages on whatsapp with advice on what to do and where to go and were kind in letting us gain access 2 hours before normal checkin so we're pretty happy with this place. 

It's nearly 8am so we will be off on the train to do the other 3 towns today - the number of folks yesterday was considerable, and so many children, so today we expect to be busier again. Eek.