Cinque Terre

We woke up to a bit of cloud and drizzle which soon cleared. After playing on the beach for a while we decided to walk to the next village along the coast for lunch (Vernazza). We could see it from Monterosso and it didn't look that far! 

After 20 mins or so we came to a ranger hut where we had to pay our park fees. The ranger told Mike it was an 1 1/2 hr hike to Vernazza, maybe more with kids and that due to the rain the track was slippy. Mike decided not to tell me this!. He let me think it was an easy amble round the coast! The path had been quite wide and level up to that point. Quite quickly after leaving the rangers hut the path reduced significantly in width and started to go up and down quite steeply. Sometimes it wasn't even wide enough to walk alongside Eva, which was pretty unnerving when there was such a steep drop down the cliff to the sea to one side! We met several hikers coming the opposite way who said the track was slippy and we would have to carry the kids (they seemed to be trying to warn us off) but we managed fine. The kids were amazing and didn't complain once and we only carried Eva down one very steep section - she walked the rest and it was pretty hard going! I was so proud of them. We weren't really very well equipped for such steep terrain as we were all in trainers (Eva in her clarks shoes!) and it was way past lunchtime by the time we got to Vernazza and the kids had cleaned out all the snacks and most of the water on the way. 

As we sat having a late lunch in Vernazza we felt a great sense of achievement and like we'd had a proper adventure! After exploring Vernazza we hopped on the train that links the five villages in minutes and explored Corniglia. We had to climb up about 200+ stairs to get to the village centre! Then back to Monterosso for dinner.