We drove over to La Spezia train station early this morning...it didn't go as well as we'd like, as we made a wrong turn on the expressway and then got lost near the station and ended up driving through a pedestrian only area. :( We will most likely end up with a ticket for that, it will be mailed to us. Oh well. We eventually did find the parking garage for the train station, bought our tickets and waited. Once the train arrived, we boarded and got off at the first stop. Cinque Terre is an area of five villages that sit on the coast and is famous for hiking. Unfortunately and unknown to us, the first town where we had gotten off didn't have a trail open--it was closed due to damage from heavy rains and mud slides. Bummer!! So, we caught the next train to come along to take us to another village. This train had problems and what should've taken a few minutes ended up taking an hour to get where we wanted to go. By now, it was 4 hours after we left home and we were pretty frustrated. However, we persevered and finally began our hike. I thought I would die. There was a steep set of stairs going straight up, with switchbacks just like a car going up a mountain. OMG. I would stop to rest after every set of 50. I lost track of how many times I stopped. And that was the easy part!! LOL I read somewhere that the trail we were on has 1,282 steps--I believe it! The trail wound up the side of a mountain, with huge stone steps and we steadily climbed for a long time. Just when I thought I couldn't make it anymore, we got to the halfway mark and it was mostly downhill from there. Very steep, deep steps--it wasn't long before my legs felt like jelly but at least I wasn't winded! Rich was a real trouper, he wasn't even breathing hard. We stopped at a bar right at the end of our trail (4 km) and had a drink and split some lasagna. Made it down to the train station and caught a train back to La Spezia. We were both a bit concerned about getting out of the city before traffic got too bad. We did MUCH better navigating home. No hiccups at all. We both agree it was worth the trip, such gorgeous scenery and another beautiful weather day. And I don't know why, but my wifi just began working all on its own. Go figure!!