Our check out time from the last minute room was 10 o'clock. It was OK but didn’t have a comfortable feeling about it. The owner suggested we took our bags straight up to La Torretta. Once we arrived we were treated like royalty. The owner, Gabriele, asked us to enjoy the balcony whilst they made our room really. A lady came out with cappuccinos and cakes, our suitcases were whisked away.

Within 10 minutes we were shown to our room. Very lovely. But the view from our balcony......... That was nearly enough for us. We thought we might not make it off that balcony for the rest of the day. We learnt how to use the Nespresso machine and slowly planned the rest of the day. After much contemplation we decided to do the trails today and hire a boat tomorrow.

Very foolishly we began our walk at about 12:30. The trail to Corniglia was a wide path but fairly steep with a lot of stairs. The map claims it is only a kilometre and is supposed to take an hour and a half. Well it did take an hour and a half – but it sure felt more than a kilometre. The killer is to reach the town there is a 365 step stairway. We stopped in a cafe for fuel, thinking we must look terrible, only to be surrounded by many other tired and hot looking trekkers.

Having made it that far and feeling ok, we headed towards Vernazza. Not that we had any choice. It was a train strike day, the ferry didn’t pull in at Corniglia and Stan was hunting for what he had heard were the best white anchovies. They were served at a restaurant on the trail overlooking the town.

That walk was hard. I stubbed my toe and nearly fell over the goat trails a few times. The paths were extremely steep, rocky steps where a fall would land you in the cacti. All through the journey all I could hear was an incessant bleating coming from behind me as Stan kept trying to perfect his best mountain goat impersonation. The sad thing was we were so busy watching our feet that we forgot to admire the view. We passed many tired and sorry walkers (and were passed by quite a few fit ones) Just when I thought it was too hard we had reached the top. Right at the top was a little cafe. The views and the refreshments were amazing. Actually no one but Stan could see the view as he was hogging all of the cool breezes through the window. After, the path was mostly downhill. Still very steep and rocky. But better to be going down than up!!

We made it to the restaurant only to find the kitchen was closed.

The ferry was a much easier was to get home. We saw a lady on the trail who could not be bothered waiting the 2 hours for the ferry so she walked back. The day ended with a lovely dinner in a seafood restaurant. Well not quite ended.... Stan has discovered his favourite TV station. Twenty four seven coverage of fishcam. It looked exciting.