Cinque Terre Day 2 (5/7/08)

We woke up early the morning of the 7th, but that was not something we wanted to do. Apparently there was construction going on on our building and so we had a rude awakening of hammering. Not quite what I was planning for a relaxing morning, but it was a morning none the less. It was absolutely beautiful with the sun shining. The day before when we arrived, things had been quiet in the city. That morning that was not the case. There was quite a bit of hustle and bustle going on and people rushing to go places. I didn't think it was possible to have so many people in such a small town. We did return to the patisserie for breakfast. The pastries were heavenly. Kristen and Kim who were staying in another one of the 5 towns had said they were going to meet us sometime that day so we could hang out together. Mom decided that she was going to go for a hike from Vernazza (town #4) to Monterosso (town #5). Apparently it was supposed to be the hardest hike of all the towns. Mrs. Sitler and I took a small nap down by the water, thoroughly enjoying soaking up the sun. Suddenly it got really loud around us and when we opened our eyes, we were surrounded but a huge groups of Jews who had just hiked from Riamaggiore (town #1) to Vernazza. Suddenly there were children crawling around us and lunch baskets set up around us. We decided to leave after debating whether we should help ourselves to their lunch since they had helped themselves to our wonderful little spot of sun. Oh well. We then walked around the town and visited the little shops in Vernazza. Everything was extremely expensive, but we enjoyed looking at it. We then walked up to the patisserie for a Sicilian slushy with fresh strawberries. Kristen and Kim arrived a little later and we walked around and looked at the shops again. Mrs. Sitler decided to sunbathe some more and us 3 walked back up to the patisserie to have more good food. We were definitely addicted to their good food. Mom returned from her hike completely exhausted. She said it was much harder than she thought. Straight up a hill and then she had to turn around and come straight back down. Kristen and Kim had invited us to their apartment for dinner. They were staying in Riamaggiore so we took the train and enjoyed some fabulous tortellini. We then walked around their town to see the sights (there wasn't much to see) and then took another train back to our town only to climb the 100 stairs yet again. I suppose that the stairs were good for tiring us out so we could fall asleep easier.