Cinque Terre is beautiful

We left Venice on Monday morning and took 4 trains to Cinque Terre - yep I said 4 trains - the first one was delayed (Italian time...) so we missed our 2nd train which then threw off the whole schedule but everyone was a good sport and we all had time to chat and the day went by.  We arrived in Cinque Terre to the town of Monterosso al Mare - the largest of the 5 towns.  Very cute - a bit touristy but beautiful views.  After a brief introduction and instructions on the next day (a general strike and no trains) we headed out dinner by the seaside.  We have been very lucky with the weather - a gorgeous evening.  On the walk back to the hotel - we came upon a large group of locals in the middle of one of the streets - there seemed to be some kind of competition going on - it took us a while to figure it out but it was fascinating to watch - later we found out it was a tourne di noci  or from what we could tell a walnut competition played similar to marbles.  All ages and genders played - from teenagers to grandmothers - lots of laughter, cat-calls, and friendly discussion... fun to watch.

The next day - due to the general strike, was an early day as we needed to get the early train to either Corniglia or Vernazza (two other towns of the Cinque Terre) to hike the trail.  The strike impacted the trains and the ferries but did not start until 9:00 am  dont you love a country that will give you notice and a timeline for a strike... and end it when they say they will.   After a bit of hemming and hawing, I decided to do only one leg of the hike though it was the hardest and yep it certainly was hard - many steps straight up then a bit of a level section then many steps down.  I did it in about 1.5 hours but with a lot of huffing and puffing... here are some shots of the views.