Another day, another hike

DAY 11

We “slept in” this morning until seven. We wanted to eat breakfast and hit the road to another town. There was a train strike today so the trains weren’t going to be running so we were super happy that we did our hike and trained to the other villages yesterday. There was another town we thought of hitting up called Portovene, but to get there you either had to take a train, walk a half mile, and then get on a public bus and that seemed excessive. Or we could have gotten a ferry there, but it was 36 euro and that was just too expensive for something we were meh about. So instead, we started our day with a hike in the other direction of the Cinque Terre villages and headed toward Punta Mesca. We thought about heading to Levanto but that was about a 2.5 hour hike in almost 90 degrees with no way back but to hike so we passed on that. Punta Mesca was about an hour (2 miles hiking) into that hike and we decided to do that and then would just hike back. What we didn’t know was that the hike was straight uphill on very steep grounds and uneven, high steps. All without any shade. It was pretty brutal and our legs weren’t exactly 100% from yesterday, but we took the challenge head on. We were sweating bullets. Like an insane amount. And my friend’s fingers got ridiculously swollen like sausages which was actually hilarious, yet, mildly concerning. 

Once we got to the top, the view was great and there was a tiny old castle that we could walk through. We cooled down a bit before heading back down. Going down this mountain was more of a struggle for me than going up. At one point, I even started walking backwards to give my calves and Achilles a break. Yikes. At the bottom, our goal was the find some Gatorade stat. Once we found that and chugged that, we were rejuvenated and were ready to head back to the hotel to have a chill pool day. 

We purposely planned this part of our trip at the end so we could have days where we explore in the morning and enjoy the pool or beach in the afternoon; similar to how we had Croatia at the end of last year’s trip. It’s worked out very nicely. 

Once again, we just ordered lunch at the pool and actually spent a majority of the time there in the water. It was just too hot to lay out. I think we spent about five hours there before deciding on our dinner plan. We had talked to a couple yesterday who went to the market in town to grab some food for a sunset boat ride they were going on and we loved that idea so much that we decided that instead of going to restaurant for dinner, we could get some meats and cheeses and breads from the market, and make a spread in our hotel room and eat on the balcony. It was actually an amazing plan and our ham, salami, burrata, tomatoes, and focaccia were all so fresh and authentic. 

This was definitely the most chill day we’ve had on this trip so far and a good idea before our last leg of this journey which starts tomorrow with along long travel day. I can’t believe this trip is almost over. I’ve got to soak up these last few days.