Europe 2016 Sept 26th Day 29 Firenze to Manarola

Up at a reasonable time this morning to check out and catch the train to Le Spezia, then on to Manarola, Cinque Terre. Caught a taxi to Santa Maria Novella station and then a short wait before onto the 9.53am. 2nd class this time I'm afraid as a local, not high speed trip, so take pot luck, approximately two and a half hours. Glad we were not last minute as the train was packed. We had two forward facing seats but there were people standing for a lot of the trip. One very unhappy American woman who gave here husband "the look" for the whole trip with tears in her eyes. Sorry honey but suck it up, he did find you a seat which you refused or you could have walked further back and probably found a seat, but no, had to play the bitch, well done you.
Got to Le Spezia Centrale on time and then found the ticket office to go the two stops to Manarola. Packed again but only 10 minutes and out. Walked up the hill to our lodgings, the DaPaulin , for the next two nights but not open till 2pm so sat in the shade for 45 minutes having a cold beer Jane went and bought and some nibbles. Finally booked in and jackpot again, just devine. Out for a walk in the afternoon sun that worked up a sweat that needed cooling down. So it was back to the room to change into the swimming togs before walking down the road ( there is only one) to the little harbour and jumping in. Just beautiful, imagine that, swimming in the Mediterranean, just unbelievable and delightful. Quite a number of people doing the same as 27°C today and feels quite warm. No humidity though thank God. Afterwards back to the room to change and have a glass of vino with cheese and nibbles before heading back down ( it is only about 200m, but a bloody steep gradient ) to walk around and wait for the sunset so I could take some photos. Did this for an hour and half; Jane went and had a vino and something to eat before returning to the room for the night. I went out and had some lovely fried calamari with a small beer and glass of Cinque terre Vino Bianco before heading back to the lodgings for a good night's sleep. Looking forward to a relaxing day tomorrow and may even extend by a day if we can, but sunset boat ride booked tomorrow, so all very good. :-)