Cinque Terre Day 1

We had a long trip from Venice to Cinque Terre and there were three train changes along the way, all and all about a 6 hour trip. After a long day of carrying our suit cases up and down the stairways and onto the trains we were a bit tired but this we later found out had been the easy part of our trip. The village we were staying at in Cinque Terre was Corniglia, one of the smaller villages. Instead of staying in a hotel here Jill had booked us an apartment through an agency there. Well when we arrived she was directed to call the landlord so she could give us our key. One other thing was that the women she would be calling didn't speak a word of english. So we arrive by train around 6:20 pm and half to be in this at an ATM of all places to meet here and Jill has to call her by 7:00pm. As we get off the train and hike another set of stairs we are informed that the square is at the top of this rather large hill. Also we're told that either we can take the bus or walk up the hill. Well the bus is not really what you would call a bus it was more of a 16 passenger van with no place to store luggage. Since there was a very long line of people and we had four very large suit cases we decided to make the trip up the hill. Jill was a little worried about making it up the hill so Kellie offered to pull her suit case also. As we begin it is fairly warm outside and this hill we realize has quite a few twists and turns. Anyway 20 or so minutes later we arrive at the top of this hill covered in sweat and looking for an ATM machine. Finally we are directed toward the machine (which I believe to be the only ATM in village) and Jill proceeds to call the landlord  (Mrs. Monte). We get ahold of her just at 7:00 o'clock and says some things in Italian and then that she would be five minutes. At last we are shown to the apartments which were actually very nice and clean and had an amazing view. After some delicious dinner and crepes we headed to bed to rest for hiking the next day.