Before the devastating floods a few years ago, one could walk from Monterosso all the way down to the 5th town, Riomaggiore. The repair work is not finished however, so we "just" hiked to the next village, Vernazza. That was fine by me.  It was a lot of up...and then a lot of down. But I'd do it again in a minute.  The views were fantastic!  7 of us hopped the boat down the shore to Riomaggiore for lunch.  It was fun to view 3 of the 5 towns from the sea.  After a delicious lunch, we caught the train back to our hotel.  What a great vacation day!