Mr Campsite cheered me up on Friday by delivering a free pot plant to our campervan, it’s a beautiful marguerite daisy in a soft shade of pink. We weren’t special to him, he actually delivered one to every plot on the campsite and we think that’s a really lovely touch. We’re not sure how often he does it, because some campervans and caravans had two or three pot plants outside, one even had six; they must have been staying there for weeks! Rodney thought we should leave it behind, but Mr Campsite told me it was a gift, so Emilia (daisy) is now travelling with us.
Mr Campsite also informed us that the temperature at this time of year should be around 25°C, that didn’t cheer us up because, at 10am, as we were leaving the campsite, it was only 10°C. With jumpers and padded gilets on and snow still sitting on the mountains, we decided that it seems to be getting colder the further south we go in Europe…..?! We followed the coast road through lots of seaside towns which seemed more like Clacton-On- Sea in Essex, rather than the Riviera Di Ponente. Nobody was on any of the beaches and the cold wind was blowing across all the sun beds, beach umbrellas and brightly coloured flags. Everyone was wrapped up in winter coats and scarves, with umbrellas at the ready; we were very glad we were inside Eileen on a driving day.
At Savona we popped in to a supermarket assuming that everywhere will be shut tomorrow, on a Sunday. Surprisingly, two thirds of the freezer section contained ice cream and a large proportion of the remainder was full of frozen pizzas……in Italy? Every café and restaurant is a pizzeria !!! Just before Arenzano we stopped in a small lay-by right above a tiny black sand beach for the usual, bread, cheese, salami, olives and tomato lunch.
We drove in to Voltri on the outskirts of Genova past the port and then drove the autostrada for a quite a distance; it’s a strange section of road, where we felt more like troglodytes as we seemed to be inside tunnels more than we were above ground. They’re not even attractive tunnels, though it’s rather nice that they all have a name and the length of the tunnel marked on a board as you enter. We exited the motorway at Carrodano, paid the €8 toll fee and then wove the hairpin bends down to Levanto.
At Camping Aqua Dolce the grumpy man on reception informed me they were already full; maybe he had already had to tell a lot of people the same information, or maybe he was just having a grumpy day. As I was asking him for directions to another nearby campsite, a very friendly chap came over and told me that they had one pitch still available, but for only one night. We took it and set up camp hoping that someone would leave before midday on Sunday, so that we could stay longer and fully explore the Cinque Terre on bikes, on foot, on the train and by boat.
To stretch our legs, we walked around to the Church of St Andrea and then up to the ruined St Georgio Castle, before toddling down the steps to the beachfront. We read the English translations on the information signs on the side of the castle, though I’m not sure we understood some of the sentences. The closing paragraph about the castle read: “The following itinerary pays close attention to this silent evidence that narrate a different, distant and irreproducible condition”. Something must be lost in translation…..?! Lots of people were out and about, strolling along the promenade and through the town, all wrapped up in winter clothes, just like us.
Out in the sea were shoals of wetsuit clad surfers all trying to catch the fairly decent sized waves that were rolling in. We ambled around to the tourist office and discovered that quite a number of the Cinque Terre walks are closed, but there seem to be plenty of others, further in from the coast, so we’ll just keep our fingers crossed that a space in the campsite becomes available. Oh and Bayern Munich beat Borussia Dortmund in the European Cup that evening. We know, because just about every camper on this site is German and we kept hearing the ooohs and aaahs, followed by a couple of big roars. We later found out that it is currently the Bavarian school holidays, which explains the crowded campsite and the evening’s noise.
The church bells woke us at 7am and I dragged myself over to the shower block, thankfully no coins in slots here. Not knowing if we were packing up and leaving, or staying, and as the office did not open until 9am, we couldn’t really plan anything. So it seemed like a good opportunity to get some washing done. On the steep walk up to the laundry I spotted a campervan exactly the same as Eileen; same colour, same age and with British number plates. I said hello to the owners, had a quick chat about this and that and then the couple told me that they were leaving and heading to Lucca, in an hour’s time. After we had waved goodbye, I wandered over to the office to ask if there might now be any pitches available and a very nice lady there informed me that she had already had this conversation with the English people who had just left; they must have mentioned we would like their spot to the office, how kind. She then said we could stay as long as we liked, so we moved up the hill to the now vacant pitch and really settled in for a few days.
After lunch, in the unexpected sunshine, we unhooked the bikes and set off through Levanto. There is an old coastal train line that has been turned in to a cycle track between Levanto, Bonassola and Framure. We thought it would be a lovely way to spend a sunny afternoon. Little did we realise, until we got to Framure, about 4kms of the 5 kms is inside a series of tunnels; quite dark and most definitely chilly tunnels. Every so often you would pop out into an opening where there would be gorgeous views of the rocks and the sea below. Bonassola was very busy, with lots of families sprawled all over the beach and enjoying a bit of warmth at last. When we cycled out of the last, very long, tunnel we were right next to the railway station on the new rail line and there the cycle path ended.
It seemed a bit quiet at Framure, with not a lot to see, so we cycled back to Bonassola for an ice cream break. When we got back to Levanto it was nice to stay in the sunshine and warm up, so we cycled around the town and strolled along the promenade again. If I ever need a tunnel built, I shall ask an Italian, they seem to build an awful lot of them here. Back at the campsite we enjoyed tuna steaks and veggies before settling in to an old black and white movie, ‘Saturday Night, Sunday Morning’, staring a very young Albert Finney.
Monday wasn’t sunny and definitely back to chilly temperatures again, but that made it perfect for a long walk. We set off from the campsite at 9:20am and it took us three hours of tough walking on a very narrow, rubbly path to the first village of the Cinque Terre, Monterosso al Mare. We plonked ourselves down at a beach front café at the newer end of town, for drinks and a doughnut. For the benefit of Rosie and Dino, the cappuccino was reasonably hot, but half of it was froth and no chocolate sprinkled on top…….! An exploratory stroll took us to a tunnel at the far end of the beach (not another tunnel….wait there’s more of them…). We followed everyone through and at the other end found ourselves in the old village, which is far prettier. However, we now had to make a decision, we could walk for another two hours to the next village, or catch a train. I was feeling a bit too tired, so we opted for the train, which was leaving very soon. They only run one train each hour between the villages, so we made a dash for it.
The last of the five villages, Riomaggiore, is very pretty and we spent an hour and half there, having lunch and ambling around its tiny streets. Our packed lunch of ham rolls and cherries were eaten sitting on a bench under a tree, near the top of the main pathway that winds up through the village and then we wandered down to the port and pottered around the boats pulled up on to the road.
We hopped back on the train and went back towards Levanto, missing out the two villages in between; we’re going to save them for another day. Vernazzo, was teeming with tourists; we were blown away by the crowds. It was difficult just getting off the train. But it is a beautiful village and we really enjoyed dawdling from one end to the other and taking it all in. Vernazzo is the village that was very badly damaged in storms in October 2011. At one end of town we passed two houses that had obviously had half of the buildings smashed by the landslides, it was very sad to see. The main part of the village has been almost fully restored. A large photo on a wall near the station showed what it looked like when the four metres of mud had settled in the main street. Rodney took the same photo and we then realised that the whole bottom storey of every building had actually been buried under the mud. It is hard to believe that only three people lost their lives, because the devastation it caused looked enormous.
We had considered taking the two-hour walk that ends back in Monterosso, but my feet were feeling rather sore and it was getting late in the afternoon, so after a good mooch around town and a cold drink sitting in the main street, we boarded the 5:30pm train back to Levanto.
After a nice warm shower, we frocked up, wrapped up in warm coats and wandered into town for a nice evening meal at Antica Trattoria.
