Cinque Terre Walking Tour - Day 1- Levanto

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A rest day after travelling all day yesterday to get here. From the Courtyard Hotel near Gatwick we walked to the airport, checked in, went to the lounge for breakfast and got on the plane. Sorry folks said the captain over the intercom French air traffic control have advised we have to wait here for an hour before we can fly over their space. We are talking to them and hopefully the wait won't be that long. Thankfully, we arrived in Pisa 15 minutes late thanks to a shortened delay and a tail wind. Our train to Levanto would arrive in 2 hours. We spent this time people watching in the square outside the train station and sipping a beer at a cafe. The train was on time and we set off through the countryside including passing through the town of Carrara and its mountains of marble. Two stations to go and we ground to a halt due to a problem with the train in front of us. We eventually arrived and walked from the station to our hotel. We probably would have arrived at our hotel a bit sooner hsd the sign to the hotel was pointing acros the street to it rather than down the street. Checked in, it was very comfortable and recently renovated. We had dinner at a local Trattoria which thankfully had been pre-booked for us by our tour company as they were turning people away. Fritto misto and salad washed down with a local red. Finished with a lemon gelato and an affogato. A pleasant end to an otherwise dreary day. Travelling to see new places is great but getting there often gets you down.

Breakfast and then off to discover Levanto. We wandered the streets and followed the beach to the old railway track that has been converted into a walking/ cycling track and it was being well used by the locals. It leads to the town of Branosola but we only walked a part the way there. We had lunch at a beachside bar and shared the largest bruscetta we had ever seen washed down by an Aperol spritz (shown under soft drinks on the menu??). We are in Italy after all. Further investigation of the town including a visit to the clock tower(built between 1265 and 1271) and an 15th century loggia was cut short by the presence of a large black cloud and the sound of thunder. Back to the hotel and a snooze. There wasn' t a large storm but when the rain stopped the wind blew up and it was ferocious. Our day finished with a quick dash out for dinner.

Off to Monterosso tomorrow.

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Photos

Clock tower
Rings every 15 minutes? 24 hours a day

Bar - note the supports
I think the only thing keeping it up was the sheer number of poles.

Comments

[Kerry]

Have fun
We really liked Levanto and went ball room dancing in the village square with the locals! Have fun tomorrow. Hope the weather is good for you.