Monday, September 21, More Hiking in the Cinque Terre

We rested yesterday, now our plan is to hike some.  We had thought that perhaps we should take the train to Corniglia to the south and continue our hike down to the other two towns of the Cinque Terre that we had not seen yet.  This would be a challenging up and down hike as the main trails connecting these towns (along the coast) had been washed out a few years ago and was still not restored.  One of  the attendants at our hotel's reception suggested an alternative; she told us a lovely hike would be to go north, which would provide the best views of the Cinque Terre (viewing all five towns at once), before continuing on to Levanto.  She told us that this would be about a three hour hike.  It sounded like a good idea to us, so that became our plan.  Perhaps this would be a little less crowded than what we had experienced Saturday, although we were not complaining about Saturday.

We walked down to the town and continued along the beach to the north end.  We saw the large stature of Neptune that is one of Monterosso's prominent features, known as Il Gigante.  Then we began to climb.  It is step after step at this point.  Here is an example:

There are nice views back to Monterosso along the way:

And after about one and one half hours, we reach the peak, where the ruins of a church called San Antonio are located:

And the views are incredible.  Here is a photo from my iphone using a wide angle lens attachment of all five towns:

We were almost nearly alone here at the top, just us and an older couple -- very peaceful.  We left to continue on the trail.  We felt very fortunate, because as we were leaving, a very large (30+?) group of French hikers converged on the site -- and they just do not ever shut up!  Talk about annoying, but for us, it was relatively brief, and they were headed in the opposite direction.  We continued north; here are a few of the beautiful (if I say so myself) pictures:

And they we could see our destination, the town of Levanto (not part of the Cinque Terre):

We made our way into Levanto; our trek has taken about three and a half hours (by the end of the afternoon we will have walked about 10 miles and climbed 142 flights of stairs).  We were ready for a break.  We passed by a few restaurants that seem to cater to tourists but continue on.  We were drawn into a restaurant off the beaten path for some reason, and it is a good choice.  Inside the dining room several tables are occupied by what would seem to be locals, mostly men, in fact -- seems like something out of a "Godfather" movie.  Our waitress speaks only Italian, but we had no trouble communicating.  I ordered focaccio Margarita, and Rob has a seafood salad.  Both are outstanding!  My focaccio is very thin crust and may be one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten -- such good tomato flavor.  Rob equally enjoys his salad.  It was an unusual, but pleasurable experience.

We needed to ask a few times (most of the people we approached were tourists like ourselves), but we did find the train station.  The ticket machine in the station was broken, but the clerk sold us tickets to Monterosso (only one stop away) for 1.80 euro each, but the train was a 45 minute wait.  Rob notices that there is another train 20 minutes earlier than that?  Can we take it?  Yes, but we would need to buy new tickets for 6 euros each.  We decide to be bad.  We don't buy the more expensive tickets but get on the earlier train anyway.  It is extremely unlikely that anyone would be checking tickets, and if they did, we could just play dumb.  On the train, we spot a conductor heading our way, and I feel a little panic, but he stays away.  The train ride is only 5 minutes!

Back in Monterosso, we get our train tickets for tomorrow printed and spend a little time shopping in the main area.  We had earlier seen some nice ceramics and had decided to return to purchase a few. There is a fabulous local ceramics studio which makes lovely flat pieces depicting local houses and scenes, plus some other glazed pieces like small vases and bowls.  We buy both types.

Now it was time to go back to hotel and take showers!  It has been a long day and is about 4pm.  After our clean-up, we return to town for dinner.  We had intended to go back to Il Pozza, but discover that they are closed on Mondays.  We walk down the Via Roma a little bit and venture into a place called La Cambusa.  It is very nice.  I had pasta with potato, green beans and pesto sauce.  Rod had pasta with tomato sauce and tuna.  We enjoyed both with side dishes (contorni) of mixed salad and grilled vegetables (mushroom, zuchini, and peppers).  Not too heavy, but just right!  We drank a local red wine called bagasti (?).  Neither of us had cameras, so no photos.  A very nice way to end our stay in the Cinque Terre.  Time to turn in early to be ready for our early train tomorrow.