Day 14: Carmignano to Levanto via Vinci

We actually managed to set off reasonably early today, relatively speaking. We had a clean up and packed our bags before sharing another breakfast with our Belgian buddies. We traded stories from our previous days adventures over some more teacup cornflakes (there were no bowls, what else was I supposed to do?!)

 

We were taking a few final pictures before leaving when one of Isabella's daughters popped out. She asked if they could have a picture for their Facebook page. We weren't really prepared for a photoshoot but of course we obliged, and asked her to pass on our thanks to Isabella before we motored away. She also gave us a postcard painting of the area.

When I realized the town of Vinci was only a half hour away, and basically on our way anyway, of we had to make a stop there. Birthplace of the brilliant Leonardo, later in life he traveled and worked all over Italy. The small town had a smaller museum dedicated to him, and presumably a shrine at his house. The town didn't really have anything else, so you wouldn't expect it to be too hard to find ... right?

We saw one sign on the way in, and another ambiguous arrow just before the crossroad in the middle of town. We came from one direction, which left three options; one of those roads was closed which left us with two. We followed each for maybe a minute, which was more than enough to realize 

a) there were no further signs in that direction

b) we had left town again

Back to the crossroads again, and browsing through our offline maps we found a little detour around the closed fourth option. Snagging an empty parking spot and triple-checking for parking signs, we wander up the hill. Still no signs, but it had to be this way, eventually we found a small museum. Clearly I looked spritely and youthful that day as we managed a couple of student tickets again and poked around for an hour or so. That really was long enough to see everything. it was quite disappointing actually. I was hoping for some detail and some working models I could play with. No such joy. So a quick trip up the bell tower, right by the very place where young Leonardo was baptised, I took a few snaps from the rather scenic viewpoint and then stopped by the only open cafe in town for lunch before heading for the coast once more.

LdV's belltower

Looking out over Vinci

We had plenty of time, and opted to avoid the autostrada once more as we took some scenic backroads and lesser highways to our eventual destination of Levanto. Navagatrix capably led us to the small town of Levanto, just north of the famous Cinque Terre. We lost confidence once again when it proudly announced our destination to be a dilapidated and abandoned, smoked out house.

With no street names or numbers for reference, we asked a few kindly locals, and Auds did her best in Italian, but language seemed to be quite a barrier. A far as I could tell they kept saying this was the right street. Eventually we found someone who asked who the host was ... She recognized the surname and pointed us about 400m back up the road, near the shops she said.

So back up the road to park outside the shops, Audrey spots a familiar looking gate, and through it multitudes of cats. This was one thing we remembered from the airbnb profile - many, many cats. I turned around and almost tripped over a small smiling lady carrying some groceries from the shop. I apologised, then did a double-take on the face. Grazia? Yes, she answered.. Matt and Audrey? Si, Si!

The accidental introductions completed, she quickly confirmed the cat house was hers but that the shops were shutting in ten minutes if we needed anything. We decide to see what we can rustle up for dinner, a nice fresh salad sounded good. Don't buy tomatoes or lettuce or herbs, she shouted after us, turns out she grows them all organically on site.

We got our groceries, and Audrey picked some suitable items from the veggie patch while I unloaded the bags and then we were shown around the property. Grazia kept all sorts of animals on the Agriturismo - horses, ponies, goats, chickens, rabbits, dogs, cats, sheep, and probably more. She helpfully talked us through the local area, gave us a map and pointed out some places we might like to visit, nearby hiking paths, etc. 

We made our salad, washed it down with the remaining Poggio Alloro red wine, deliciously room temperature in its plastic bottle, then briefly planned out tomorrow and caught up on a few emails before bed.

Beautiful weather ahead, so we're hiking to the beachy Monterosso al Mare.