Day 16: La Spezia and Bonassola

Although still yet to come across a bed that was long enough for my feet to not hang off the end, the sleeping arrangements at Grazia's agriturismo are certainly amongst the best we have experienced so far. Hard to believe but I think my top two are currently the Jadrolinija ferry bunk, and then Zeljko's converted couch. Grazia's probably manages third place. In any case, all that to say the relatively comfy bed, in addition to the quiet countryside location made it easy to sleep in this morning. We came down to breakfast after everyone had apparently already been and gone. One table was still neatly set, so we helped ourselves to the (still ample) remaining cereal, bread homemade cake, and fruit. Great breakfast here, and I think my favourite so far.

We sat in the dining area for an hour or so after eating to catch up on some blogging, some emails, schedule in some more accommodation for the coming weeks, general life and trip admin. We have got quite a few couch-surfing options locked in now and really excited to meet these people and spend a few days with them. AirBNB is great for finding somewhere to stay, but I think the real life and flavour of travel will come from couch-surfing. These are people who are actively interested in hosting and spending time with fellow travellers, not for the sake of the money or a livelihood, but because of a genuine passion for the world outside their own existence. It remains to be seen whether I eat those words at a later date, but as of right now, we are both really excited about the next phase of our trip when we will bounce around some middle- and eastern-European countries. But more on that later, for now we still have a handful of days in sun-soaked Italy.

We finally get ourselves out the door a little after twelve, and make plans to catch the train through the five towns for which the Cinque Terre is known, and down to La Spezia. From there we could catch a bus to Porto Venere. It's a ten-minute walk to Levanto train station, and in rather standard fashion we arrive just as the train has left. 35 minutes until the next departure! We buy our tickets and commence thumb-twiddling. Actually we are both nearing the ends of our current books so we are quite happy to stay put and flip a few pages.


Our train shows up, and we are looking forward to our coast-hugging journey through this stunning piece of coastline. We quickly realise the reality of the situation – the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. A rather unfortunate practical example of that rather delightful axiom is that pretty much our entire journey consisted of tunnels burrowed through the hills between the towns. The most scenic thing on that journey was when an overweight gent exposed his disturbingly hirsute gluteal bifurcation while retrieving a fallen suitcase from the floor in front of us. We bury ourselves in our books once more.


We jump off the train in La Spezia excited for the rest of our day. Following Grazia's suggestion we decide on a wander through the old town and along the promenade before catching our bus to Porto Venere. Maybe we picked a bad street, maybe it was because everyone was on siesta (or whatever the Italian equivalent may be), but neither of us found it particularly La Speziale at all. A bunch of closed shops (most were open 9am-12pm and then 5pm-9pm or something like that), a bunch of dodgy gelatarias and pizzerias, and a recently closed fish market. The place looked and smelled great. The giant seagulls enjoyed it anyway.


Thoroughly nonplussed by the old town we pushed on for the promenade but we found that equally disappointing. It was a harbour and a port from all we could see, lots of docks, marinas and piers. Nowhere to sit an enjoy the sun, breeze and beach. Maybe we missed the good stuff, if someone has been please tell me where we went wrong?! We decided to cut our losses and headed back to the station. I very confidently read the departures schedule and announced that we required platform 4, and a train would be along in five minutes.


Fifteen minutes later we began to think maybe the train wasn't coming. Finally my pride gave way and Audrey found a flirty elderly station assistant to inform us that our particular train wasn't running today. No, he said, it didn't say that on the schedule, it's just not running today. Great. Oh, the train we really should have taken, well that had already been and gone on platform 2. Great. Next one? 32 minutes... Great. So, noses back in books again, getting really close to the end now.


We board the next train, through all the tunnels again, past Levanto to the next town on the other side. Audrey finished her book five minutes before me (dammit) and started to harrass me, poking me and asking me what was happening. Dammit. Bonassola is a cute little town with a beach (is it still a beach if there's no sand?) and a few touristy restaurants. We pick our way along the beach, which is mostly roped-off 'private' sections in front of the various restaurants or hotels. They string a rope almost from the water's edge right up the beach to their establishment and apparently you're not allowed to set down in that bit. What a joke. Though of course we still tried. Anyway we get to the crowded, and very narrow, 'public' section of the pebbly beach and lay down our towels. Rugrats are running around on the stones and pebbles barefeet, but my delicate little tootsies require thongs all the way to the lapping waves. I slide them off and awkwardly hobble into the water.


Water temperature is nice, a little bracing upon entry and the initial breach of the sub-torso area causes a little yelp as usual but after that I plunge in and adjust quickly. It takes some coaxing but Auds also braves the waves and joins me. We paddle about for ten or twenty minutes before heading back to our towels to dry off in the sun. The next few hours pass uneventfully until we both start to get a little hungry, and the sun is stooping below the mountains so people around us are all packing their bags. We find a reasonable looking place and order a couple of drinks. They come with a rather generous (and salty) selection of peanuts, corn and potato chips, olives and a couple of small slices of cheesy foccacia with salsa. Jackpot.


Still peckish we order a couple of dishes and watch the interesting assortment of passers by. Before we know it the sun is long gone. We settle our bill and begin the hour-long walk home along a well patronized foot and cycle path between Bonassola and Levanto. Auds is inspired by the acoustics of the tunnel (yes, even the walkways are in tunnels) and belts out various titles much to the amusement and appreciation of our fellow tunnelgoers.


We make a final pitstop in Levanto for an icecream. I wouldn't normally consider this blogworthy, but it does set the scene for a rather amusing anecdote and one of my finest puns of the day. On the short walk through Levanto back to our Agriturismo, Auds stubbed her foot pretty badly on the concrete guttering and was in some pain, with no ice. She also wasn't enjoying the icecream much, so to alleviate the pain she stuck the ailing digit into what was left of the cone. A gelaTOE if you will.

You may have noticed a distinct lack of visual support to this particular entry, that's because we took bugger all photos today. All we have to share is this -

 Which I think might be what churches will look like once apple starts designing them.

And also this -

I have had some experience of posing in front of statues and trying to replicate their stances. This is unfortunately not one of my finer efforts, but it's all I can offer...

And with that, I bid you goodnight. We're off to Venice tomorrow after a short stopover in Fugazzolo, the birthplace of Audrey's great-grandmother.