Day 15: Levanto to Monterosso hike

We woke up at Grazia's agriturismo and had a good breakfast of fresh granola, yogurt, jams, honeys and bread. When I went back up to brush my teeth, I could see the ponies and about eight of her 27 cats playing in the sun in the paddocks below. >Cue brief animal photo break.

Ok, that's all for now. The night before, Grazia had suggested we bypass the more touristy Cinque Terre (five coastal towns connected by famous hiking trails) and instead hike from our homebase in Levanto to neighboring Monterosso. She promised the same views, no tickets, and no crowds, which sounded great to us.

Unfortunately, once I started to get ready, I remembered that nearly all my clothes were in the wash. Unfortunate side effect of backpacking. After a quick rummage in Matt's backpack, I fished out his XL Superman tank top and decided it would have to work as a sort of hiking beach dress (nope, not a real thing), along with my tennis shoes and a plastic bag full of our towels, etc. Ready to go.

After a few wrong turns, we found our trail and set off. The trails were a bit rough but followable, and we came across very few other people during our three and a half hour hike up and down the mountain sides.

At various points, the trees would clear and we could see the clear blue sea veryyyy far below. We even saw the hovering boat I'd only ever seen in pics, where you can see the shadow of the boat in the water, it's so clear.

We hiked a few more hours and came across a couple of semi desperate Chinese hikers, who thought they were lost and had decided their best course of action would be to stop by the side of the trail and wait for hours until someone helpful came along -- jokes on them because their 'rescuers' were a big shirtless Aussie with a backpack on and a chatty girl in a superman shirt, not exactly the original trail blazers.

We just told them to keep going, couldn't be much further, right? At this point, being the experienced hikers we are, we had nearly finished all our water, and the day was getting even hotter. After nearly missing our turnoff, we came across one more scenic viewpoint (read, photo opp) and, victory achieved, began the descent into Monterosso, a cute beach side town.

We got some focaccias and beers, wandered and then took the train home (which took all of 5 minutes. Kid you not.) 

After much needed showers, we went into the town and got a few takeaway pizzas to eat on the beach. We then came across a dance lesson, where about 40 people were doing some traditional Italian synchronized dance in a square near the beach. Matt took some video of all the old guys trying to dance near the only girl under 45, then we ambled on for some gelato and home to Grazia's.

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.

Day 13: Florence

Well, at least we had intended to research Florence last night. What really happened was we read a bit then chatted and relaxed instead. So this morning we did a bit of last minute planning and then left for some more manic driving and arrived at Piazza Michelangelo a little after 11, snagging one of the last parking places, which a car 5cm larger might not have fit into.

Campanile and Duomo

True to form, we were running late for our walking tour-- we parked high above the city 10 minutes before we were due to begin. Oops. So instead we bought passes to the main attractions and had a self guided wander, climbing the campanile (tower next to the Duomo) then the baptistery, with a ceiling covered in paintings and gold leaf. It even got a wow from Matt- not an easy feat.

The baptistery was where Dante was baptised and it was easy to see where he got his inspiration for the circles of hell-- Renaissance Christians really went in for the gruesome imagery. Satan munching humans, etc. The detail was incredible though. We sat in there for a while just staring at the ceiling.

We then shoved our way through pushy artists and caricature makers (?) to a little sandwich shop, where the man and woman proceeded to happily ignore us as they flirted and sang to each other in gibbery Italian. We eventually convinced them to sell us a few sandwiches and made our way across the city to catch the afternoon walking tour, which focused on the Medici family. We were both really looking forward to it.

singing sammich makers

Unfortunately, the tour was staler than our sandwiches, and Matt commented that ancient Italian torture methods were still alive as the guide proceeded to bore us to no end. He continuously started a story that could have been interesting, then began mumbling, then talked about something completely different. We tried asking questions, but he looked at us blankly and changed the subject. So we ducked into the crowds at the Ponte Vecchio (gorgeous bridge covered in vendor stalls) and lost the group.

The one thing we did learn was that the campanile (previously mentioned tower) is actually open to climb to the very top, and we had somehow missed the stairs that continued up. We talked our way back in and made it to the top this time. After admiring the view, we decided this would be a good chance to test out the zoom function on the camera, and Matt snapped this one of a lovely Italian dinner party across town. (Phweet phwoo, roller girl.)

We wandered to the piazza outside the Palazzo Vecchio and took pictures of the famous copy of Michelangelo's David and several other pieces of amazing art that we were certain were important and could research later. Seeing that the museum (the former house of the Medici family) was open until midnight, we bought our tickets and then went looking for dinner.


We found a cute cafe with exposed brick walls and a yum looking menu, and I was sold. Matt got gnocchi with homemade pesto, and I decided to try faggotini (like little pasta parcels) stuffed with cheese and pear. A risk, but one of the best meals I've ever had. (Will be figuring out how to make this once back in Aus and with a kitchen. Guinea pigs, come on over.)

Less tasty was the pair of smokers who were sitting about 6 inches from our table and insisting on blowing their smoke into our plates of food, a popular European pastime. Matt protested, and they gave him nasty looks. Total hypocrites, we found, when a motorbike started up, blowing exhaust over them, and they had a fit... quite funny.

We then went back to the Palazzo Vecchio and spent a few hours wandering around the Hall of the Five Hundred, through the personal rooms of the family, and into the map room, which was really amazing. You can even see from ancient wear on the floor where there still exists a secret passageway entrance behind the map of Algeria, which swings out on hidden hinges. Love stuff like that. Obviously tried the hidden door when the guards weren't looking, but it was locked.

not-so-tricky secret passageway behind Algeria map

We also saw some graffiti from the 1600s, carefully scratched on a Vasari political satire painting no less, and actually making it even more interesting. Way to go, Scarpetini.

It was getting late at this point, so we made the half hour trek back to the car (the city is so much prettier at night without all the crowds of people), fired up the navigatrix and back home to Isabella's ex-monastery. Until next time, beautiful Florence.