Canadians in Connecticut: 08/11

When we last left off, we’d picked up our rental car at the train station in Venice and were heading off to Italy’s other coast. We were to stay at Hotel Abetaia, a nice new little hotel in the hills above Levanto. This hotel was so new that the road that it was on wasn’t to be found in our GPS—no problem though, we got off at the highway exit for Levanto and saw a sign right away. We really liked staying there—nice room, breakfast, and hosts—and found it to be a good location for exploring the area.

The night we arrived, after checking into the hotel, we drove down to Levanto and ate at Ristorante da Rino. We had a really nice meal outside, but we had to take turns eating while the other walked around with Ashley.

Our main reason for visiting was to check out the Cinque Terre, five little coastal villages connected by hiking paths. So the next day we took the train down to Riomaggiore, intending to start there, hiking between the five towns.

After walking up to the top of the town…

we walked towards the path to Manarola, with some nice views of Riomaggiore…

and a dude fishing…

but the trail to Manarola was closed! So we hopped back on the train and were in Manarola a half hour later:

And and after a brief rest, we were soon on our way to Corniglia, on Via dei Bambini!

The short hike and 382-stair climb to Corniglia took us about an hour and 35 minutes.

View ahead, north up the coast, after leaving Corniglia:

Looking back at Corniglia and Manarola:

On the trail:

It was a little over an hour before we came upon Vernazza:

(Some cats keeping warm in the late-afternoon shade)

It was getting late by the time we got to Vernazza, so we took the train back to Levanto and went back to the hotel. That night we ate at the hotel’s restaurant, where we had a really great meal (though Ashley and I had to break part way through to change clothes!). The next day we took the train back to Vernazza to continue our hike.

Looking back at Vernazza, after hiking about half an hour:

View of Monterosso al Mare, after hiking about two-thirds of the way there:

It took us about an hour and a half to get there.

After grabbing some lunch and exploring the town a little, we headed back to our hotel. We ate at L’Osteria le Logge in Levanto that night, a nice place, where thankfully the older Italian couple sitting near us in a room at the back of the restaurant didn’t seem to mind a crying baby. It was at this meal that we finally realized that Ashley couldn’t really handle hiking around all day, followed by a long sit down meal, without time for a proper nap.

The next morning we hopped in the car and drove up to Portofino, and then down to Portovenere, which turns out to be a lot more driving than you’d think it would be from looking at a map.

Portofino is a busy little tourist town, where rich people park their boats.

Muscovy ducks—native to America, not Europe (but Ashley liked them anyway):

View of the harbor:

There was a gathering of some sort of Porsche club. Here’s (I think) a 1960 356 next to a 2010 911 GT3:

We made it down to Portovenere quite late in the day, so we didn’t have a whole lot of time there. Really cool place though.

And then it was on to Lucca…

At sixteen months, Ashley:

likes to practice her jumping.. still hasn’t left the ground though
rides her pony, and drives her little car
tries to swat flies away
does headbutts, saying “bonk” while she does it
finally, after much effort in trying to teach her, blew her fist kiss yesterday
will also do regular kisses, but she’s not big on it… likes to hold up her stuffed animals for mommy and daddy to kiss though
very rarely says “mama” anymore… we are both “dada” these days
latest words include “car” and “nai nai” (milk)
will put her toys away before she goes to bed, though we have to tell her to put away each one separately
seems to be transitioning to just one nap a day, but sometimes she falls asleep during her morning snack or lunch.