Our 300 km drive from Como to Levanto on the Italian Riviera took us 8 hours (thanks to our defected GPS). We managed to take a detour over a mountain along a road which did not even exist in our map book and drove along some of the most windy roads. This made me feel quite ill, but Bud was merciless and persisted to believe that he was driving at Monza. We arrived quite late in the afternoon, set up camp, took a stroll around town, watched the sunset on a small section of free beach and ate Gelato.
We planned on staying in Levanto for 3 nights, but as we liked it so much, we decided to stay for 5 nights instead. During our week stay, we managed to watch the sun setting over the sea in a completely different spot every single evening, ate delicious Gelato everyday, explored 8 different villages in the region, caught a train to Pisa and did loads of cycling and hiking! We used the clock tower as our alarm clock every morning as it was so loud and prevented us from sleeping past 07h30.
We decided to spend our first morning sorting our camp as everything became a bit messy after camping in Como. We thought it would be a great idea to wash all our dirty clothes and all of our towels….but this ended up being a terrible plan. By the end of the 5 days, everything was still soaking wet and our campsite smelled of dampness. The campgrounds were very shady and therefore stuff didn’t seem to dry too quickly AND it stormed every night and throughout most mornings making everything constantly drenched!!! We even attempted to use the tubledryer, but stupidly over loaded it, making it a waste of time and money.
What was great about staying in Levanto, was that we were able to cycle everywhere. We found a cycle path which stretched along the coast going through 2 villages with amazing small bays and swim spots along the way. The water was so blue and clean and there were hardly any people along this stretch. These little bays and coves were free swimming areas unlike the areas in the villages, where people had to pay to use certain parts of the beach.
Our plan to do the Cinque Terre hike on our first full day at the Italian Riviera ended when it poured all night and all morning. Nethertheless, we still did a lot of exploring through one of the 5 villages and did the hike 2 days later in the sun. Cinque Terre Hike is a coastal path passing through 5 villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The Cinque Terre was built over a thousand years by peasant farmers who transformed the steep cliffs into fertile terraces to grow agricultural produce, such as grapes, olives and pine forests. They created a unique landscape and the 5 self-efficient villages are built on top of and into the cliffs. The people do everything by hand and the only piece of technology they use in the fields is the mono-rail. The views along the hike were incredible and impossible to capture in any photo. Although the villages were crowded with tourists, we squeezed our way through the narrow alleys to admire the buildings, the people and the natural beauty that these people live around. Unfortunately, there had been a landslide between the last 3 villages (Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore) and we were unable to walk along the coastal path there. Luckily this was the shortest stretch of the hike and we were therefore still able to do the majority of the hike between the first 3 villages (Monterosso, Vernazza and Corniglia). We caught a quick jam-packed train ride to the last 2 villages and ended our Cinque Terre experience with some sundowners on a terrace bar in Riomaggiore looking over the ocean with a Limoncello and a beer.
As Pisa was a train ride away, we decided that we had to go and see the leaning tower of Pisa for ourselves and mingle with the city tourists. We spent the day walking the streets, admiring the ancient architecture, walked around the city wall, had a Pizza next to The Leaning Tower of Pisa and had tons of corny photo’s along with all the other tourists. We really could not fathom how the tower was still standing and stared at it for ages. It was a fun day walking around the city and we ended it with a sunset swim in the Mediterranean.
Our 5 days in the Italian Riviera were amazing and we would definitely like to return to see more of the area.