Levanto

After 2 days in Venice, we hauled our bags and ourselves to the train station and boarded the train to Bologna and then on to Levanto, a town located just north of the Cinque Terre towns on the northeastern coast of Italy (the Ligurian coast). Our only hitch was not stamping our train ticket (no one informed us of this rule and it had not been required with our previous train tickets) which resulted in a 44 euro fine, despite our best efforts to talk the conductor out of it. We arrived in Levanto at 10pm and one of the owners of the apartment picked us up- taking two trips in his small car to get us all to the apartment. The next morning was gray and rainy and Travis and Leif ventured out to find food and to see if anything was open on Sundays in Italy. Fortunately for us, the rules are more lax in Italy about working on Sundays compared to Switzerland and they found groceries for breakfast and lunch. Most businesses had morning and afternoon hours, closing for 2-4 hours midday. The restaurants usually do not open until 7pm in the evenings, not particularly convenient when you have young children. When the rain cleared we walked to the beach and the kids had fun jumping in the waves- the 50 degree weather wasn't going to stop them.

We ate dinner at a small restaurant and had handmade pasta and freshly caught fish. They brought out a platter with 5 fish on it and asked us which one we would like them to cook. The Ligurian region of Italy is known for it's pesto and focaccia so we made sure to eat as much of these local specialties as possible. Our apartment had a kitchen so for a couple dinners we bought fresh pasta, ravioli and gnocchi, from a store and cooked it at home. Nearly every day we ate focaccia for lunch. The Cinque Terre towns had some amazing focaccerias and we had it plain, with potatoes or tomatoes, sausage, or with mixed vegetables. We also ate more gelato cones than we can count, and only returned to the same gelaterias twice (there are so many!). Our last night in Levanto we ate at a great pizza restaurant that had such a thick menu of pizza choices it was hard to read them all - similar to a restaurant we ate at in Venice with at least 50 different kinds of pizza.

After a rainy Sunday, Monday proved to be sunny and beautiful so hiked the cliff trail to Monterroso, the closest of the Cinque Terre towns. We promised the kids a sandy beach as enticement for the hike and packed their swimsuits in our backpack. The hike took us up along the coast hills through olive groves which seem to thrive on the steep, rocky slopes. We passed lemon and orange trees, blooming calla lilies and wisteria. The ocean water below was royal blue. Leif and Hanna are such strong hikers now they were running ahead of us on the trail. Elisabet did a great job of hiking and only needed to be carried by Travis on two of the steeper sections.  The hike took us longer then we had thought it would from studying the map, but fortunately we had just enough food and chocolate to get everyone to Monterroso where we ate lunch and then played for a couple hours on the beach.  We took the train home and it took just 4 minutes- straight through a tunnel in the mountain.

We spent Tuesday and Friday on the beach in Levanto.  The weather stayed nice most of the week, unfortunately a little chilly for swimming (at least for me!).  Travis and Kate got in a few times and on the warmest day even I got in a little.  Note that NO locals were in the water on any of the days- although they were sunbathing in their bikinis, men and women.

Wednesday we took the train to the farthest town, Riomaggiore and explored the rocky beach there (see photos of naked Elisabet).  Leif lost a tooth while we were looking at the boats in the harbor - these towns were nestled so tightly on the coast that it was just a few rocks and small loading ramp.  Getting a boat down into the water required a crane in Manarola!  Then we hiked the famous Via dell' Amore- lovers' walk- along the cliff to the next town, Manarola.  It was hot and we were hiking right in the sun, much of it on a path that was paved and fenced.  Literally built right on the edge of the hills.  After a much needed gelato stop in Manarola, we continued on to Corniglia.  This town is perched at the top of one of the hills and requires climbing up 365 steps (we saw various estimates of 350-370) to get there.  Hanna said she tried to count them but got mixed up after 50.  We were happy we made the climb because Corniglia was beautiful and our favorite of the five towns and wasn't as 'touristy'.  The kids were so hot by now that we bought them all t-shirts and huge bottles of water so we could convince them to make the climb back down to the train station.  From there we took the train back to Levanto and went straight to the beach to cool off in the water.  

Thursday we boarded a ferry that stopped in 4 of the Cinque Terre towns and then continued on to Portovenera, a large town and port to the south.  It was a beautiful morning and fun to see view of the coast from the ocean.  We ate lunch (focaccia) and climbed up to a church and castle that at one point guarded the entrance to the harbor.  The castle wall lined much of the city and there were some impressive stair-cases and narrow alleys to explore.  We also saw a group of cliff divers being filmed for a movie.  On our ferry trip back it started to pour and we could even see lightening striking some of the tops of the hills from the boat.  The kids were quite impressed!  We got off in Vernazza because we had not seen the town yet and then took the train back to Levanto.

Saturday was our final day in Italy and we made our first major transportation error trying to leave Levanto. Our train was scheduled to leave at 11:01 and we accidentally boarded a train that arrived at 10:59.  It was not announced so we didn't realize our error until it had left.  This train was going the same way we were going, but much slower because it was regional.  We asked the conductor for help and he told us to get off at Spezia, which we did but we had missed the connection to Milan.  At the ticket office there we were able to explain our problem and get the information to make it to Milan in time for our Zürich connection.  This required taking 3 more trains- not as fun when you have HEAVY bags and backpacks and 6 people.  We arrived in Milan with 15 minutes to spare and boarded the hot, packed train to Zürich.  At the border of Italy and Switzerland our car was searched by a couple of border patrol agents who were obviously looking for someone and spent time examining passports and documents of several passengers.  Then at the next stop, they announced that all passengers must get off.  Apparently the train was malfunctioning and they switched everyone to a new Swiss train, but in the switch we all lost our seat assignments and ended up crammed in a car with only 5 seats for our 6 people.  One poor family had 6 people in 4 seats.  It was not our most pleasant train trip!  Elisabet kept telling us she was mad because we had told her we were on the last train and wouldn't have to switch and then suddenly she had to get off.  We arrived in Zürich by 7pm and wearily stopped for a quick dinner and to pick up a few groceries since the stores would all be closed on Sunday.  Then it was more lugging, hauling, and boarding onto 2 trams to get home.  The kids refused to go anywhere on Sunday, reading books and relaxing with their toys at home!  (Kate and I did a quick tour of downtown and saw some of the finishers of the Zürich marathon.)