Sunday 10th September; Diano Marina ⇒ Sestri Levante
The drive around to Sestri Levante went smoothly and we arrived at 2 pm for our apartment check in. Our accommodation in Sestri Levante was a 3 bedroom apartment that I had sourced through STAYZ / VRBO. A lovely grandmother and her adult grandson gave us access to the apartment and helped with the parking. Unfortunately, the apartment is on the 3rd floor of a building in the Old Town pedestrian area and the stair case was rather tight and there was then another set of stairs once you got inside the front door! Mark gave up any thought of bringing his bike up here and decided he wouldn’t ride for the duration of our stay.
The apartment was big enough for us all and there was a separate loft area with a bed and bathroom for Tom and, luckily, his own a/c unit. Our bedroom and bathroom was on the main level along with the kitchen, dining area and terrace and there was another single bedroom, which was great for all of our luggage. The apartment had been updated recently and the bathrooms were modern and the whole place was very clean but the furnishings, bath towels and bed spreads were all a bit tired and dated. We started to doubt our choice to locate here for seven nights but thought we’d reserve judgment until after we had explored the local area.
It was after 4 pm before we ventured out to explore Sestri Levante and we first headed to check out the beach areas. The Bay of Silence, rather famous on Instagram, looked lovely but the the main beaches were all a bit underwhelming. The Old Town area was very charming but small and I wondered if this place would give us enough to do for a whole week; we may need to re-think our itinerary yet again.
We were all a bit hungry, as we hadn’t had lunch, so we stopped off at a bar that, luckily for us, offered ‘snakes’ with their drinks. From there we went on to have an early dinner at Trattoria Turin, which had cloth napkins, and served up delicious home-style cooked Italian fare. We were home by 7pm and grateful for an early night after a rather long day.
Monday 11th September
It was another beautiful morning so Mark and I ventured out for a walk. We went across to the main beach area and, given the early hour, we were able to get down on to the beach and take in the scenery along the coast without the hoards of sunbakers. We were somewhat surprised to see the small stretch of public beach at this end was located right beside a drain. It sort of reminded us of Bali. The sand was a very dirty brown, almost like a gravel, and it wasn’t all that appealing. We got back up onto the promenade and headed up to the northern end where, for the first half of the walk, the view of the beach is totally obscured by all the beach clubs. The latter part of our walk was a bit clearer though and allowed us to get a view of the water. It’s quite a pity as this area could be rather majestic but the endless line of ramshackle beach club sheds makes the promenade very unappealing and obstructs the potentially beautiful view.
Our plan for the day was to take a walk in the morning on the Sestri Levante to Punta Manara trail and then head to the other beach, the Bay of Silence, for the afternoon. Unfortunately Tom had some food poisoning overnight and wasn’t up to joining us.
Mark and I therefore set off for what was to be, or so we thought, a nice stroll with some lovely vistas along the way. What we ended up embarking on was an almost vertical climb and rock scramble with very limited views along the way to a look out which, thankfully, was quite spectacular and it made the exercise somewhat worthwhile. The description of this trip said it was ‘moderately challenging’ but I don’t know if having to scramble up and down rocks actually falls into that category. Anyway, the whole out and back journey took us about two hours but, in the end, we were both glad for the outing. Our legs told a different tale though when we got back to the apartment and had to face the four flights of stairs; we were both a bit weary.
Tom still wasn’t feeling all that well so we left him at the apartment and went down, hoping to secure some chairs and umbrella at one of the beach clubs at the Bay of Silence. We were quite lucky because there aren’t that many Clubs open to the public, but we scored the last two chairs at one of the nicer clubs. The water here seemed much cleaner, as you could see the bottom and there were lots of little fish swimming around which gave us some confidence.
Mark and I have decided to cut our time in Sestri Levante short; it’s a lovely little humble seaside town but there just isn’t enough to keep us here for the whole week. We are going to go and explore Cinque Terre tomorrow and then the following day we go up to Genoa for the day and night as we are taking Tom up there to catch the train to the airport to make his way home. After that, we have decided to move on, down the coast a bit, to an area called Viareggio. This area seems to have a bit more happening and it’s also close enough for us to hop over to explore Lucca on Monday and then Pisa on another day. Regular readers might recall that I previously used Lululemon as a marker for checking the suitability of travel locations. Over here, in this part of Europe, I’m using Louis Vuitton shops and whilst Vareggio doesn’t have a Louis Vuitton, there is one just a little way up the road. If there is a Louis Vuitton nearby, there should be enough other shops and retail and associated restaurants and cafes etc to hold our interest for a few days.
We were home showered and ready to head back out again by 6.30 pm and we went back to the same bar as last night for the boys to have a beer before heading on to Ristorante La Mainolla for dinner. Tom had an enormous folded pizza so I hope he’s ok in the morning as we have a big day of walking Cinque Terre planned.
Tuesday 12th September: Cinque Terre Day
Today was a great day! We had an absolute blast walking two sections of the Cinque Terre trail and then catching the ferry back along the CT coastline. There was a little bit of nostalgia about the day as Mark, Tom and I had walked the last three sections of this CT trail back in 2010. However, neither Mark nor I remembered it being so challenging back then!
It ended up being a very busy and full day so this update is just a brief summary of what we did on the day. There are four sections of walkway between the five CT villages. We walked the first two but the second two have been closed for a while due to some subsidence. There were alternate high and steep trails but they weren’t for us. Hence, we walked the first two, caught the train to the last village and had lunch before catching the ferry back past the five of the villages.
- Train from Sestri Levantine to Monterosso al Mare
- Breakfast on arrival at Monterosso al Mare
- Walk Monterosso al Mare to Vernazza (about 2.5 hrs)
- Walk Vernazza to Corniglia (about 1.5 hrs)
- Train from Corniglia to Riomaggiore
- Lunch at Riomaggiore at La Conchiglia
- Ferry from Riomaggiore back up to to Monterosso al Mare
- Train from Monterosso al Mare back to Sestri Levante
- Dinner at Sestri Levante at La Sciamadda dei Vinaccier Ballerini
Today was our last full day in this region. We leave tomorrow to have the day at Genoa where we we will stay the night to allow Tom easy access to an early train the next morning that will take him to Milan airport for his journey home. Mark and I are then heading further south to Viareggio for a few days, rather than returning to Sestri Levante. Don’t get us wrong; Sestri Levante is a lovely area with loads of great boutiques, shops, cafes and restaurants and a great local vibe but a few days is probably enough time to spend there, rather than the seven I had initially booked.
