4-30-10 Cinque Terre Monterosso to Levanto day 26 so not a restful nights sleep... but got my stuff together left the non-impression hotel and found a place that looked cheap for breakfast... I fueled up on something equalling amts of three shots of espresso and a mozzarella and tomato, amazing, sandwich...and then on the road again... Monterosso had two parts I had gotten a little map at tourist office...so I knew where trail head started... it started along a side of a road... and then soon became dreaded stairs... fewer tourists trying this trail.. it was steep immediately. A german speaking couple came down the stairs and the woman complained that going down was worse than going up, because these stairs were meant for giants. Sure enough once she said it, my own inner complainer kicked in..it was a bitch... me and this other couple going up kept passing each other on breaks. They were older and struggling at the same paces as me. It was suppose to take one hour but with the amts of breaks I took it was more like two to the first pt. Sella s Antonio, I expected it to be another town with things like water. But no, it was a ruin of an old church on top of a hill, a german tour guide came through with a small group, and said it had been a spot that had been used since unknown times in history. I sprinted after her and her fast moving group to inquire the direction to Levanto since I was not sure. I got the info.. and at this point the trail got much easier...only little sets of steps and mostly flat... I had briefly chatted with the couple I had shared the uphill struggle with, they were Finish. He was more quiet and reserved but she seemed really interested in my pilgrimage thing although english was not a strong language for her..so we had a nice little moment. Then on I went … there was a man selling 'home made wine' and 'lemonade' ...he basically squeezed lemons into water.. and tried to charge too much.. I had some cuz I was very out of water and I have two more hours in hot weather to walk, I haggled it down to somewhat reasonable price...then off again.. the landscape was mostly thin woods with ocean bellow.
Occasionally the steep drop offs were almost to clear for me to see ..being afraid of the whole death by steep plunge thing...but it was also very beautiful...Levanto... arrived around threeish .. I did usual emergency stop at cafe for water.. then it took for-ever to find tourist office.. but I did.. I got a map of the region and some info on finding the trail the following day and info on cheaper rooms which I followed. I got a skinny room for a good price at a friendly hotel.. in fact things seemed very mellow and friendly here... after the usual shower, hand wash of laundry, and foot rest I found dinner at a place called literature and food...i just liked the name... it was of course full of books and more a cafe with ready made pasta dishes. She made me a salad not on the menu just cuz I asked her if she had them.. that was nice...i was tired from walking on a bad sleeping night and basically cuz I am doing pretty hard core hikes with all my gear... I had amazing internet connection in the room though making it hard to go to bed sensibly... I just want to reiterate that Levanto had really good energy and it made it hard wanting to leave too soon...
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