it was not raining... but I feel my body-mind has some sort of precognition, there are certain days were I just dawdle for-ever in my room ...and I wait till the last minute to check out because some how something in me knows it will be a hard physical day.. I found the tourist office, I got instructions and how to find the start of the trail, and what markers to follow... I found the street and the turn off and my markers to follow almost too quickly, I did not adequately stock up on water...there are a lot of 'should haves'... I should have turned around at this point and found water first and perhaps one more coffee... I did not... I walked the road for a while then eventually it turned into a dirt track... it was of-course steep and straight up the hill... I am getting used to it..but it still not easy... at first it was deciduous trees and evergreen mixed forest... I saw Moniglia in spurts getting smaller... this trail like all the off road trails..seems to literally go straight up the hill...no walking along the side of it or perhaps zigzag...nope... I was resigned this now frequent reality... then near the top of this hill marker choices...neither of them being for 'my trail'.... I had to make an educated guess... I kept going up, thinking the one leading down towards the beach was the wrong one... I am generalizing...up seems to be the rule... the trees seemed to have been destroyed by something...just short bushes some wild flowers and pines that seemed to be destroyed stumps...
later I saw signs of fire... these hills had been devastated at some point..now cycle of life returning ...the low growing bushes did a good job of getting me wet since they still held yesterdays rain and the trail was grown thick with them... after climbing my second hill, I became aware I had made the wrong choice...so instead of a three hour walk I had five plus walk ahead of me...this because of the trail I had chosen, markers were now present again...i was on the one towards a point east of where I needed to be so I triangled back... I would be without water for most of this five hour walk...and it was still humid even if it was over cast...i ran into an older german couple, sweating as much as me going the other way...then the trail started descending..what made it tough was all the loose jagged rocks that seem to want to get under my shoes and slide... so I had to walk carefully... there was a steep tricky section..but thankfully the trail onto road again was not as steep as some descends i've made...but it did feel like an endurance thang without the water,...hopefully lesson learned...there was a little pre-town before Sestri Levante, that I walked through to get to Sestri... it was 4.30ish when I arrived, I found a one star hotel, (the star business is taken very seriously here, signs for albergos will tell you the number of stars, even restaurants will list stars, i've seen it for camp grounds too)... so one star, cheap with out having to do puppy eyes. After I did me settling... and found the tourist office... I got a little info on the town basically it had a small historic section and beach-front that was interesting... and then info on the walk the next day... she suggested I walk the main road to Chiavari, she said 8kms if I stayed along the road..she assured me the tunnels here were safe to walk.. she guessed would take a mere half hour to walk..this should have been a warning... and then she recommended this five towers walk starting in Chiavari which according to the little brochure she quoted took three hours..so I felt I had next day's walk sorted. I checked out the old section of this town and I found the main tower charming... they paint the houses with Trompe L Oeil style..with faux stone mason facades... it actually looks pretty cool and seemed to be a regional thing since I would see it from town to town for a while....
I walked along the small beach, the town looked colorful in the back drop with late afternoon light,. Then to the main church, the main altar actually had a marble Madonna emerging out of the top of a marble mountain with a house and angels underneath...this was surrounded by a halo of chandeliers ...again a design element I had no seen before.. to her left in the side apse was a charming simple wood jesus on a cross... me and a few old people hung out for a while.. then back to town...i stopped at deli style place and got ingredients for my hotel room picnic...veggie dairy pastry blends and a big chunk of cheese and a beer.. it tasted amazing...all of it... perhaps because I had forgotten lunch in my struggle.. I am sleeping better again..
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