5-5-10 Chiavari-Rapallo day 31

5-5-10 Chiavari-Rapallo day 31

breakfast was over by 9.30 and since it was included I hustled my butt down there...but then I took my sweet time packing up... the rain if anything had gotten worse today.. I had heard it through the night as I woke up a few times... while packing I also spend some time trying to blow dry the insides of my boots and sox before I put em on..this did help... fyi most italian hotels high end or low have blow dryers...i have found them helpful in drying out some of my clothes if they did not drip dry over night enough..another obstacle to changing locations daily things dont always dry as I need em..i hit the road around eleven..the hotel woman tried to give me an umbrella because she took pity on me...but I had my rain cape and walking long distance holding an umbrella and walking stick did not seem attractive.. I thanked her much .. this time I definitely stayed on the road... I had gained some new blisters thanks to the day before..not bad ones but after yesterday I knew I was not in for a long day...also the rain was hard.. the road first climbed for a while...and then curved along the hill side ..always slightly above town center so there was no place to rest along the way... I had to re-adjust to car traffic too...since side walk and safe curve came and went... about half way I saw an older couple going the other way also with rain gear and packs... I yelled 'Piligrino?' across to them. They spoke french, but yes they were pilgrims, they came from somewhere with-in france, they looked to be in their late 60's early 70's and they were headed to Rome. The woman made signs indicating that my way was still very long... I was beginning to put that together... still meeting other pilgrims on this road on this day...with the last few days under my belt made me feel less crazy...it is very heartening.... I had to break at some parking-lot about two hours in... I had seen Rapallo from a distance but the road seemed to curve in and out of the hill that I had no sense how much further. It came up when I thought I had a while more to go...

I arrived a little before three.. .and started looking for a place right away... although I also looked around a bit..even wet and grey it was interesting...there was a small castle island right off shore then mostly harbor and town.. I found a room..more than I expected price wise, but do-able... It had heater so I put some of my damp things near there...and took a nap... I showered and explored the town a bit by 5.30. I found the tourist info. The lady was a bit younger and like I found often in italy stone faced, but quite helpful beyond what I would ever expect from first impressions. There is another national park here... I asked her about the trails... this time I am getting better at asking questions about the trails.. no she had not herself walked them but said they were about 30kms where-as the road was 20kms... I asked her about the trail markers, and she said no they were not very good because 'we italians do not go walking in the mountains like that'... I thought this was very helpful for my decision making the following day... I then found an internet point,..but I was not allowed to use my own lap top and use their wifi because they had strict 'anti terrorist' laws here... while I was in there just running through my email and face book two cops showed up.. I half joked in my head they were checking up on the foreign potential threat... then I went to find dinner, since I was too early for restaurants I found a bar and had sandwich with salad...

After wards, when I walked by the water-front the sky had cleared and cool clouds and landscape worth photoing appeared. I then splurged and drank an ,old fashioned, at a quite bar near my room...while updating 'dear diary'...