Italy Trip (Post 3 of 3): on the Coast in Sestri Levante

My first Italy trip post was about Rome, and my second was about Florence. That last one left off at the train station in Florence as we boarded for Sestri Levante, a coastal town just north of the Cinque Terre villages. We saw lots of sunflowers on our way to Pisa (before hopping a more local train to Sestri Levante):

The local train was VERY crowded compared to the open first class car seen at the end of my last “Italy Trip” post. We walked through Sestri Levante and followed the coast up to our hotel high on a peninsula. It was a STEEP climb up to our hotel, and after getting to the reception desk all hot and sweaty, we were informed that there’s an elevator through the cliffside that comes straight up from the beach. NOW YOU TELL US! :)

Here were our views entering our hotel grounds:

Our hotel ahead.


Our room!






Wandering around our hotel.


Out back.




View of the Mediterranean from our hotel.




View from a terrace where we had a glass of wine.


WE FOUND THE SECRET TUNNEL AND ELEVATOR!


It’s a tunnel through the cliff from the beach, then an elevator up through the rock!


Our “pool” was our own private corner of the Mediterranean!




Checking out the “pool” - there was another elevator
down from that cliff on the right to the tunnel in the middle.




Walking back through our hotel grounds. I’d end up running through that
cliffside tunnel in the distance on my run the next morning.


Sarah loved this curtained arch in our room to/from the bedroom.


We hopped a 20-30 minute train (for about $6) to Monterosso!
It's the northern most town of the Cinque Terre (just south of where we stayed).






In a little tunnel between 2 of Monterosso’s bays...


... and being spit out at the beach.


We hopped a boat for a sunset tour. We got to enjoy the sights from the water.


4 pairs on the boat tour: my wife and I, 2 friends (both photographers!)
on either side of us, a European couple (both in insurance) back/right,
and a eastern US couple back/left (lawyer and sub captain).




The next Cinque Terre village to the south was Vernazza.




I had to jump in to the Mediterranean!


Sarah didn’t come in, but some of us swam around for 20 mins.






The 3rd village we saw in the Cinque Terre was Corniglia.




Some tasty treats from our captain.


A babe in red and a topless weirdo.


More villages.








Turning around, and moving out from shore a bit more.




Sun getting lower...




Walking back with the photographer buddies.


Back in Monterosso after the beaches closed.




A little gelato to get us through.


Lots of us waiting at the train station. Trains came often and were just a few bucks.


Back in Sestri Levante looking through beach-front stores.


Walking along the bay to our elevator in the cliffside.


The next morning I headed out early for a run.


Our “castle” in the morning light.


Running along the public beach.


That peninsula back there is where our hotel was (my starting point).
Just to the left of the “dip” in the middle was our hotel.




A tiny walkway under the train tracks a town over...


... that spit me out at a beach-front restaurant.
(There’s our hotel’s peninsula way back there.)


Running through that 3/8 mile cliffside tunnel.


Back by our hotel for sunrise.


The area covered by vines on this corner was our bedroom.


More cute buildings.


The Bay of Silence from our hotel grounds.




Umbrellas along the city beach from our hotel grounds!


Breakfast after we both had a run!


The breakfast area of our hotel.

We were headed out for a final big adventure: we were going to hop a train to Levanto (a town south of us but between us and the official start of the Cinque Terre villages and hiking trail) and then hike into Monterosso (where we had the boat tour the night before). And if all went well, we’d keep hiking into the NEXT Cinque Terre town as well. So we got “dressed down” in some of the shabbiest clothes all trip, loaded up 6 big bottles of water in my backpack, and took off for a long hike:

Yep, the “dad hat” made it to Italy!


The first part of our hike: slowly up 1000 feet (to about the
southern-most point) and back down quickly to Monterosso.


Many Italian bathrooms look like this: no seat, and a hunt for how to actually flush them.


The beach as we started in Levanto.


It took us a bit to find the trail. We walked well past this once.
The sign said “Monterosso 2.25” but we didn’t know what that meant!


And up we go!




Lots of “up!”


Looking back down on Levanto and its beaches.




Views of the Mediterranean!




Sometimes some faster downhills... with no railings!


Big ass azalea!


Seeing white and red stripes assured us we were still on the right trail.




What a view!






After starting at sea level, here we hit 1001 feet!


We had to find the correct trail here as we veered off the main trail accidentally for 2 minutes.


Monterosso! Still a LONG ways down.


Going down was trickier.






Back at the beach in Monterosso like we were the night before!


Refueling with gelato.


Lounging on rocks.

Oh, so regarding the sign that said “Monterosso 2.25” - we knew it couldn’t be kilometers or even miles, because it was going to be more than that. The number would get smaller when we’d see more signs, but it didn’t get smaller very quickly. Then on one sign, instead of saying 1.10 it said 1:10! It was in HOURS AND MINUTES! We’d never seen a trail’s distance marked by TIME before (let alone marked with a “.” between hours and minutes instead of a “:”). So that first sign was noting that the hike to Monterosso was going to be about 2 hours and 25 minutes.

We walked through Monterosso and officially started the Cinque Terre trail on our way to Vernazza. We had purchased a ticket for this part of the trail at the train station in Levanto because it required payment (and closed toed shoes - someone checked for both as we started!).

Leaving Monterosso!


Looking back at their beaches over some grape fields
(after having climbed down the trail somewhere near the upper left).


A little bridge.


More unique landscape - around every corner it looked a little different.


Our first view of Vernazza in the distance!




Heading back down into Vernazza - possibly the most photogenic of the villages.






Heading through town to the train station to hop a ride back to Sestri Levante.


Dirty ankles from 8-9 miles of hiking!

I didn’t take as many photos in the last half of our hike, but it was still great. It was noticeably busier, and we’re not sure if that’s because it was “officially” part of the Cinque Terre system or that it was just later in the day. But the first half of the way to Monterosso (so about the first 1/4 of our hike) was VERY quiet - we saw very few people.

We hopped off the train back in Sestri Levante, walked to our hotel, and decided to enjoy the last hour that the “pool” was open for the day (which was just our private corner of the Mediterranean).

I’d follow this cutie anywhere.


Taking a dip!




Swimming off.


That’s my wife’s head in the reflection!


Out in deeper water.


Soaking in the last of the late-afternoon sun.


Our private little terrace. She read as I took another dip.


Over the “gate” that separates our “pool” from the sea.






Walking back through our hotel grounds.




Lots of little lizard friends.


My long run in Rome, walking tours, and the big hike
earlier that day gave me a SPIKE in my weekly step count!

Regarding my Garmin "steps," my previous daily record was 32,000 steps when I went for a long run in Florida and then hiked on a beach that afternoon. (Before that, it was a long run on the same day as a trip to the State Fair that was around 31,000 steps.) In Rome earlier in this trip, I went for a long run and then walked around the Roman Forum (before sitting in a train to Sestri Levante), and I had 37,075 steps that day. And then after this big hike (adding in a 6 mile run that morning as well), I hit 41,848 steps, which is still my current PR. And then that week in Italy ended with 164,047 steps, which is still my weekly PR - the hike was Friday, and my weeks end on Sunday... and Saturday and Sunday of that PR week were both small (a travel day back home with 10,000 steps, and a lazy Sunday on the road for 4 hours to get my boys with 11,000 steps). Take out those 2 days, and I covered about 142,000 steps in 5 days. If I take my biggest stretch of 7 days in Italy (Saturday through that Friday with the hike), I get 189,291 steps!

"Steps" screenshot from late Jan 2024. Huh... what happened late summer 2023? :)
(That peak is the Saturday-through-Friday weekly PR of 189,291 steps.)

(I came close to my "normal week" of Monday-through-Sunday weekly PR with my full week in Jamaica recently that contained two long runs, but I was just under 1,000 steps short of my 164,047 step weekly PR with 163,129 steps.)

Also, look what that hike did to my "floors climbed." This is
weekly totals from the last year... our Italy hike stands out!!


Dressed up for dinner. Heading to our fanciest meal of the trip.
(Our hotel had a fancy restaurant on the grounds.)




Love this dress.


A fancy starter. (Oh, and note the mixed breadsticks plate in
the background. I kept blowing through those, and
they kept bringing more! It was very entertaining to my wife.)


A seafood filled macaroon.


Our view from dinner!


A panoramic of my wife and the sea!


Watching the lights come on across the bay.


Some very amazing raviolis.


Sarah’s meal of potatoes and tuna.


My meal of bone marrow with shrimp on black salt.


It didn’t last long.


Sarah liked the “lines” of our ceiling above our bed.


Our final morning in Italy! Boo hoo.


Good-bye Italian lizard friends!


Good-bye hotel lobby!


Good-bye common space.


Good-bye views from our hotel grounds.


On a quick final walk around our hotel (above the pool area).


Back to dressing like “normal” people.


Final view of the bay.


Breakfast in the cute corner of our hotel.


Breakfast by the window.




Our driver had a FANCY car and told us all about how
Bezos and J-Lo were recently sitting in Sarah’s seat.


Controls for the built-in shades that would come up from the door.


Our driver took a detour through Genoa because he grew up there and gave us a mini-tour.


Heading down to the tarmac in the Genoa airport.


Riding out to our plane.


Cramped little bus ride to our plane.


A small plane to the Netherlands, then a bigger one home!

This trip was just about perfect. We did a lot of "pre-planned" sight-seeing, but also had times to ourselves to do what we wanted to. We used a local agency called "Remarkable Journeys," but we never went into their office, so anyone anywhere could use them. We met for 90 mins over Zoom in late spring to talk options, and that's where we set our timeline of 3 days in Rome, 3 days in Florence, and 2 days on the coast (skipping Lake Como or Venice, which were next on our list) for a total of a 10 day trip that included 2 travel days. The guys at Remarkable Journeys set up everything else: all tours, travel, hotels, etc. Our ride into Rome from the airport, our ride to the Vatican, our food tour, our boat tour, etc. was all set up by them. About all we were on the hook for was the taxi we took to our hotel in Florence, our tickets to the The Uffizi gallery in Florence that I wanted to see, and all the "local" train rides up and down the coast on our last 2 days. I was very happy with how well Remarkable Journeys planned things out for us!

If you missed it, here's my first Italy trip post in Rome, and my second Italy trip post in Florence.

And the rest of my "Italy Trip" posts are this long run in Rome, a treadmill speed workout in Rome, and a bit about my week of training after getting back.