Two km and change vertically to get over the peninsula and on our way towards the cinque terre – a legendary Unesco site of natural beauty, and one we’ll actually probably bypass, ‘cos it’s a vastly overpriced tourist trap and Jens is more interested in ‘the hinterlands’, as he calls them.
The last section of the ride here featured another of those wonderful ex-railway tunnels. It’s kind of magical riding smoothly through the old tunnels then out into the explosion of Mediterranean colour.
Staying tonight in Lavanto – a little tourist town on the coast, which turns out to be the regional surfer city – nice, in a riviera-provincial sort of way, but it does have a distinctly end-of-season feel. Not that that prevents gouging prices at the local pizzerias. It’s nice, but TBH we won’t be sorry to leave for the hinterlands on the morrer.
One week in and it’s hard to quibble with Jens’s desire to live here. It’s wonderful! The countryside is stunning, the weather is wonderful (had a terrific swim in the sea this afternoon – in mid-October!), the food is so tasty, and all the people we’ve met have been just so nice.
Two tales typique…
Asked our host this morning if there were any pods for the coffee machine. I didn’t fully understand her response but the gist of it seemed to be that the machine was broken. Oh well, so it goes. Five minutes later she appeared with a tray bearing two cups of espresso and a little jug of milk.
Yesterday Jens popped into a greengrocers for stuff for a pasta dinner: tomatoes, courgettes, mushrooms and etcs various. When he’d paid the guy asked what he had planned, and when Jens told him he said “You should have some parsley with that,” and popped a bunch in the bag.
What can you say?