Italy's North West
Welcome to the story of this year’s spring holiday.
Food
If you’ve read about our other holidays you’ll be accustomed to reading all about the food and wine. This time though, the Inntravel walking holiday didn’t include meals, so there might not be quite so much delicious detail, but rest-assured, the Italians know their food and wine, so we consumed some delicious fare.
One of the highlights was pesto, yep humble pesto. Forget what you’ve tried from jars, real “home-made” pesto is fantastic. Being a coastal holiday, the seafood was good too, and when we moved inland to Florence, we shared the biggest T-bone steak of all time.
Milan
The holiday started with a flight to Milan, where we stayed at the Hotel Brera on a Laterooms deal. Our full day in Milan was a Sunday spent walking round the older parts and having a look at the Duomo (outside only). First night there we’d enjoyed the rare treat of eating outside – it was one of the highlights of the holiday to be able to sit outside and eat almost every evening. Second night we sampled aperitivo – we bought a bottle of wine for 18euros and had our fill of food from the cold buffet. Who said Milan was expensive?
Milan photo gallery
Walk along the Ligurian Coast
Our Inntraval Walk along the Ligurian Coast began at Camogli, where we stayed in the Hotel Cenobio dei Dogi (4*) in a room with a balcony view of the beach. Lack of sand and an abundance of pebbles didn’t deter people from using the beach. Locals might have found the temperature a wee bit chilly, but we were finding it plenty warm. No sooner had we arrive than it started to rain, so instead of exploring the town we settled into the bar and checked out the maps and walking notes.
Next day (Tuesday) we did a walk along the coast to Portofino, a very swish coastal resort town where the main square is right near the harbour and is full of open-air restaurants that don’t look cheap. From here we caught a bus further along the coast to Santa Margherita which looked an attractive and busy place. From there (after gelati) we caught a bus back to Camogli.
Both nights at Camogli we ate indoors but in front of full-length windows with views over the beach and the castle. They were just setting up for their Sagra del Pesce – which we missed by only a few days.
Next stop was Levanto, the journey there began with a train trip, then a pretty strenuous walk that took us about 6 hours. Weather was hot by our standards (mid-20s Celsius) so it was hard-going, with three strenuous uphill sections. Between us we drank 5 litres of water during the walk. It was worth it though, the views along the coast were great.
We arrived at Hotel Nazionale (3*) feeling pretty weary and dinner included a wonderful seafood risotto for two. On our full day in Levanto we decided to have an easy day and just explore the town. Morag found a small jewelery shop of the style she likes and bought herself a new ring.
Next day we headed off again, into the Cinque Terre where we would stay in Monterosso for three nights at Hotel La Colonnina (3*). There was an option to upgrade to Hotel Porto Roca (4*) but we were glad we didn’t because Porto Roca is super-expensive and La Colonnina was very nice, superbly locatedin the old town. When we arrived it had been a hot day and we were able to sit in their shaded garden and have a wee picnic. THer hourney there was not too long, with good views of the coast, it’s great when you’re approaching these seaside villages that cling to the coast and you get a great view of them from up the hill.
Next day we did the path along the coast between the villages on a combination of train and foot. These are the busiest paths we’ve ever walked on, it’s mostly easy walking and this is a very popular area. We were surprised to see so many American tourists, with the US$ being so weak we thought they’d be feeling the pinch, but it hadn’t deterred them.
Following day we did a really nice walk up into the hills, the uphill section was stepp but in the shade, which made a pleasant change. Once up the hill we had great views of a couple of the Cinque Terre villages and walked down into Vernazza which is a beautiful spot. From there we caught the train back to Monterosso.
Monterosso itself is an excellent base for exploring the Cinque Terre, the restaurants were good and the old town is lovely. There is a 10 minute walk from new town (where the railway station is located) to the old town.
Ligurian coast photo gallery
Florence
On the second Monday we farewelled the Cinque Terre and caught the train to Florence. Morag had booked an apartment through Owners Direct and the owner was in the apartment to greet us. The San Cristofano apartment is superbly located just near Santa Croce which is just a short walk to almost everything. Having your own kitchen is great, the local market was only a few minutes away and Morag boght and cooked some nice local stuff: – a rolled pork roast filled with orange peel and prosciutto – some ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach, served with fresh pesto
There was also a local restaurant nearby that we ate at twice, second time we sampled the local specialty which is grilled T-bone, over a kilogram of meat grilled (rare) and waiting to be eaten. Yum!
We spent our days exploring the town, walking up in the hills, exploring nearby Fiesole, and Morag managed to fit in some shopping, locating and purchasing the perfect handbag!
We left Italy after two weeks and on our final day it rained, and rained, and rained. Only the second time we’d seen rain on the journey, and we’d managed to avoid getting sunburn, so pretty successful as far as the weather is concerned. Food and wine was great. Walking was great with fantastic coastal views. The only reservation we’d have about the holiday is that the Inntravel walk is one of the most expensive walking holidays they do, I guess that’s the price for being on a coastal route.
Florence photo gallery