Pilgrimage from Viareggio to Pisa 30/07/07

I think my eating habits are leaving a bit to be desired at the moment because I am feeling lethargic…I mustn’t be getting enough calories.

I woke up around 6am but didn’t leave the tent till 10:00. I then only made it 7kms down the road before spotting an Internet café and deciding to check my email. I only planned to be there five minutes, but two hours later I was lucky that they were closing for lunch and kicked me out. I don’t think I would have left otherwise ;)

I then only made it 3kms down the road before stopping to eat and read. That soon turned into sleep and before I knew it, it was 5pm.

It was then a long flat walk along the main road to Pisa. The only point of interest was these couches along the side of the road…I thought it was funny that they appeared at regular intervals but it wasn’t a nice place to sit…

I then got accosted by this buxom blonde woman, who ended up being a buxom blonde man, and realized what it was all about. After finding out I couldn’t speak Italian, French or Spanish, she continued to try to seduce me buy making humping actions and licking her lips. Needless to say I politely took my leave, but it was all quite amusing :)

I got there around 18:30 and met this Albanian girl who studies there. She showed me round the sights, but then had to leave as she had other engagements…Thanks Violta :)

I was well impressed by the tower! Pictures just don’t do it justice.

After getting my photo leaning against the tower, there was only one other thing I had to do. That’s “eat a pizza in Pisa”, so it was off to a restaurant. I wasn’t disappointed as the pizza was excellent. I can now die a happy man knowing that I have “drunk “champagne in Champagne”, “had a cappuccino in cappuccini” and “eaten a pizza in Pisa” :)

I could do with a shower but I didn’t want to pay for a hotel. I figured in a touristy place like this they would cost a fortune, so I decided that if there was a campground on the way out I would stop.

There wasn’t so I just camped on the side of the road…

Pilgrimage from Ameglia to Viareggio 29/07/07

Today was a low energy, lonely day…

I have been meeting heaps of cool people but I am yearning to have a social contact that last more than a few hours. This is one of the drawbacks of always moving forward ;)

I wanted to leave early this morning but had a couple of things to do on the internet. Unfortunately, the wireless wasn’t working and there was a sign on the door that said the internet wouldn’t be open till noon.

The office opened at 9am so I figured since I had already bough 3 hours credit (the smallest amount they sold, €10), I would wait to see if they could get the wireless working.

They couldn’t and much to my disappointment wouldn’t give me a refund :( They just told me I would have to wait till noon. I wasn’t happy but then decided that I am not really in a hurry to get anywhere so I should just use this time to catch up on everything, which I did.

The walk was great! It was a 30km stretch of bars, hotels, pubs, nightclubs and restaurants. Being a Sunday it was packed! Luckily, I wasn’t in a sociable mood or I think it would have taken me a week to pass through. It looked awesome!

I still took it easy, stopping a lot, and on one of these occasions saw this little Moroccan guy who must have had the biggest balls I have seen in a long time…

He was trying to set up a street stall but had obviously taken someone’s regular place and there were five big black guys from W. Africa all telling him to move. They only wanted him to move about 10m in either direction but he didn’t want a bar of it. I couldn’t understand what he was saying but he was abusing them all and kept making motions like he was going to slit all their throats :)

I don’t know whether to be impressed by his courage or his stupidity, but finally, after about 30 minutes, they got sick of him and one of them grabbed him by the throat and dragged him down to the beach…

Having just finished a chapter in my book I figured it was a good time to leave. So unfortunately I cant finish the story, but no doubt it wasn’t pretty :)

Since I started late, I was quite happy to walk for some of the night. It was a nice choice as the streets were packed till 1am. I even had an Italian family, who were there on holidays, stop and buy me a gelato. Thanks :)

Finally, the rows upon rows of shops and bars finished with a national park, so I set up my tent and crashed.

Pilgrimage from Manarola to Ameglia 28/07/07

The one condition I had at staying at the apartment was that I had to leave at 7am because my wonderful hosts had a train to catch. It was a struggle I tell you! There was way too much beer and wine consumed yesterday.

I managed to walk the short distance to Riomaggiore and stopped for breakfast. I had a ham and mushroom omelet which was excellent.

I then only managed to stumble another 300m before passing out on the track. I slept for an hour, got up to keep walking, made it another 300m and crashed out again :) When I finally became conscious it was lunchtime.

The track was once again almost vertical and my body wasn’t handling it. Luckily I came across a main road, so ditching the idea of walking over the mountains I headed for the tunnel. This made the walk almost bearable.

This morning when I started walking I thought I would be lucky to make it the 12kms to La Spezia today, but thankfully my body was starting to play the game again. I arrived around 14:00, had lunch and kept walking.

It was an easier walk than the last few days so by 20:00 I had managed to clock up around 30kms. I was pretty happy with that.

I found a campground called “Camping River”, but when I went to check-in they wanted to charge me €32!!! I couldn’t believe it!!! The woman at the counter must have seen that I was about to vomit in her desk because the price soon dropped to €20. Even that is pretty excessive for a campground but I was too tired to argue.

I then met up with this group of Dutch and Belgians who were cooking this big pot of Belgian stew and invited me for dinner. Thanks guys :)

Pilgrimage from Levanto to Manarola 27/07/07

Can Italy get any better??? Today was AWESOME!!!

If somewhere deep down in my subconscious I have any negative feelings towards Dan for abandoning me mid quest, this is where they all get erased ;)

Dan was regularly talking about this place where there are five little villages around some cliffs that you can’t drive between and that we should go out of our way to go there. I only realized two days ago that my path was taking me straight there. I hope you are reading this Dan :)

It’s called Cinque Terre and it is amazing. It was one of the most beautiful walks I have had. I took heaps of photos but they jus don’t do it justice.

I got to the first town, Monterosso, after another tortuous walk over the hills and sat down for breakfast around 10am. Even though I had planned to walk all the way through the five towns today I was still going to take my time and enjoy it.

This is the first place on my pilgrimage where I have met a lot of tourists. Probably 90% of the walkers are native English speakers. I was attracting heaps of attention because of the size of my pack so it was good to sit and chat at every chance I had.

The walk was hard but the views make it all worthwhile.

I arrived in Vernazza just in time for lunch. Pesto is a local dish here, but everyone keeps telling me that good pesto has to be made with a mortar and pestle rather than a blender. Today I thought I would test this theory and I am pleased to say I agree :) This was the best pesto I have ever tried! Wonderful :)

As I was in such a good mood and even though I knew it wasn’t a good idea with more walking to do, I figured I should do a bit of wine tasting. The local wines were great!

After a few glasses it was back to the track for a “sweatfest” to Corniglia.

I wanted to try something in every town along the track so now it was time for some gelato. And then, having enjoyed the wine tasting in Vernazza so much, I couldn’t resist doing it all again here ;)

I ended up spending a few hours sampling as much wine as I could. It was great! It was starting to look less and less like I would make it to the end today, but it didn’t really bother me. I was having fun and according to my map there was a camping ground just down the road.

Well, the campground didn’t exist so I headed for Manarola. I figured I would just bite the bullet and pay for a hotel, even though I wasn’t looking forward to finding out the prices…

When I arrived in town I was standing in the main square, deciding whether to go for another drink or to try to find a room, when the decision was made for me. This wonderful English woman spotted me and on hearing I was walking to Rome decided to buy me a beer. She was great and was keeping the whole place amused with her banter. Sorry I didn’t make it to your show though ;)

When you are going through life with an open heart it is amazing what the world provides. When I think back on the last week I have been overwhelmed by random acts of kindness and generosity. Today was no exception.

A kiwi couple at the bar decided to buy me dinner and then an Australian mother and daughter let me crash at their apartment. You guys are all great! Thanks :)

And Dale…You have nothing to worry about ;)

Pilgrimage from San Salvatore to Levanto 26/07/07

I was happy to get an early start again today because I had the goal of making it 40kms to Levanto. I knew it was going to be hard with a lot of steep hills but I figured it couldn’t be any worse than the Alps.

After a quick coffee and some breakfast it was straight into it. Once again I was walking along the ocean. It was great!

There is a 7km stretch of tunnels which I have been told I couldn’t walk through. Luckily, as I got to the place where the paths split, another walker appeared coming from the other way. He went on to tell me that I “should be OK” walking through the tunnels if I have a torch. It was a 3 hour walk over the top and a 1½ hour walk through the tunnels, so the tunnels won out.

They were all one lane and had lights regulating the traffic. This gave me more confidence, having to only watch one direction at a time. I found out what he meant by “should” soon enough though. Most of the time it was fine but in some places the tunnels narrowed and if a well timed bus or truck came by it was pretty dodgy!

I stopped in Framura for gelato, and ended up spending a couple of hours lounging on the beach. It was great.

And then the torture started!!! The track over the hills was pretty similar to the Alps, as in almost vertical, but doing it in 15-20° is one thing. Doing it in 30-35° is something else! I was close to death! I couldn’t even hold my camera while I walked because the rivers of sweat coming down my arms. It was awesome!

And to top it off I ended up on the wrong track and went a few kilometers out of my way. What a day!

I finally made it to Levanto as it was getting dark. The camping ground was full but as I arrived these three Irish guys were checking in and let me share their camp spot….thanks guys :) They only had a two man tent for the three of them so it was pretty funny.

The place is called Camping Aquadolce and it was really nice, but you pay for it. The cost was a new record…€15 for me to camp for a night! WOW!!!

Pilgrimage from Sori to San Salvatore 25/07/07

Another stunning walk today! This coast is awesome…

I left Christians at 8am, and was just taking it easy and enjoying the view.

After 4kms I stopped at this little Café called the Sports Bar and had some coffee and croissants. I sat outside and had hardly said anything to the waiters at all, so they didn’t know what I was doing, but when I went to pay, the owner came running out and gave me my money back! I don’t know whether he recognized me as a pilgrim or whether I just look poor but it was really nice :) I can’t say too often how generous the people are here…

It was then a great walk, winding around these little coves towards San Salvatore where I have another couch waiting.

At 14:00 and with only 10kms to go I stopped for a picnic lunch by the harbor. The best thing was that I had free internet there so I stayed until my battery ran out :)

I arrived in San Salvatore at 19:00, just as Carlo my host was arriving home from work. He is a really interesting guy. He cooked an awesome pesto pasta for dinner and we had long discussions on religion. Best of all he doesn’t drink so it was good to have a night away from the wine ;)

Pilgrimage from Genova to Sori 24/07/07

I only have 16kms to walk today so I was happy to sleep in and take it easy.

I got out of bed around 09:30 and finally found a Laundromat!!! It was then off to have coffee and catch up on the internet.

By the time I checked out it was 11:30. The one thing I wanted to do before leaving town was get some pictures of the Basilica near my hotel. I went inside yesterday but there was a service on, so I couldn’t get a good look around.

It was well worth it! The churches here are all AMAZING! I don’t think I will ever have to visit another church again after leaving Italy ;)

I then casually strolled through town and down along the waterfront towards Sori. One of the main things I have noticed about European beaches is how developed they all are. There are tennis courts, soccer pitches, restaurants, hotels and even swimming pools all the way to the oceans edge. They must come to places like Australia and thing they are back in the Stone Age.

Upon arriving in Sori I still had a couple of hours to fill in, so I thought would go for a swim. The water temperature was great, a lot warmer than I was expecting and there were even some small waves. All good fun :)

I have managed to find another couch to sleep on and my host this time is Christian. He is a really cool guy and very relaxed. Tonight he is going to a concert with a few of his friends and invited me along.

It was really funny. I forget their name but they were from the Congo.

The bongo player was this young muscley guy in a tight white singlet. He looked like he had been raving all weekend and still hadn’t stopped. He even had a fluoro orange whistle that he blew constantly the whole show while bouncing continuously.

There were also two other young percussionists and the two main singers were probably 40ish. The man looked pretty western and the woman was dressed in a typical African floral dress.

Then there were these two old guys who would have been pushing 70, were dressed from the ‘30s and stood like statues the whole night. They played this wooden box thing that made sounds like a synthesizer, except with a lot less range. The more serious of the two would occasionally look at the crowd with this disapproving look like we were all misbehaving teenagers. It was very amusing but I was curious to know what he thought of their bongo player :)

I don’t know how to describe their music but it was pretty good. They definitely got the crowd going.

Then, when it was time to do an encore the bongo player was straight back on stage. It looked like he was happy to keep playing as long as there were people…actually I think if I came back tomorrow morning he will still be there regardless if he had a crowd or not ;)

But slowly the other members appeared until finally the serious old guy came back out. His performance all night must have been a show because he took centre stage, tied his jacket around his waist and proceeded to dance the night away. What a champion!