Savona - Spotorno
via Vado Ligure (18 km)
After a couple of days walking along the waterfront I was ready to head for the hills again. Luckily, as there is no other way around the headland between Vado Ligure and Spotorno!
Today's route was highly various. I started out crossing the city of Savona, then walked along the beach until I came to the waterfront promenade in Vado Ligure, a very pleasant little place despite the massive smokestacks of the power plant behind the town (not in operation). I stopped for half an hour to visit a small museum which opened only a week ago in Villa Gropallo, right on the waterfront. The museum is so new they don't have tickets yet - so it's free! It features paintings and sculptures by local artists from the age of the Roman Empire to the present, including a room full of sculptures by
Arturo Martini.
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Leaving Savona.
About halfway from Chiavari to Ventimiglia... and the French border! |
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| In Vado Ligure |
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| Fishermen on the beach between Savona and Vado Ligure |
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| An original way of recycling mineral water bottles! |
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| In the brand new museum in Vado Ligure |
Vado Ligure has a container, ferry and cruise ship port, and it was from behind the port that I took to the hills, after struggling somewhat to find the start of the trail, in Via Rossini, because the town, however small, has two streets called Via Rossini!
Once I found it, the path climbed steeply up to the ruins of a series of 18th century fortresses above the harbour, then through a grove of cork trees, unscathed by makers of corks for wine bottles, coming to a clearing where I emerged to find a group of young men - busy throwing themselves off the cliff!
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| The port of Vado Ligure |
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| The port of Vado Ligure - view back towards Savona |
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| Cork grove |
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| Cork |
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| Up, up and awaaaay!!! |
On a day of buffetting winds that kept changing direction, these young men appeared to be having some difficulty getting off the ground, but once they managed it, they glided for a long time in the air above me. I saw their coloured parachutes again and again from different points of view along the path winding along the side of the hill above the town of Bergeggi and down to Spotorno.
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| Bergeggi |
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| Spotorno and Capo Noli in the distance |
In Spotorno I came to the sea but it was a little too chilly for a swim, so I dipped my feet in to refresh them after another long day of walking and then - took a train back to Chiavari to wait out what is forecast to be two days of heavy rain.
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| Nobody on the beach today but me and the seagulls |
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| Spotorno |
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| Four days' walk, from Pegli to Spotorno |
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A faster way to get back home!
It took two hours, which means I must have covered a lot of ground in the past 9 days!
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| Ultreia! |
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