Joanne's long walks: Cammino verso Assisi (Via della Costa) Day 4: Levanto - Monterosso

“Everything is a miracle. What is the water we drink, the earth we tread, the night that descends upon us each evening with its stars; what are the sun, the moon? Miracles, all of them! Just look at the humblest leaf of a tree, just look at it in the light—what a miracle!"

- Nikos Kazantzakis, "Saint Francis"

On Day 4, I reached the Cinque Terre!

My day began with cappuccino and focaccia in a café in Levanto, appropriately located in a former convent of the Poor Claires, sister order to the friars of St. Francis. After breakfast I paid a visit to the convent chapel, dedicated to San Rocco (St. Roch), protector of pilgrims, also invoked to protect against the plague. The perfect patron saint for this year's pilgrimage!

Continuing my exploration of the town, I found a 13th century loggia that was originally located right on the sea shore, where it served as a customs office for incoming vessels. The land has now filled in so that it is in the middle of the city, but other than that it has been preserved unaltered.

No visit to Levanto would be complete without passing by the church of Sant'Andrea, with its characteristic black-and-white striped facade, unfortunately closed at this hour of the morning.

From here I continued up past the castle and left the town through its ancient city walls.

Not far up the path out of town, I came across a corner reminiscent of certain spots on the Camino de Santiago. Perhaps one day I will have reason to spend a night in this bed and breakfast!

Continuing to climb, I soon had a view back over the coast I have been walking along for the past few days.

At Punta Mesco, the beaches of Monterosso came into view below, and the promontories of the Cinque Terre extending beyond.... another daunting view of the territory I will have to cross in the days to come!

The path is rather rough and rocky underfoot, and I was glad I had chosen to wear my heavy-duty hiking boots today rather than the more thinly soled pair I had been wearing in the past few days.

This hilltop site perched high above the sea is the location of the 13th-century church and hermitage of Sant'Antonio del Mesco, now in ruins. After the monks left, the construction was used as a watchtower against the incursions of pirates, though this primitive early warning system failed to protect the towns of Monterosso and Corniglia against destruction by the fleet of the Corsair pirate Dragut in 1545.

It was a long way down from here to Monterosso, the westernmost and largest of the five villages making up the Cinque Terre, and the only one of the five with beaches. This makes it the most popular base for tourists visiting the area... and to my surprise, there were a lot of them around today! Even on a weekday... in September... during a pandemic! Fortunately, the local authorities are very strict about imposing the rules and regulations. I noticed as soon as I arrived in the town that everyone was wearing face masks, even out of doors, and I soon learned that if you want to go to the beach, you have to book your spot in advance on the internet, and stay within your assigned area, marked by wooden posts and/or in red and white striped tape.

That's if you want a free public beach; alternatively, you can pay to go to a privately operated bathing establishment, and have the whole place to yourself - like the lucky (or lonely?) fellow in the picture below!

I gave up on the idea of taking a swim - the day was overcast, anyway - and settled for a picnic and a rest at a freely available spot on the rocky beach near the old town, where the rowboats are kept (and repaired).

I then stopped by another stripy church, with the new addition of a plaque marking the height of the flood waters and mud that damaged the towns of Monterosso and Vernazza in October 2011.

There were, however, too many people about in Monterosso for my taste, so I left the town behind and started out over another headland towards Vernazza.

I had to pay for a ticket to walk this trail as it's inside the Cinque Terre National Park. These trails suspended between sea and sky require a lot of maintenance, and in fact are very often closed due to landslides, risk of falling rocks and so on.

Dry stone terracing walls are being repaired
in this property along the trail

There were a lot of people along the trail, including a surprisingly large number of international tourists (mostly European), and it is quite narrow in many places, so there was a lot of stepping aside to let people pass and occasionally having to put on a face mask and squeeze by where there was no place to step off the trail.

The town of Vernazza was not as packed as it has been the last few summers, but still pretty lively, and not being used to that sort of thing any more, I didn't hang around, but visited the church, had an ice cream, got a stamp for my credenziale at the park information office and then took the train home for the evening.

Tomorrow, I will abandon the series of lower paths overrun with tourists and head up to the Via dei Santuari, a trail connecting the sanctuaries perched high above the villages of the Cinque Terre.

Ultreya!