We were awake before 08.00 and got up and got ready for breakfast. Despite our relatively early start we were clearly the last guests in for breakfast.
After settling up we left with Lynn driving. We headed back down to Albenga and joined the A10 motorway heading towards Genova (Genoa). It was about 80km and the motorway alternately dives into tunnels or crosses huge viaducts. Genova is always busy it seems with several motorways joining going to Turin, Milan and Livorno.
We escaped fairly easily and headed south on the A12 towards Livorno. At Sestri Levante, we left the motorway and headed for the coastal road.
The first part of the road followed the route of the old single track railway line right by the sea. Almost immediately, we were halted by traffic lights. After a few minutes the lights turned green and the line of traffic set off on the single-lane road. After a few hundred metres we plunged into a very narrow tunnel. For the next 4-5 km we drove in and out of these narrow tunnels until we came out into a more open area where we found traffic waiting to go the other way. Not long after that we headed back into the tunnels until we came out at Moneglia. These tunnels were part of the original railway route around the coast. Now disused by trains, they are a very convenient way of driving between costal villages.
Here, the railway line, now a road, ran between the town and the beach on a low viaduct. At the far end, we turned off into town, parked and went for coffee. We sat on the front, with the viaduct in front of us. The arches of the viaduct were being turned into shop units with some of the arches providing access to the beach. The station had been turned into shops and bars. A really nice little town.
After coffee, we headed back onto the line, and arrived just as the traffic lights were turning green for another excursion into a series of tunnels to the town of Deiva Marina.
Here, the road headed up into the hills paralleling the coast but high up above it. The views were spectacular. There were several roads leading down to small villages but we stayed up high following the signs for 'Cinque Terre' a series of small villages further south. Unfortunately, we came to a sign that said the road was closed between Vernazza and La Spezia, so we detoured into the edge of La Spezia and came back to the 'Cinque Terre' coast from the southern side.
The road, again, was spectacular and we thought we'd drop down into Manarola, for lunch. We quickly realised you had to park and walk down into the town. After several hundred metres down the road, we found no restaurants and realised that it was too far and too steep for Lynn to walk so we returned to the car.
We headed back towards La Spezia rather disappointed, but found a snack bar high in the hills overlooking the sea and stopped for a very pleasant, if simple, lunch. The owners spoke quite a bit of english and were very welcoming.
Suitably fortified, we got back in the car, got the satnav fired up and headed towards Livorno. The route took us right through the middle of La Spezia, a very busy Naval port. Once through the city, we rejoined tha A12 motorway heading south.
The journey was only about an hour and we passed Carrera, of marble fame and Pisa en route. Eventually, we got into the edge of Livorno and following the satnav started climbing up Monte Nero to the Santuario della Madonna di Montenero. Following some very narrow winding and steep lanes we finally found our hotel 'La Vedetta' an old palace overlooking Livorno.
Our room, on the first floor on the corner of the building was quite large and well equipped and had a view of the sea from one of the windows.
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