Bella Italia Stage 6

Lizza (Levanto) to La Spezia

Strava: 47.3 km, 900m, 3:02, 91 shifts

I woke up after a good long sleep feeling still tired. Good thing we had a short easy ride today. We packed up, then I gave my bike some love due to all the wet and dirt yesterday. We took off at 9. Down in town, it almost looked like rain while we sat outside at a café sharing pastries. I had hot chocolate that was just as thick as in Spain.

Straight up from town was a 600m climb, but it wasn’t too steep and was the bulk of the climbing for the whole day. The road was wet but the sun came out and it was warm. At the top, we headed for one of the famous five “lands” of Cinque Terre, Manarola. It was about 15 km of rolling gorgeous riding with the obligatory stop for drinks.

We rode all the way to the bottom of Manarola, where I had dinner once back in 2018. The crowds then were huge but now it’s unbearable. I don’t recommend any of the five “lands” at this time of year. It’s simply tourists watching tourists. Wytze did have to swim so we went all the way down and he did go in, but then we hightailed it out of there. That meant riding up steeply for a while but it just got better and better as we escaped the town. Wytze said it best: “It looks much better from further away.”

We rode for a while then stopped for a relaxed lunch at a gorgeous place, unpretentious and uncrowded, with a killer view of the sea far below. We had fried seafood, salad, mussels, cheese etc.

After lunch it was only 10 km to La Spezia, mostly downhill. We cruised into town down the road I had driven up before. Our apartment was right downtown, pretty easy to find. We had to carry up three stories, but soon were having showers in our spacious and modern apartment.

Daniel had a nap and the rest of us went downtown. My charger had died so I bought a replacement. Wytze needed a cable. Then we walked to the water front and I thought to type craft beer into Google maps. Next thing you know we’re having nice beers on a quiet street.

We picked up some breakfast food on the way home, then headed out to meet Daniel for dinner.  We had picked a highly rated seafood restaurant and had a long relaxed giant dinner there. We had about six courses of appetizers including raw oysters and more mussels, with prosecco. Then we each ordered another course and called it a night. Wonderful!