Sunday 28th August

We woke late and had homegrown breakfast. No electric kettle as the Italians don’t use such a thing instead boiled water in a pot just like they do! Nynke came up to see a plug in the basin that Jannie broke – not really but it broke and wouldn’t let the dirty water out. The plumber is coming tomorrow? We went for a wander into town and were headed for The Salty Dog Café which has WIFI available. I had a tuna salad (delicious)and Jannie had bruchetta and of course the beer and iced tea. Jannie did the blog and we got a lovely email from Anne who according to her will be arriving tomorrow!

We went for a walk through the old town. Levanto in Roman times lay in the hills and was called Ceula and was of significant importance for the strip of coastal Liguria. Levanto moved to the coast and became a flourishing port. In 1229 Levanto became a Municipality under the rule of Genoa and because of the high volume of trade the Genoese built a canal port in the 13th century. The canal and port no longer exist and instead houses are built where it all was and the layout is somewhat more structured than the old towns that grew higgledy and had narrow lanes and houses that the upper floors jutted out over the walkways simply because of the tax syatem. There are still the green serpentine archs enclosed in the walls of the existing buildings that shows where the merchants had their warehouses.

We wandered the lanes and staircases towards St Andrew’s Church. This church began in 1222 and throughout the centuries has undergone several enlargements and alterations. The strange thing about this church is the striking façade with its white marble and green serpentine stripes. It has of course a magnificent rose window and although I had a quick look inside didn’t see the painting and the said to be Henry VIII chalice or the 15th century wooden crucifix that was found washed up on the beach below.

Although it was hot, about 27 deg and not what we had been having in Antibes, we headed back to the apartment stopping in on the way at a supermarket to try to get a plug in for mosquitos as Jannie got bitten last night. No luck and just about everything was closed and not opening again until 3.30-4.00pm. Had a read and lie down which lead to a few zzzs but woke refreshed and headed off to the boat harbour at the bottom of our driveway.

We really are 100m from the beach although it’s a bit lumpy and rocky and is black sand in places. We had on our togs and it didn’t take any time and we were both in the water. It’s very salty and floating is easy although in saying that a little kid that grandma was teaching to swim didn’t think so! We have seen these shops all over France that have fish tanks into which you dangle your legs and the little fish nibble all of the dead skin off your legs. Well if you stood still in the water here the fish did that to your legs for free. What a strange sensation having dozens of fish nibbling away except Jannie said that one or two were over enthusiastic and bit too hard. Because this area was free there were lots of families playing and swimming and sunbathing. It reminded us a lot of last New Year at Graeme’s beach with all of the family fun going on.
On our way home we passed Bar Nicola, didn’t stop in to see what it’s like but will do at some stage. Now onto our dinner and it’s chicken tonight, coleslaw and bubbly. Book reading again and sorry we are unable to reply to emails received in the last couple of days and will have to wait until we get back to Salty Dog.