For the past four days this is what we've done: eat, sleep, read, sunbake, swim, walk, repeat. It's an ideal balance. Long, warm days where the pace is best described as slow. The air feels like your favourite, most comfortable blanket that makes you smile in a dozy 'never-wanna-move' kinda way. You can swim happily until 7pm in water that is clear to the bottom. Beach too busy? Take the bike track to Bonassola through the mountain and find a secluded rock. The beauty of Levanto is it's frequented mostly by Italians compared to the more popular albeit smaller Riomaggiorre or Manarolo which are overrun by Australians and Americans. In Levanto everyone is chocolate brown, beautiful (no matter how small your swimmers or how big your arse), you wake up promising yourself that today you won't have gelato or focaccia only to fail miserably and you say 'ciao' as passionately as the locals. The police ride beach-cruisers, the Ligurian 'pesto alla Genovese' is good enough to eat by the spoonful, the streets smell of roasted garlic and the tomatoes are fire engine red and sweet as jubes.