Rutor massif, 28 August - 3 September 2020
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Liguria.
We rented an apartment in Varazze, about 30 km from Genoa. The city is spread over the hills with a narrow promenade at the seafront. This is a view from our apartment. It took us around 20 min to walk to the beach.
Swimming in the sea was alternated with hill walks. The hills here are covered with prickly bushes, there are many pine, oak and chestnut trees. It is impossible to get through without paths. Stravа heatmap proved extremely helpful in planning walks in remote places.
A view towards Genoa. The hills in the distances are probably Cinque Terre.
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Many pine trees were oozing resin.
This morning Sonya led us along narrow paths above Casanova. In the end the path led to a house with this unusual postbox. The owner got worried when she saw us taking pictures of her house but relaxed when we complimented her postbox.
On the third day, we walked from Varazze to the adjacent town of Cogoleto. We followed the paths on the hills, and then returned by following an old railway which was converted into a cycle path, Lungomare Europa.
Varazze from above, with menacing clouds. We chose the best day for a long walk, it was relatively cool.
The top point of our trip, a church on top of a hill (altitute 400 m).
We descended to the sea and went back home along the cycle path. We stopped at several beaches for a quick swim. It started raining.
The sea was still very warm.
Our return flight was from Pisa, so we drove south on the last day. Sonya found an amazing beach. It was hard to reach but we knew this in advance. It was well worth it. We left our car at Montеmarcello (altitude 250 m). It took us around 40 min to get down to the beach. The path follows the cliffs through the forest and eventually goes down a steep slope. The path is protected with some ropes which really were necessary to get down and then up.
Black sand, white foam, blue sea - this was an amazing beach. We still have to climb down some 50 m to get to the seaside.
There were only two other couples at the beach.
There was a little cave behind this stone arch.
There were big waves but that didn't stop us from enjoying swimming.
The ascent, just like the descent, was on steep scree. It is better to go up one by one to avoid dropping rocks on the others.
One can only cross to the other beach when the wave retrieves back. There is a cave at the end of the beach.
Good-bye, sea!
When we returned to the car park, we noticed white mountains not far from here. They resemble Dolomites. These were mountains with the Carrara marble quarries. Carrara marble was used in Renaissance by Michelangelo. We will have to come back one day.
