Levanto, Saturday, May 27 – With the sea temperature reaching 20 degrees, the time might be right for the first hike&swim of the season? Since the weather appears to be more favourable on Saturday, I would choose it as hiking day (and if the weather turns out to be sunny on Sunday as well, we can always throw in a bonus mini-hike for the Recco focaccia festival 🙂 ).
As for Saturday, the plan is to hike up to the peak of Mt Focone: we haven’t been on the mountain overlooking Levanto and the Cinque Terre for almost 10 years now (!), so it might be a good idea to seize the chance now, while the weather is still not too hot. Starting point will be Levanto’s medieval walls with the clock tower: from there, we’ll take trail #22 to Colla dei Bagari and up to the peak of Mt Focone, following the route described on http://www.verdeazzurroligure.com/index_htm_files/Anello%20Punta%20Mesco%202.pdf .
From Mt Focone, we can choose whether to do a shorter loop and head back to Levanto or go on until Punta Mesco and then hike back along the coast.
Hike takes around 3 hours (short loop) or 4 hours (Mesco loop) and is rated as E (medium), with a vertical gain of 500 metres.
We should be back to Levanto around 5pm, in time for a swim or for watching a military parade&concert from Abruzzo, that should take place at 6pm:
https://www.levantenews.it/2023/05/20/levanto-il-27-la-fanfara-di-casoli-chieti-in-corteo-e-in-concerto/
How to get to Levanto, and how to come back alive:
On Saturday 27th, let’s meet at 11:50am at the entrance of Levanto train station.
Suggested trains to Levanto:
— if you travel eastwards
REG – 10:45 Genova Brignole – 11:49 Levanto
— if you travel westwards
REG – 11:15 La Spezia Centrale – 11:44 Levanto
— if you travel southwards (*)
REG 07:25 Milano Centrale (7:32 Lambrate / 7:38 Rogoredo) – 11:49 Levanto
(*) if you’re coming from afar, you may consider getting the regional weekend pass for 22 euro. For some odd reason, Trenitalia decided to call it Weekend Insieme ( https://www.trenitalia.com/it/treni_regionali/promozioni-regionali/promo-weekend-insieme.html ) but you’re perfectly entitled to travel on your own.
As far as I understood, this is the penultimate weekend with this deal.
As usual, if you have doubts, questions, Hamlet-like dilemmas… feel free to message me ( vidlothianATgmailDOTcom ) or call me (+393297203364)
Liguriah 