Tuesday May 8, 2018
Sunny and warm, high of 74F
Hike: Santa Margherita Ligure (SML) to San Fruttuoso from the Sunflower Guide, but in reverse.
Route: San Fruttuoso, Base 0, Prato, Olmi, Mulino del Gasetta, Gave, SML
Miles: My FitBit says 7.1 miles, the book says 5.6 miles
Time: We took over 4 hours with lots of breaks, the books says under 3 hours.
Our first breakfast standing at the bar of a cafe! We were up and about in time to get the first ferry to San Fruttuoso (10:15) so decided to do the planned hike from SML to San Fruttuoso in reverse. Ferries are cancelled if the weather turns bad and thunderstorms were forecast for the afternoon. As it turned out, they did not materialize so we would have been okay.
The ferry ride was lovely. Beautiful views of SML as we left. There was a huge cruise ship out in the sea between SML and Portofino and as we came into Portofino we could see the shuttles taking the cruise people into shore. Portofino looks the same as it did when we were last there 30 years ago (I wish we looked the same!), but it was very crowded with the people from the ship. Our ferry docked, unloaded, then continued. We could see houses on the hills around Portofino, but as we got closer to San Fruttuoso there were no more houses.
San Fruttuoso is a small cove on the western Portofino penninsula with an historic abbey, a church and a few buildings. The only access is by boat or on foot. There are a few restaurants. We stopped for coffee in daGiovanni and picked up some foccacia for lunch (we had apples and bananas with us too). It would have been nice to do the hike in the direction intended and end having lunch there, but getting onto the ferry after lunch might not have been great. Although the ferry was not crowded, the water was smooth and I did not feel seasick.
It was a 45 minute climb up through woods to Base 0, the first point on the trail. It was hot and sunny by the time we started at 11:30, so the shade was welcome. The climb up was about 300meters, not bad. Steep in bits, steps in some places, and a bit rooty, but manageable.
From Base 0 the trail keeps at the high level, about 3/4 of the way up the hill. It was a lovely walk. Different from Path of the Gods in the Amalfi Coast - mostly in the trees with glimpses to the sea. There were beautiful smells from the mediterranean plants and the sun felt warmer than it does in England.
We passed people coming towards us and there seemed to be just as many going in our direction. Not crowded at all, but you saw people from time to time.
We got a bit lost at the 2 hour mark because reading a hike backwards doesn't always work and the trail markings took us a different way than described in the book. In the end we walked out of our way a bit but got lovely views down to Portofino. We found our way and did a long descent through woods, finally coming to the outskirts of SML and walking by farms, olive groves, grape vines, houses.
We stopped a few times to rest and have something to eat. We drank lots of waters. There were taps along the way to refill your bottles. The trail was well marked and was only confusing because we were trying to match it with the Sunflower Guide description. You follow two red dots to the Portofino trail, which is a red square, then switch to a cross to SML. There were also many hiking signs, but none of them showed SML. Instead we followed the route from the book and towards the end found signs for SML.
We were both exhausted from the hike - there was a lot of climbing and it was hot - so we hung out in the hotel room until dinner time, then went out for an amazing dinner. I had pasta with pesto, potato and green bean, Steve had sea bass. This restaurant was not as casual and more expensive, but the food was even better than last night. Restaurant: Pado, at the western end of the harbor.
We walked around town after dinner and there are even more restaurants and cafes on the other side of our hotel (turn left out the door instead of right). We should have realized that because we drove in that way, but we ended up with good restaurants both nights.
SML is a beautiful town. Walking around tonight as it was starting to get dark around 9pm, with the boats in the harbor, the still water, the lights of houses and towns on the hills, the people out walking, the restaurants full of people eating and talking, the row of tall buildings along the waterfront road, each different in their own way with colorful shutters and different heights, made me remember that Italy can be the best place on earth.
Looking across the harbour to hotel with striped church above.
