Day 5 – stage 3 of ctc. Monterosso to Pizzo
Our accommodation proved very comfortable and a breakfast was provided in town via a voucher. This is a very popular and sensible way of supplying breakfast without the owner having to provide an eating area or even be present at the b&b.
I am getting a little tired of coffee and a chocolate croissant so today I had one with crème patisserie in it which was delicious.
We popped next door where they made us the most fabulous paninis for lunch.Crammed with mortadella and provolone they were amazing and kept us going all day.
We said goodbye to Monterosso which is a decaying but very friendly little town. It reminded me of going to visit my Nana in South Wales where people would stop me in the street and say “you’re Nellie’s granddaughter” and I wouldn’t have a clue who they were.
We walked through the centre of Monterosso then out into the countryside. Unfortunately this part of the trail has sizeable chunks of road walking which was a bit nerve wracking but drivers were considerate and gave us plenty of room.
We found the entrance to the Lake Angitola reserve and had a rest and a snack on a bench – a rare luxury. Usually we perch uncomfortably on a rock, shove some food down, then discover that 5 minutes round the corner there’s a massive picnic seating area.
The lake is man made but is a nature reserve and managed by WWF. There was a lot of palaver in advance re being given special codes to enter particular sections of the reserve but we only used one code, the rest of the gates were open.
After the reserve we had a steep uphill climb to Rocca Angitola. Rocca Angitola is the remains of a medieval fortress that once housed over a thousand people. There’s not much left of it now and we didn’t explore it as we were warned that there were aggressive sheepdogs in the area so we didn’t hang around.
Starving, we eventually stopped on a couple of rocks and quickly ate our paninis while being buzzed by wasps.
More uphill tracks followed and it felt as if we were in heads down and get on with it mode, when I spotted the sea! Amazing how your spirits lift at the first sight of the big blue.
Downhill all the way, our bodies decided that it really was time to stop now and all sorts of aches and pains we’d been stoically ignoring decided to bother us. Although only 30 minutes, getting to our destination of the castello Murat in Pizzo seemed an eternity. But we made it. 37 miles, 2100m ascent and descent. Not too shabby with heavy packs and a sore foot.
We celebrated with beer and tartufo in Pizzo town square. Tartufo was invented by Guiseppe de Maria and he passed on his recipe to his nephews. We went to Ercole which was the original Gelateria where tartufo was first served and it was delicious. Like an iced chocolate bomb rolled in nuts , it hit the spot.
Tomorrow we collect our hire car from the airport, pick up our luggage from Soverato and then drive to our accommodation in Capo Vaticano. After that, looking forward to some r&r time.
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