A complete change of scenery

After having walked the length of Tuscany, I finally met the sea, and had two of the most boring days walking of the trip. The Versiliana Coast may be fantastic in the summer season, but at this time of the year it is dead,dead, dead! I walked north for 2 days along the 'seafront' which was a very nice piece of road, with wall to wall 3-4 story apartments and hotels on the inland side, and along the beach, wall to wall private beach clubs, with a 5 metre access every kilometre for 'free' access to that strip and anything within 5 metres of the high water mark. At this time of year it is deserted and run down, although workmen have just started appearing to set it all up for the summer season. Even the little villages, located 1 street back from the 'beach' are also deserted, with high-end boutique stores all closed for another month at least. It took me an hour to find a bar that was open, and it was it's first full days trading for the season - most stores snd hotels dont open until the end of May - talk about a great place to film a story about the end of the earth!
From there I left the Via Francigena, the pilgrim's trail that I have followed for 10 days, and headed west to the Cinque Terre. As i have walked the Cinque Terre before, I decided to head further north to Framura, and walk 'back' from there to Monterrosso, which is at the northern end of the Cinque Terre.
I was able to use the train to stay at Levanto, and decided to have a rest day here, which has been great, and it was really nice to get up knowing I didn't have to don the pack today.
The thing I had forgotten about walking this coastline is that every time you meet a village you descend to sea level, and then have to climb another 300 metres on the other side of the village to get back to the 'transit' level - multiply that by 4 and you have my walk from Framura to Monterosso in some aspects, and it will be the same again tomorrow when I head north from here. There are a lot of holiday-makers out walking here, doing short day trips between the towns, so tht has made it quite different on the trail.
A couple of days walk and I will hit Genoa at the head of the Gulf where I turn South-west towards the French border. I had planned to start listening to my French lessons well before this, but the conditions on the roads have meant I wanted to listen for the traffic, so I'm behind on that too. Quelle domage!
Only 2 days to May Day, which will make it a holiday long weekend here, so it will be very busy.
Ciao tutti.