Italy 2018

Ryanne flew in on Saturday. An 18-hour journey with three flights and a train ride to reach our new home in Lerici, Italy.

Lerici sits on the Bay of La Spezia. It's bounded by the Piazza Garibaldi on one end and Castle Lerici (circa 1100 AD) on the other. The bay has earned the name "Golf of the Poets" because Mary Shelley and her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley lived here. Percy tragically drowned in the bay.

We live about 300 feet up a hillside off a small cobblestone walkway called XX Settembre. Our flat is built right into the hillside. It's a compact space — a kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom — plus a washing machine where we hang our clothes to dry just like the locals.

The homestead features citrus and olive trees. We also have two Jack Russell terriers named Macchia and Rolf, and two turtles — Carletto (Charlie) and Rugetta.

The weather has been rainy with occasional sunny days, averaging around 55–65°F. The hillside location provides scenic post-dinner walks, though "a few glasses of wine" add challenge to the climb back up.

We enjoy local dining at Pasta Fresca and wine from the Baroni shop. The famous Cinque Terre is just across the bay — a future destination on our list.

A collection of our favorite photographs from our time in Lerici, Italy.

We bought Ryanne a mountain bike and did some riding around Monte Rochetta, Monte Branzi, and Redarca including going down Toranatini (hairpin in Italian).

We took an easy ride to Tellaoro, a nearby town, accumulating several kilometers and stopping for wine and focaccia along the way. Ryanne explored the area through daily running and discovered local spots for coffee and relaxation near the beach.

A highlight was visiting a castle with hidden pathways. We accessed the interior and climbed to the top — quite the view. We photographed a small sanctuary within the structure.

Our landlady took Ryanne hiking to Maralunga, another nearby area next to the sea, where they picked wild asparagus.

An evening ritual developed: gelato at a local shop in Piazza Garibaldi. The gelato shop owner presented us with a lemon and instructions to "clean, cut, and eat the next morning." He explained his preparation — over a hundred lemons zested for his specialty lemon cream gelato.

We concluded one evening watching locals play kayak polo near the castle.

There's a reasonable amount of mountain biking here in Lerici. It's not nearly as big as Rothrock, but it's still beautiful and worth putting in the effort to see. We bike in areas behind our flat called Monte Rochetta and Redarca. It's a 3-mile uphill ride to get to the trailheads. There are quite a few gravel roads but most of the true mountain biking trails are enduro style — quite so because it's very hilly around here. Many of the trails are built for a single direction of travel. Everything is well labeled with the trail name and its difficulty level (they use the green, blue, black diamond system). Many of the true MTB trails here are black diamonds.

The Bike

I picked up a whip from a place called Eurobike in Romita Magra. It's a 2015 Specialized Stumpjumper Comp Evo (aluminum). Slightly different feel from my Salsa Horsethief and El Mariachi back home. I ride 27.5" wheels here with tubes which were recommended by the store owner given the terrain. At home, I've been running 29" wheels tubeless for as far as I can remember; that was a bit of a change for me. The guy who sold me the bike was great. He even dropped it off for me because I couldn't take it on the bus. In fact, we bought Ryanne's bike (the yellow one) from there as well. Again, the guy offered to take it to our flat free of charge. While we were waiting for the bus from Eurobike to head home, we ran into the same guy and he stopped and let us hitch a ride home with him!

History in the Hills

There's a lot of history in the hills leading up to Monte Rochetta. On the ascent, you can see old trails and terraces which are long abandoned. Off of Trail Branzi (one of my favorites), there are some ruins. One prominent structure is a hunting lodge built in the 1600s by the Count at the time. Around the 19th century, frescoes were painted inside which you can still see today.

During WW2, this building was actually the home base of a clandestine print press which distributed anti-fascist literature. The Germans came upon it in 1944 but someone had informed the occupants before the Germans got there to capture them, and all that was left was the printing press and the abandoned building. No one has occupied it since.

"Here at the Rocchetta in the long clandestine silences, simple and courageous men, defying the Nazi-fascist anger, gave new ideas to the press and affirmed in the history the freedom of thought and the right democracy demanded by the resistance."

Trail Community

The mountain biking community here is fairly organized and does a good bit of trail maintenance. There is somewhat of a gentlemen's agreement whereby you don't ride the trails for 2 days if it rains. This is to help keep the trails in good shape. They also organize beginner rides through the gravel roads and easy trails to help the youth develop their skills and foster an appreciation for the sport.

A Wrong Turn

Down the Stairs in Redarca

A Wrong Turn

Many of the trails here are also designated hiking trails which are marked with red and white horizontal lines. I made the mistake once of assuming the markings meant these trails were maintained for bikes. I took a wrong turn which led me out onto a big drop onto the road. No turning back the way I came. So, I continued on until I found a red and white marked trail. It was steep with quite a bit of scree — clearly not bikable. I figured since the trail is marked it can't be that bad. Well, it was. It was at least 100 meters of scree and I had to carry my bike the entire way. The work paid off though because I was rewarded with a beautiful view once I reached the top and discovered a local rock climbing area.

Yesterday I blogged about the 17th-century ruins off of a mountain bike trail in Redarca. I took Ryanne there this evening to see them. She took some really great pics including some nice ones of the frescoes. I wanted to share so here they are.

The photo gallery of the ruins and frescoes from the 1600s hunting lodge was hosted via a WordPress gallery plugin that is no longer active. The images include detailed shots of the 19th-century frescoes and the anti-fascist resistance plaque described in the mountain biking post above.

We visited the famous Carrara Marble Mines — the same location where the opening scene of the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace" was filmed. We followed the same roads and visited the house featured in the crash scene.

Carrara has been mined for its marble since Roman times. As our guide said:

"It's not money-making or a product, marble is our culture."

The marble was used as a practical building material rather than for aesthetic display.

The Mountains

The Carrara mountains consist entirely of marble — no granite, sandstone, or limestone. Vegetation grows exclusively in cracks within the stone, sourcing all nutrients and water from the marble itself.

The Mining Process

Workers extract marble by drilling three intersecting holes — one vertical, two horizontal — into the mountainside. A specialized diamond-embedded steel cable saw cuts through the marble blocks by threading between the holes, pulling along rails to maintain tension. Massive blocks — some the size of SUVs — are freed and shipped commercially. The mining process works from the mountain's exterior inward.

The Tour

Our guide Gabrielle drove us in a Land Rover Defender up extremely steep, winding mountain roads. The marble-covered tires gripped the steep terrain through hairpin turns. At one point, the driver had to reverse uphill for traction. The descent was so precarious that we all remained silent to avoid distracting the driver.

We mountain bike quite a bit in Redarca, a little village behind Lerici, Italy. The trails are well maintained and mostly enduro types. We focus on trails around Monte Branzi, exploring routes with names like Snake, Guercio, Branzi, and Buck.

360-Degree Panoramas from Our Rides

Trail map showing the Branzi-Guercio-Romito-Barilotta trail system (via lericibike.com)

Blurry shot of the Peocio fountain (peace fountain)