Trip report - Diving off Cinque Terre
Jul 31st, 2006, 01:42 AM
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Trip report - Diving off Cinque Terre
In case some readers are divers, I thought to share the details of some recent dives in the Cinque Terre area. Living in Piedmont (Asti) we are only an hour from the Mediterranean, and on the advice of a local friend who is a diving instructor we chose Levanto as it’s just next to the Cinque Terre marine park and easily accessible by car or train.
My diving buddy (“DB”) drove down from Geneva and we set off at 7 am on Saturday morning to miss the holiday traffic and to make the first dive at 9am. DB has a late model Volvo SUV, which is no slouch, capable of 180 kph plus on the autostrada, very comfortable and with state of the art GPS navigator system which allowed us to check out traffic conditions and re-calculate driving times on the fly so as to speak. The week before we had left Asti at 10 am and gone via the A26 which is a very fast autostrada cutting through the mountains over spectacular viaducts to the West side of Genoa, but we got caught in some traffic as this road is used by Milan traffic to the Liguria Ponente on the west, so since this was the last weekend of July, we elected to take the A7 which comes into the east side of Genoa closer to Santa Margherita and Levanto. I have never used the A7 before, and we found it was quite slow as it is the old road through the mountains, which has been widened, but still twisty and winding through all the small towns. I would highly recommend this road if you are not in a hurry as it is very scenic, and we got to test the road handling ability of the Volvo to the fullest (very good). Traffic was light at that time but we were quite amazed at the roof-top loads on all the cars as the early birds from Milan make the great summer migration to their seaside apartments carrying refrigerators, TV’s, furniture, carpets, plumbing equipment (the proverbial kitchen sink). In spite of all of this we arrived at just after 9 in Levanto, it was cool and fresh, as it had rained the night before, what a change from the previous weekend arriving at noon in the middle of the recent hot spell.
The previous week we had used the “Punto Mesco” diving centre next to the harbour and found them very friendly, most dive-masters spoke some English, good equipment and quite reasonable at 40 euro for a dive including use of all gear, so we chose them again. We were a mixed bunch, mainly Italian, a German couple, myself and my buddy who is Polish. After we geared up and had the excellent briefing we set off with Claudio our dive-master in a well maintained inflatable with hard shell and dive platform towards Punto Mesco which is the headland at the start of the Cinque Terre Marine Park. The dive was about 20 metres away from the cliff, to an underwater rock formation, about 18 metres deep (nice and cool, good way to beat the heat) water was much clearer then last week, which had been quite turpid along with the weather, and we saw several lobsters, eels and marine life. A wonderful dive for me, as I had struggled the week before, after a long lay-off (5 years) from diving.
Getting back at almost midday we walked into Levanto town to look for a restaurant for lunch. Claudio who had recommended the Tre Cantine next to the park where the locals go, it took us a time to find as it was off the main street, looked authentic, but alas only open in the evenings. So we wandered the back streets on the principle that the further from the beach, the lower the price and less touristy. We stumbled on the Hotel Nazionale with had a beautiful garden patio restaurant which pulled us in. Food was not quite up to Piedmont standards of course, but was very good, a buffet salad bar and anti-pasti and we each tried a different fish dish, all washed down with an excellent Pigato wine from the Ponente side of Liguria (I am not fond of the Vermontino’s from the Liguria Levante and Cinque Terre). When we went to pay our bill the lady manager spoke flawless Queen’s English back to my (not so flawless) Italian, and when we asked how, she told us the incredible story of how he father had been captured by the British Army at Tobruk in WW-2, marched back to Cairo, and then shipped to a POW camp in Ceylon (that’s Sri Lanka for the younger folks) where he spend the rest of the war (how lucky in my opinion to be out of the fighting on a tropical paradise, even as a prisoner). When he came back he had an admiration for all things English and insisted that his children become fluent. Remembering the recent debate on Fodors I asked if the rooms had AC and she replied of course as they knew how uncomfortable American guests were without it.
We curled up on the grass under a big tree in the park, to nap off lunch and the wine before the next dive and catch the breeze. Of course we overslept, but the dive centre is quite relaxed, and it didn’t matter we were there at 3.30 for the 3 pm afternoon dive, and of course we already had all our equipment from the morning, so saved a lot of time. The afternoon dive was off Buonasola the next town to the north and another rock dive, this time following a spectacular narrow canyon between the rock and the cliffs about 12 metres deep, led by Danny originally from Venezuela. One of the group had some difficulty with his gear, so we had to ascend earlier then we would have liked, but that was OK too.
On the way back we were going to take the A26, but the GPS alerted us to a huge traffic pileup on the west side of Genoa, so we slipped back along the A7 again to test the Volvo’s road hugging ability again. Not bad we left at 7pm and were back in Asti just before 9 pm, just in time for me to slip into my host-suit to entertain our guests as we were staging a dinner party that night.
In all a wonderful day, the dive centre was really great, Levanto is a neat town, and its too bad we won’t have the chance to go again for some time as DB will be moving to a new house in August, plus it does get very crowded in August, we had perfect timing. But they dive all year, so maybe in October when the season slows down in Piedmont a bit.
My diving buddy (“DB”) drove down from Geneva and we set off at 7 am on Saturday morning to miss the holiday traffic and to make the first dive at 9am. DB has a late model Volvo SUV, which is no slouch, capable of 180 kph plus on the autostrada, very comfortable and with state of the art GPS navigator system which allowed us to check out traffic conditions and re-calculate driving times on the fly so as to speak. The week before we had left Asti at 10 am and gone via the A26 which is a very fast autostrada cutting through the mountains over spectacular viaducts to the West side of Genoa, but we got caught in some traffic as this road is used by Milan traffic to the Liguria Ponente on the west, so since this was the last weekend of July, we elected to take the A7 which comes into the east side of Genoa closer to Santa Margherita and Levanto. I have never used the A7 before, and we found it was quite slow as it is the old road through the mountains, which has been widened, but still twisty and winding through all the small towns. I would highly recommend this road if you are not in a hurry as it is very scenic, and we got to test the road handling ability of the Volvo to the fullest (very good). Traffic was light at that time but we were quite amazed at the roof-top loads on all the cars as the early birds from Milan make the great summer migration to their seaside apartments carrying refrigerators, TV’s, furniture, carpets, plumbing equipment (the proverbial kitchen sink). In spite of all of this we arrived at just after 9 in Levanto, it was cool and fresh, as it had rained the night before, what a change from the previous weekend arriving at noon in the middle of the recent hot spell.
The previous week we had used the “Punto Mesco” diving centre next to the harbour and found them very friendly, most dive-masters spoke some English, good equipment and quite reasonable at 40 euro for a dive including use of all gear, so we chose them again. We were a mixed bunch, mainly Italian, a German couple, myself and my buddy who is Polish. After we geared up and had the excellent briefing we set off with Claudio our dive-master in a well maintained inflatable with hard shell and dive platform towards Punto Mesco which is the headland at the start of the Cinque Terre Marine Park. The dive was about 20 metres away from the cliff, to an underwater rock formation, about 18 metres deep (nice and cool, good way to beat the heat) water was much clearer then last week, which had been quite turpid along with the weather, and we saw several lobsters, eels and marine life. A wonderful dive for me, as I had struggled the week before, after a long lay-off (5 years) from diving.
Getting back at almost midday we walked into Levanto town to look for a restaurant for lunch. Claudio who had recommended the Tre Cantine next to the park where the locals go, it took us a time to find as it was off the main street, looked authentic, but alas only open in the evenings. So we wandered the back streets on the principle that the further from the beach, the lower the price and less touristy. We stumbled on the Hotel Nazionale with had a beautiful garden patio restaurant which pulled us in. Food was not quite up to Piedmont standards of course, but was very good, a buffet salad bar and anti-pasti and we each tried a different fish dish, all washed down with an excellent Pigato wine from the Ponente side of Liguria (I am not fond of the Vermontino’s from the Liguria Levante and Cinque Terre). When we went to pay our bill the lady manager spoke flawless Queen’s English back to my (not so flawless) Italian, and when we asked how, she told us the incredible story of how he father had been captured by the British Army at Tobruk in WW-2, marched back to Cairo, and then shipped to a POW camp in Ceylon (that’s Sri Lanka for the younger folks) where he spend the rest of the war (how lucky in my opinion to be out of the fighting on a tropical paradise, even as a prisoner). When he came back he had an admiration for all things English and insisted that his children become fluent. Remembering the recent debate on Fodors I asked if the rooms had AC and she replied of course as they knew how uncomfortable American guests were without it.
We curled up on the grass under a big tree in the park, to nap off lunch and the wine before the next dive and catch the breeze. Of course we overslept, but the dive centre is quite relaxed, and it didn’t matter we were there at 3.30 for the 3 pm afternoon dive, and of course we already had all our equipment from the morning, so saved a lot of time. The afternoon dive was off Buonasola the next town to the north and another rock dive, this time following a spectacular narrow canyon between the rock and the cliffs about 12 metres deep, led by Danny originally from Venezuela. One of the group had some difficulty with his gear, so we had to ascend earlier then we would have liked, but that was OK too.
On the way back we were going to take the A26, but the GPS alerted us to a huge traffic pileup on the west side of Genoa, so we slipped back along the A7 again to test the Volvo’s road hugging ability again. Not bad we left at 7pm and were back in Asti just before 9 pm, just in time for me to slip into my host-suit to entertain our guests as we were staging a dinner party that night.
In all a wonderful day, the dive centre was really great, Levanto is a neat town, and its too bad we won’t have the chance to go again for some time as DB will be moving to a new house in August, plus it does get very crowded in August, we had perfect timing. But they dive all year, so maybe in October when the season slows down in Piedmont a bit.
Jul 31st, 2006, 02:34 AM
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Thanks for the great trip report. We are not divers but we are avid snorkelers. Is there any snorkeling in the area? We are planning a trip to the Ligurian coast in June/2007 and are looking for any snorkeling opportunities. This is something I have not been able to get any info on. Do you consider Levanto the best area for beach opportunities? I have been looking at both Levanto and Lerici. Thanks for your post. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Jul 31st, 2006, 07:04 AM
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Hi Granbury,
I am not sure how much I can help you here, I too love snorkelling but thinking back to the few dives I have made off Levanto area, its not like tropical coral reefs where there is much to see in shallower waters, most of the dives here are to interesting rock formations at at around 10 metres or more and from someone who has been in many tropical waters, the marine life is quite scarce. I don't know the area around Lerici and the Gulf of Poets at all, maybe there are more shallower attractions. For that matter you could snorkel directly from the rocks off Cinque Terre, the waters are usually very clean there.
I am not sure how much I can help you here, I too love snorkelling but thinking back to the few dives I have made off Levanto area, its not like tropical coral reefs where there is much to see in shallower waters, most of the dives here are to interesting rock formations at at around 10 metres or more and from someone who has been in many tropical waters, the marine life is quite scarce. I don't know the area around Lerici and the Gulf of Poets at all, maybe there are more shallower attractions. For that matter you could snorkel directly from the rocks off Cinque Terre, the waters are usually very clean there.
Jul 31st, 2006, 07:33 AM
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Sampaguita,
I really appreciate all that road/traffic information! I'll be driving from Liguria to Piemonte in November. (When I first read the title of your thread, I thought you had been diving headfirst into the water off the cliffs of Cinque Terre!)
Granbury,
I believe there is also snorkeling and diving in Camogli and/or near Punta Chiappa. You can find it with a google search. For pale sandy beaches, Sestri Levante has got lots of sand. Camogli has a pleasant place to swim, but there are sharp stones underfoot that require bathing shoes.
I really appreciate all that road/traffic information! I'll be driving from Liguria to Piemonte in November. (When I first read the title of your thread, I thought you had been diving headfirst into the water off the cliffs of Cinque Terre!)
Granbury,
I believe there is also snorkeling and diving in Camogli and/or near Punta Chiappa. You can find it with a google search. For pale sandy beaches, Sestri Levante has got lots of sand. Camogli has a pleasant place to swim, but there are sharp stones underfoot that require bathing shoes.
Jul 31st, 2006, 02:54 PM
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Sampaguita - thanks again for the info. I suspected that shallow water snorkeling was not a big thing in Italy. While we have been to Italy several times, we are making our first trip to Liguria next year.
Nessundorma - Thanks. I will check out Camogli and Punta Chiappa. I always trust the info you give to posters...including many of my posts. You are a great source of info on Italy.
Nessundorma - Thanks. I will check out Camogli and Punta Chiappa. I always trust the info you give to posters...including many of my posts. You are a great source of info on Italy.
Aug 1st, 2006, 08:02 AM
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Nessundorma and I thought you lived in Liguria from some of your posts! No problem with either autostrada in November, holiday crowds have long since gone. The A26 is quite scenic as well as it flies over the valleys and small towns, whereas the A7 you drive through them.
Cliff diving from Cinque Terre, hmm theres a thought for a new enterprise LOL. Maybe bungee jumping too. LOL again.
I suppose I should have titled my report "My report of 2 guys Scuba diving around Cinque Terre, and driving at 180 in summer on Italian autostrada's plus our review of lunch in Levanto" but I feel uneasy about long attention grabbing headlines!
Cliff diving from Cinque Terre, hmm theres a thought for a new enterprise LOL. Maybe bungee jumping too. LOL again.
I suppose I should have titled my report "My report of 2 guys Scuba diving around Cinque Terre, and driving at 180 in summer on Italian autostrada's plus our review of lunch in Levanto" but I feel uneasy about long attention grabbing headlines!
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