We began the day with breakfast in the garden of our hotel but left Pisa shortly thereafter on a direct train to Levanto.  This medieval port city just north of the Cinque Terre was part of the trading empire ruled by Genoa.

   
 
Before exploring the town, we discovered a local grocery store up the street from our hotel and had a lovely al fresco lunch on the patio outside our rooms.  Turns out the wine really is cheaper than water here; we enjoyed a decent bottle of vino rosso that cost under 2 Euros – no kidding!  The Oasi hotel is charming and our kids decided to stay for the afternoon while Nick and Susannah explored the local streets on foot.
   
   
We all joined together in the evening (what the Italians would call afternoon) for a local history tour by a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide.   It seems that Levanto was actually two villages in the old days separated by the small creek that formed the local harbor.  There was quite a bit of local rivalry, with the Genovese paying for a fancy new church on one side and the local feudal lords favoring the other.  The fierceness of the “marry local” sentiment is reflected today in the saying “wives and oxen from your own village”.  These days the harbor has long ago filled in from natural siltation and the boundary between the two towns is now just a car park in front of the Loggia. In some of the older buildings you can see how much the ground level has risen by the nearly buried columns on either side of the arched openings, which you now have to stoop to enter.

   
   
Dinner was pizza (of course), preceded (again!?) by gelato and sorbetto.  We seem to have a thing about eating dessert first here in Italy, and for eating outside.