Marina de Verazza to Loano and the Caves of Toirano

Our budget analyst decided that one night at Verazzo was the right number so we better head out and sailed 40 or so miles up the coast. Navigation is pretty easy here, keep the shore on the right, stay a mile off shore is our strategy and most of the time it works just fine. We continue to use Sea Clear charts and also rely heavily on Rod Heikel's books for Harbour charts. He has only steered us wrong once and we caught it early enough before we ran into the sand.

Loano is the beginning of the Italian Riviera -- the water is getting warmer, clearer, bluer and the bathing suits are coming out. The marina is huge and under development, probably about a thousand berths, with the majority being for boats 40+feet long. We had planned to stay for two nights, primarily to wait out some weather. We ended up staying three nights because we liked the place.

Staying in such a large marina means you must do a lot of walking. With Marina's neck hurting we kept it pretty quiet. I ended up walking to town by myself and with each of Marina, Jess and Ross, then did it again the next day. Nobody could understand why I was tired....might have been the 10K walking to and from town with everyone.

One of the cool things to do in Loano is to visit the caves at Troiano. These caves are massive and very cool to visit. We ended up trying to catch a bus to the caves and went into a bakery to get a snack and ask directions.

The bakery lady asked a customer with better English skills and then another customer offered us a ride to the caves. We arrived about an hour before they opened up (for the afternoon, not the morning ... I know, what a shock)  so we had a chance to sit down and eat some lunch. We were a bit disappointed that the tours were guided but the moment you go inside you understand why.

If the tours weren't guided they would lose some people plus the stalactites would all be broken off for souvenirs. And since they grow about 1 cm every 50 years, the caves would be destroyed fairly quickly.