Cycling Day 3 - Pisa to Levanto

I had a terrible nights' sleep due to the fact that I started to feel very thirsty within about an hour of tucking into my sleeping bag (a side effect of consuming the huge pizza). I didn't have adequate water with me, and wasn't able to get any until the morning. The road noise didn't help either. Needless to say I awoke feeling sluggish. Thankfully there turned out to be a supermarket just down the road - as well as 2 litres of water I opted for my standard supermarket cycle touring breakfast (plain yoghurt, squeezy honey, big baguette/jar of jam, bananas and chocolate) and proceeded to consume this outside the entrance. The morning consisted of cycling to the large port town of La Spazia. It was like yesterday (nice sunny day without being to hot, long flat stretches of coastal road and no wind). I arrived in La Spezia at about 1pm, found a supermarket and got more food (this time I went for a tub of ice cream, a pastry and some grapes), and pedalled along to some benches overlooking the port by the water to eat. There were some massive cruise ships moored up, with some of the passengers walking around having clearly been mooching around town. I remember thinking to myself I'm glad I'm not one of them - much better to see everywhere on the bike rather than just see snippets of the big towns going around on the boat. I went into the cruise building waiting area to use their wifi to plan the route for the rest of today. My aim was to get to Sestri Levante which was approx. 55km along the major road, or longer and probably hillier (judging by the wiggly roads on Google maps) if I took the scenic coastal road. After some deliberation I opted for the scenic route, and I'm very glad I did. Unbeknown to me I was heading into the stunning 'Parco Nationale delle Cinque Terre'. This was by far the best cycling that I'd come across in Italy so far (even surpassing Elba), with quality winding roads, incredible scenery and lack of cars. Any hope of making it to Sestri ended pretty soon as all the picture-taking, easy taking-it-all-in pace and hill climbs made progress slow. The weather remained delightful and it really was idyllic cycling (the only places I'd previously cycled that would have been in the same league as this would be Nordkapp and Iceland). As the daylight hours started to drift away I decided that the town of Levanto would be tonight's destination. Upon arrival in Levanto I headed straight down to the beach just in time to catch the sunset - a perfect end to the day. There were these little old Piaggio motorbike tricycles everywhere in Levanto (nearly as many of these as there were cars), and they seemed to park wherever they wanted - brilliant. It was definitely time for dinner now, and I was spoilt for choice with several nice-looking restaurants to choose from. The place I chose was amazing and the steak they served me would rank among the best meals that I've ever had. After the meal it was back to the beach in the dark to set down my sleeping bag for the night (it was clear with no signs of rain and warm enough to sleep out in the open). I picked a relatively hidden spot away from the glare of the streetlights, got comfortable and set my alarm for when the sun was likely to come up.