Day 22 - Piacenza to Fidenza - 63k

After a relaxing day off in Piacenza and a fantastic dinner out in town, including 2 bottles of wine over lunch and dinner combined we woke refreshed if not a slight bit groggy this morning.

Dinner was great, it's always up to chance whether you can find somewhere decent while traveling, but somehow we stumbled across two great places in one day. We had tried to get into Ostria San Stefano the night before but it was totally booked out. So we made a reservation for the next night. Arriving it was dead empty, never great for a night out. As we entered the corner erupted, and suddenly all the kitchen staff got up from the corner and rushed into the kitchen, the World Cup was on and Brazil was 1:1 with chile! They were watching on someone's mobile phone. Once seated a few other groups slowly filled the restaurant. It was actually great getting there first as it gave us time to chat with the staff, two of them had great engligh, which saved us from using any bad Italian. Wine was the order of the night, and we were in good hands. Initially we just asked what was a good local wine, luckily the waiter offered a taste as he had a bottle open, I wasn't too fond of the local Emila wine which was fairly rough, the sommelier saw we were interested and came over to help. The first thing he confirmed was the local wine was rough, and not in as many words but he basically said no good! He moved us onto some Lombardy wines, starting with a light dolcetto, which was nice but not that flavoured, all the time he was bombarding us with information on all the options, he could see I was still not that impressed with the wine, so we moved on to a Barberra from Lombardy, now we are talking, delicious, after I tasted it he didn't even need to ask that is what we had! The look on my face must have said it all.

The food was delicious, the best stuffed zucchini flowers ever, so fresh.

Osteria San Martino

Delicious, Lombardy Barberra

Now we are talking!

Procusitto crudo, zucchini flowers, Vitello tonnato, parpadelle with rabbit ragu, peach tiramisu, Zabaglione

Rome must be getting closer, a statue of Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome

After a lazy breakfast in our b&b we were on our way, with the ominous grey clouds back it was already a slight drizzle of rain but looking to hold out we were hoping.

My favourite new store

We had scoped out a decathlon store to pick up a spare tyre on the way out of town, my rear tyre is wearing really fast and has actually started to delaminate causing little bubbles between the outer layer which gives an annoying lump, they didn't have any actual UST tyres so I just grabbed a Hutchinson Python as a spare not the best rolling but it was either that or a 1.5" commuter slick. At the same time I asked the guy in the store if I could borrow a track pump to inflate our tyres, he showed me where they were and left me to it, a little confused I just grabbed one and went outside and started pumping up our tyres then another guy comes out looking really confused, and realises I don't speak Italian and confirms that the other guy was showing me were I could BUY one not take it outside to pump my tyres! He then leads us back inside to the workshop area and holds my bike while I use that pump to inflate the tyres. After nearly 3'weeks they had only lost about 10psi and were sitting around 40-50psi which is pretty good going.

Not wanting to loose my rear tubeless tyre, I decided to pop the little delamination pimples, and thankfully just the air came out between the layers and it is all good, so now I just have a spare that I will need to put a tube in for. Hopefully it will make it all the way to Rome!

Cloudy sky's, still flat

Almost could be on the yarra trails

Nice quite farm roads

Scenery is getting better

It's not that deep!! Promise!

Still not sure she has made it!!

Finally getting to the riding for the day at 10am, it was only to be a short easy day. Still in the flatlands, we winded our way between small farming villages, and followed a small river for a short while on some mtb tracks, eventually having to turn off onto the main road to cross the river. Walkers usually wade through the water apparently, but we saw a few walkers going around as well. We joined back up to the trail later on only to find another creek crossing which I decided to ride though, only just making it. Rishi wasn't too sure about trying it but I stubbornly stood up the hill on the other side and she decided to try her luck, just making it as well thankfully!

Gotta outrun this rain!

We stopped for lunch in a tiny little town having the first picnic lunch for Italy, a giant sandwich of fresh mozzarella, ham and rocket on a giant roll. It was then an easy 15k into Fidenza, but we could see the grey clouds building once again with visible rain only a few k's away, thankfully we made it into town nice a dry, we easily found a hotel, Albergo San Donnino where the lady happened to be almost just waiting for customers, checkin was so fast we had unpacked, showered and arrived for a beer down the street within 30mins. A great end to the day.

Rundown old building we ate lunch in front of

Italy always has cool water taps

The town looked pretty promising for a good meal, but after a few drinks not much seemed to be opening, and it seems there was some sort of festival in the previous nights so a lot of places were closed. After a fair bit of hunting around, we found the old backup a pizzeria. Or so we thought! The place was busy a good sign. We go for an old favourite, the Margherita, with double cheese, because they tend to be stingy. They couldn't stuff that up surely. After a bit of a wait the pizza arrives, well it's not really pizza it's a giant focaccia piled with cheese! Holy crap we think, ordered one each! There wasn't even this much cheese in the fondue, it turns out the place specalises in that style of whatever it is. We got through most of it, but we may need to lay off the pizza and cheese for the next few days!

Fidenza town hall

Apertivo time

Fidenza Cathedral, 13th century

Wtf! This is meant to be pizza! It's really focaccia covered in layers of cheese!

I couldn't even drink my beer afterwards

This is what rishi did when I said cheese!!!

 http://www.strava.com/activities/159476051

 

Day 21- rest day in Piacenza

We took today as a rest day in Piacenza. We had originally thought that we might like to catch the train to Milan for the day but on waking this morning we really just felt like relaxing for the day. So we had a bit of a sleep in, a lazy breakfast at our B&B, took care of some washing and charging of Garmins etc. We then took a stroll around Piacenza which is an absolutely beautiful city. So many amazing buildings, palaces, churches and streets with little car traffic and mostly bicycles! It's definately my favourite Italian city so far and a very relaxing place to take a break. This morning we visited the Farnese palace which is now home to the civic museum. We got to see some pretty amazing things including an armoury, a Botticelli original, the inside of the palace itself, and my favourite, the carriage museum! I've never seen so many carriages before! (There were a total of 70 on display) And in such amazing condition! It was really interesting to see how they changed over the years, they even had little miniature carriages which were used by children and pulled by dogs, goats and donkeys!! Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photos....something we found out after Ben had already taken two ;)

Morning coffee- we may need an espresso machine when we get home!

Palazzo Farnese

 

Armoury

 

Cool heads which once adorned a church

Ben got busted after this one, so no more :(

 

Streets of Piacenza

As well as being a very beautiful city Piacenza is also home to many fabulous restaurants and wine bars! Something we definately wanted to take advantage of. Ben had done some google research and found a fantastic wine bar for us to go for lunch. We were the only customers! I felt bad for the two guys who worked there, who were obviously very passionate about wine, and recommended us a fabulous locally made white to accompany our food. It was really nice to have time to relax for a good two hours over a bottle of wine, some cold meats, carpaccio, a salad and some good conversation. At the end of the meal we got talking with the bar owner. When he found out we were doing the Via Francigena he got very excited! When he found out we were doing it on bike, and had started in London he was REALLY excited! He called the other waiter over who was also a cyclist and we had a good chat about our route and how many km we were doing each day etc. We got some hand shakes and warm congratulations on the way out. A really nice moment in our day.

Stumbled into a wedding

Malvasia- great wine

 

Lunch spread

 

Happy for a day off

We have spent the rest of the day resting at our B&B watching movies. We have a booking tonight at what looks like a fantastic Osteria (we tried last night but they were full) then back on the road tomorrow! In 10 days we will be in Rome!!!! It's hard to believe we have made it all this way under our own leg power.

 

Day 20 - Pavia to Piacenza - 78km

After yesterday's horrible grind through the weather, we woke to fairly clear skies and no sound of rain thankfully. Our stay in the b&b was enjoyable, with a nice quiet room in a large house with a great courtyard. We couldn't find much open in town that looked good, with a lot of restaurants not opening till 8pm, too late for two tired cyclists. Luckily we got in a good lunch, so takeaway pizzas in the courtyard sufficed. Funnily we ordered one pizza but for some reason he made two, when he tried to charge us for two we protested that we only wanted and ordered one, so we got two for the price of one, which also turned into morning tea.

Mostly the scenery for the day

The signage is great, proper road signs easy to see

Happy to be back in sunshine

Not a great section past a quarry in soft sand

Back onto the trails today, we are still mostly in rice fields at the moment, but the scenery is slowing changing, with more prosperous villages. The trails were mostly good, either fast country roads, still with plenty of trucks unfortunately, and some gravel farm roads which are mostly empty.

Left over pizza, perfect jersey pocket snack

We came across quite a few walkers today on the trails, and we stopped to chat to a few. Most are just suprised to hear how far you can travel on bike each day, it must be hard at that point of the journey walking, as most are up to week 8 or more, with 4 or more weeks to go.

Rishi is over there on the right somewhere trying to follow me

This is the route apparently

Most of the trails were well marked but one particular section after miradolo terme, the track just seemed to end at the farmed area. With not much visible trails we hunted around the edge of the canal and found the bridge which happened to be the route.

Still getting used to Italy, we noticed people are a lot more reserved, with not many greeting us as we ride through their villages, whether you greet them first or not, compared to france were honestly every single person in the country areas made a point to yell out bonjour. Although we are now getting to what is obviously a more used section of the trails as the signage is a lot better, so maybe they just get so many ppl through its not a novelty like in france, one little village though, chingnolo po everyone was waving us through, with one older guy giving us the fist pump!

Huge villa in chingnolo po

Along the banks of the river Po

Excellent new trail leading into Orio Litta with little markers on the trail

There wasn't too much on offer for lunch during the route today, we came across a few places but hoped to eat in orio litta, along the way into town we saw noticeboards advertising an osteria which is like a wine bar that serves food, perfect. Following the signs, we arrive eventually so hungry with the smell of food in the air, to see it boarded up. Damnit. Riding up into the centre of town the only two options were two pizza places. A lady stopped to help us out thinking we were lost, we told her we just wanted food, and she confirmed the pizza joints were the only options, adding that one was better than the other. So lining up behind a group of school kids we order a pizza. 40mins later we get our pizza, turns out the school kids ordered 25pizzas!

After lunch we just had to navigate the river Po into Piacenza, this is where the walkers call ahead and a guy with a boat picks them up and they get dropped down stream, as the only bridge is about 20km downstream. You can take bikes on the boat, but it requires an appointment to take you, so we figured we would just ride the 20k. The local councils have actually built a great mostly paved cycle way the entire way weaving high up above the rice fields below. Although it did mean we were right up in the wind. It was actually a bit of a grind in the end, having the smooth surface tends to get you pushing harder to get it done.

New cycle trail from Orio Litta all the way to Piacenza

Arriving in town we easily found our accom for the next two nights, Domus San Martino, which is a b&b right in the old town that we found on booking.com it's a great place with a huge room and bathroom set around a nice courtyard with a communal lounge area. All very modern, great for relaxing.

Main square of Piacenza

Internal courtyard of the Palazzo Gotico

Main Street of Piacenza

People watching in the main square, bikes rule the city

We will see how we go tomorrow, we may just laze around here in piacenza or there is the option to jump on a train to Milan which is only 40mins away.

http://www.strava.com/activities/158718533