I’m out on the hotel deck again this morning, working on the journal using our phone’s hot spot. It’s a bit stronger than inside this old building, and stronger than the hotel’s own hot spot but still quite weak. For all the history it has, I can’t really say that I’ll miss this hotel - the WiFi is an annoyance, but worse is the excruciatingly cramped room. There’s barely any room for the bed, and almost no space to put our gear and clothing.
I’ll miss the place though. The lake has a beautiful sheen on it this morning, as it did yesterday. A flock of gulls is fighting offshore over what I assume is a small school of fish, a few fishermen are afloat, standing up in their small boats and casting their nets, a grebe drifts by, then a merganser. The place has quickly grown on me, and I feel a bit wistful about leaving. We’ve seen so many unique, unforgettable places like this in our travels, many of them a once in a lifetime opportunity. We have been so lucky!
As we leave, we stop to watch the morning’s spectacle on the piazza. It’s Sunday, and it looks like this must be the day for the chestnut festival. A large plume of smoke rises above the square, and two large roasters are getting their turns over blazing bonfires. As we watch, we enjoy a chat with a group of American women here on a walking tour of the lakes. One, from San Diego, is/was a biker herself, and has biked much of the Pacific Coast.
On to the Piemonte!
A last look at the island from the deck of our hotel.
In the Orta San Giulio plaza, things are heating up for the chestnut festival. It’s the season, alright - the paths and lanes everywhere are littered with chestnut hulls.
We have what looks to be a pretty lazy ride today, down the valley to Novara. Only 35 miles, only a thousand feet of climbing. After the initial climb out of here, it’s a gradual downhill the rest of the way. It will go fast, I assure Rachael. No need to take lunch, we’ll just find a cafe in Novara when we get there.
The ride begins with the same climb we started with on yesterday’s day ride; then bends south along the west side of the ridge, then bends straight up into it - at about a 25% pitch. It looks like a cliff to us, and neither of us is tempted to try to pedal. We push up with difficulty for about a quarter mile, weaving our bikes through fallen chestnuts as we grunt our way to the top.
It’s taken us awhile to get to this point, but now it’s downhill all the way to Novara. We’ll fly there, and arrive in no time.
Rachael must be reading the blog - she’s dropped her grin. This slog was irksome. There’s not much climbing in the day, and much of it is packed into this short, 25% stretch.
It was worth pushing up that stretch for the views from the top of the ridge. Those are the Pennine Alps, at the Swiss border. They’re really not far from Lake Orta, which lies in the trench. You’ll recognize that small church above the cliff from the photos of Isola San Giulio.
But we don’t fly there, of course. That never seems to happen. We never make the kind of time we imagine when setting out. There’s always something. Today, there are a few navigation difficulties. There aren’t any good, obvious routes south other than the primary road, which we’re avoiding. Sticking to the secondary and tertiary route that RideWithGPS suggested for us is pretty slow going. Lots of twists and turns, lots of small, cobblestoned villages to negotiate, lots of opportunities to miss our turn and go astray - which we succumb to at least three times.
It all goes slowly enough that we’re interested in finding lunch well before we’ll reach Novara. Lunch isn’t too interested in being found though - we pass through several villages with no commercial center at all, and are about to give up. Rachael finishes up her prunes and we resolve to bike through to Novara without stopping.
Two miles later, we take a chance and go off route a bit to Suno, hoping to get lucky. We do - Suno is a bit larger, actually has a marked central district, and an open cafe with a lone biker sitting outside enjoying a panini and a beer. Totally awesome! We stop, enjoy paninis and a beer ourselves (well, I enjoy a beer; Rachael is much happier with water), and enjoy a brief chat with the biker. He’s a local, out on a day ride, and wants to know where we’re bound. When he hears our start and end points he whistles appreciatively and doffs his imaginary hat in respect - twice. Biking off, he does a double take, looking at our curious bikes with tiny wheels and no motor. Those strange Americans!
We had some navigation issues today and found ourselves offroute here and there. Which was fine - we wouldn’t have stumbled across the medieval festival in Gonzalo otherwise.
In Cressa, checking the phone for nearby restaurants and finding none. It’s Sunday, and we’re starting to think we’ll have to bike straight through to Novara before finding a meal.
We informed Hotel La Bussola, our lodging in Novara, that we would arrive between 2 and 3. Which we do, barely, rolling in at 2:59. It’s a type of place we haven’t stayed at for quite a while, a modern four star business hotel. We’re here because it looked like the best deal available. Nice place, and inexpensive since it’s about a half mile outside the core. After our cramped existence in OSG, we’re quite happy to be able to spread out and to have excellent WiFi service for the first time in over a week.
We hang around the room until about 5 and then walk into town to see the sights before dinner. The sights are quite impressive, and the walk is enjoyable. There is a lot to see in Novara, the largest place we’ve stayed in for probably two weeks. The towering Basilica is a marvel, but so are several of the other monumental buildings nearby.
We didn’t see the inside of a restaurant though. There really aren’t that many in the core, and none of the ones open on Sunday open before 7:30. By 6:45 it’s dark already, everything is shutting down, it’s getting coolish, and there’s not much to do. Too long to just hang out, so we walk back to our hotel and eat in their restaurant, which as it turns out is just fine - Rachael has a whole branzini, deboned for her at the table; and I have chestnut gnocchi with mushrooms. And we have dolcetto, one of the local red wines. I’ve never really known what dolcetto was - I’ve been avoiding it, thinking it was a sparking wine (confusing it with Prosecco, I suppose). I like it a lot though, and will look for it again before we leave the Piemonte.
In retrospect, we should have left the hotel earlier and come back earlier so that we could see more of the town before dark and then relax in the room until dinner. There is a lot more to take in here than we’ve allowed for, and we could easily have stayed two nights - as it looks like may be the case everywhere we plan to stay in Piemonte.
After two nights in our tiny, cramped room in Orta, we love being able to spread out in our business hotel in Novara. And, they have great WiFi!
I forget what this plaza is, surrounded by a pair of palaces. It sits somewhere near the cathedral, but there are several palaces here so I can’t be sure.
With its huge tower, the Novara Basilica is unmistakeable. Surprisingly, it’s hard to get a good view of it because the surrounding buildings are tall and crowd up against it.
This was a rare bit of luck. There is a free organ recital underway as we enter the Basilica. It was wonderful to sit there listening to the concert and staring around us.
It gets dark early now! It’s only 6:45, and restaurants don’t open until 7:30. Too long to wait around, so we decide to walk back to our hotel and eat there.
