August 13, 2019
Piacenza
We make a change of plan
My new cycle pants were SO comfortable. In an attempt to not look quite so gross I had been wearing regular shorts, the trouble was they kept riding up and making a tourniquet around the tops of my legs so I had to keep standing up and pulling them down - as it got hotter it seemed to get worse. Yesterday we stopped at the sort of bike shop where all the fancy training bikers shop and I bought an overpriced pair of cycling shorts. Today has been bliss I dont feel as if I am going to get gangrene and my legs will drop off. I look awful but I dont care.
Last night when we emerged for dinner the square was alive with happy people. There were adults, kids and dogs. Little children were having lessons in bike riding and all around, because it was only just 7pm, people were having predinner drinks and all this without a car in sight. Why oh why cant we have some pedestrian only areas in NZ Why must our whole lives be ruled by the mighty automobile. We chose a wonderful place for our drinks in an arcade under what had once been the old town hall - for the last 150 years it had been a bar. I had an aperol and Ken a beer but they came with a delicious collection of nibbles - they really would have done us for a meal. We were looking straight across at the magnificent Torrezo of Cremona the bell tower of the Cathedral completed in 1309. It is the third tallest brick tower in the world and the oldest brick structure of more than 100feet still standing. It has a lovely astronomical clock. We sat for an hour people watching and enjoying the view. Now was time for dinner but we liked it so much there we just ordered a Greek Salad and had another drink.
As usual we were off early on what was to be our last day along the Po. For the first time we had a bit of a head wind and this was quite good as it has a bit of a cooling effect. Today was a day of fields of tomatoes. They are unstaked and lie flat on the ground, all seem to be these oval ‘Italian’ tomatoes and when they are harvested a machine must go through and take just the ripe ones. We saw red onions too making us think of Pukekohe. What we haven’t seen is rice. The Po Valley grows most of the rice in Europe but we have been unable to identify it. I thought perhaps it had already been harvested but that is not right because I have just read that it isn’t harvested until September. Our 9o’clock cappuccino stop was at a delightful little town where we even had a choice of cafes - we chose the one that seemed to have all the locals in and Ken was able to buy some Pizza slice at the Backerie across the road. He was intrigued by the man in the cafe who could talk with cigarette in the corner of his mouth, no hands.
After that the going was not as good . For the most part we were on quiet roads but for some of the time, particularly as we approached the city, we were on quite busy roads with some big trucks to make us keep on wits. However as we got into the city there was a cycle lane lined with pink and white oleanders which lead us to the narrow alleyways of the city and our hotel. It was still before 11am, to soon for check in but I smiled nicely and looked old (not hard) and the nice man found us a room straight away.
After cleaning up we went to the nearby Piazza Cavalli and sat under a cool arcade to have a beer once more accompanied by a range of nibbles. We people watched and Ken fascinated by the fixey bikes took a series of photos of then riding along the square dresssed in normal clothes and no helmets going about their everyday business safely.
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Now for our change of plan. It has been very hot since we got onto the Po going up to at least 37 degrees each day and not cooling down much overnight. Apart from yesterday there has been no cloud cover and there is little shade so it feels even hotter riding in the blazing sun. The route after today looks as if it has a lot of unsealed tracks, this means skiddy round pebbles in this area, we dont feel safe riding these -also there is quite a lot af relatively busy road riding on what would of necessity be long stages. What we are going to do is tomorrow morning take a train to Genoa on the Med and start riding the Ligurian Coast. The temperatures there are only going up to about 28degrees Anyway Ken has been to the station and bought tickets for us and our bikes on th 8.10am train and we are off to Genoa
So that is the end of the Po Radweg for us. Would we recommend it? Parts of it are absolutely lovely, especially around Venice, you get a good idea of its vaste agriculture and how really this area is the powerhouse of Italy. The towns are on the most part charming and I have never ever seen so many brick clock towers. It is not a good idea to ride it in early August - we saw no other cycle tourists - try spring or autumn. We managed to get air conditioning in the hotel every night
Today's ride: 37 km (23 miles)
Total: 967 km (601 miles)
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5 years ago
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Since you’re off to Genoa next, you might look at the route we followed west from it to Liguria last autumn (https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/dubrovnik2018/albenga/); and I really recommend staying in Albenga, our first stay after Genoa. Good luck with the heat!
5 years ago
Tricia
5 years ago
Ciao
Ken
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5 years ago