To Cremona

May 26, 2023

The day begins with a familiar frustrating scenario when we pack up to leave and I can’t find my glasses. Not again! The usual exhaustive search and panic at the failure to find them ensue. The only explanation is that I left them at the pizzeria last night, where I know I took them because I remember debating whether to leave them home or take them with us.

Very frustrating, because even with a short, easy ride ahead we want to get an early start because it will be in the 80’s by early afternoon. Now we’ll have to hang around here somewhere until someone shows up at the restaurant for its noon opening.

While I’m wheeling the bikes out the door Rachael turns over the keys to our host and mentions our situation. The host offers to call the restaurant for us, which sounds like a great idea. She’s really helpful, and speaks just enough English to make a difference. And she presents a surprisingly good breakfast (scrambled eggs!) for such a modest appearing and inexpensive place. If you’re considering staying over in Casalmaggiore we can recommend the B&B Bijou.

Rachael is always thinking up ways to debug our lives and reduce the odds of mishaps like this. While we’re packing the bikes she proposes that when we go to a restaurant we should just routinely pack my classes into her rucksack when we sit down, which we always have along because we carry my iPad in it to look over the day’s photos while we’re waiting for the first course to arrive.

Bingo. That’s just the trigger my lame brain needs to remember where my glasses are, because that’s exactly what happened last night - I handed them to Rachael when we sat down to pack away so we wouldn’t forget them. A great plan! Now we just have to remember in the future that she’s got them.

She rushes back to tell the host the good news so she can stop calling the restaurant, and we’re off. Such a relief! If Rachael hadn’t triggered the memory the day would have been ruined - we’d have waited hopefully until noon, and then left town dispirited and dejected when the glasses weren’t there. Who knows when we would finally have found them, or if they’d have gotten crushed in packing them into her pannier in the meantime.

Today’s ride is a lot like yesterday’s - about the same distance, totally flat, and under the same surprisingly summery sky - but without the high drama of varied riding surfaces to spice it up because we really are on pavement the whole way. So just the photos, please:

Leaving Casalmaggiore. Much of the day’s ride looks like this with us on an empty bike path along the top of the dike, fifteen feet above the surroundings. Nice, easy cycling.

Mostly our views consist of cultivated fields, stands of poplar, and occasional glimpses of the river not far off, but there are enough other features to add interest. Because it’s all so flat, we can see them coming from far off.

I don’t ever remember a tour where we’ve been surrounded by poppies for so long. We’ve moved north with them.

Even plane terrain can provide a lot of beauty.

Probably provides excellent insulation from the cold north winds.

I’m glad Rachael snagged this shot to remind me of the one I’ve just missed. I’m just pocketing the Lumix after being too late to catch those two giant trucks inching past each other around a dogleg bend in the path.

Some sort of planting activity is afoot. Looks like a long, hot day.

The church of Saints Peter and Paul, near Motta Baluffi. I’ve been watching it approach for the last mile, my interest piqued by its pencil-like tower that looks like it would topple in a good windstorm.

I took this shot because of the shutter shadow angling down through the name, but I’m glad I did because it helped me place the church because it’s now run as an agritourismo.

This short stretch is the highlight of the day, because just past that church comes this striking structure.

Striking, and colorful. I had to climb atop the berm to get far enough back for a complete shot.

The highlights just keep coming! Who says a flat 30 mile ride has to be boring?

This is the church of San Cataldo Vescovo, in Motta Baluffi.

Just another roadside wreck. We see a lot of these here.

Also we see fortified masserias like this one on occasion.

For some reason this makes me think of Mayan ruins. I don’t know why exactly.

I’ve been biking down this poppy-lined path for at least a quarter mile wondering if I should stop for another poppy shot. I finally succumb.

Three miles out, the tower of Cremona’s cathedral comes into view. It makes me think of the way that you can see Salisbury Cathedral’s spire from far in the distance also.

Video sound track: Bright Eye, by Classic Dream Orchestra

We’re lodged in a condominium apartment in Cremona for the next two nights, just a short walking distance from the cathedral. We arrive in town too early for the strict 2:30 check-in, so we kill about 45 minutes nursing ice cream bars and bottles of water under the canopy of the first piazza cafe we come to. At the end we walk over to a nearby restaurant that Rachael scouted out, find it good, and make a reservation for dinner.

When we arrive and admit ourselves to our self check-in lodging for the next two nights we find an excellent place - spacious, comfortable, and complete with a large box of chocolates. Rachael heads off to the store for provisions for the next two days and then we just hang out and I keep cool until dinner time while Rachael keeps getting heated up by maddening appliances she can’t figure out. First it’s the induction burner, later it’ll be the dishwasher. But it’s the clothes washer that’s especially maddening. It’s completely unresponsive, and she calls the host for advice who says she’ll call someone to come by and check it out later - but then she has the brilliancy to look behind it and see that it’s unplugged, of all things. We muscle the washer away from the wall so we can get to the plug and insert it, and then magically a light comes on.

We might have gotten out to look around town before dinner, but it’s taken so long to get the laundry going that there isn’t time. The cycle finally completes and we hang our clothes on the rack to dry with just enough time to make it to our 7:30 reservation. When we get there we’re served an excellent meal - tortellini al zuccha gets split as the starter, and then we enjoy our fish mains - sesame-crusted salmon for her, and grilled orata for myself - which we enjoy in an atmosperic setting with the cathedral at the end of our alley, the constant traffic of walkers and bikers rattling across the stones nearby, and the sky above filled with the endlessly gyrating swifts swooping into notches in the brick wall above and then instantly re-emerging because it’s too soon to call it a day just yet.

It starts getting a rosy glow toward the end of our meal. I’ve captured at least eight swifts in this photo. Count for yourself and see if I’ve missed any.

So we didn’t actually see much of Cremona today, but just enough to provide us with maybe our most enjoyable evening of the whole tour. After our meal we walk to the piazza facing the stunning cathedral and just stand there for about ten minutes taking in the heart-warming, dynamic scene. After all this time I’m still astounded by places like this and the reminder of how much could change if you took the cars out of the picture. I can’t think of anywhere in America where we’ve seen anything like this charming human pagent that’s always the same but always different.

Afterwards we start back to the room and I surprise Rachael by stopping in at the gelateria on the corner of the square and order a cone with nocciola and pistacchio, and we go back and sit on the steps in front of the cathedral to enjoy another act of the show.

The impressive tower of Cremona’s cathedral. Known as the Torrazzo, it is the tallest premodern structure in Italy and the third tallest brickwork tower in the world.

The cathedral’s wonderful clock is the largest astrological clock on the world.

Heart

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Ride stats today: 34 miles, 400’; for the tour: 1,422 miles, 63,200’

Today's ride: 34 miles (55 km)
Total: 1,465 miles (2,358 km)

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Tricia GrahamCremona is one of our favourite cities. Sitting in the square by the cathedral on a beautiful summers evening , looking at the scene and thinking how lovely it is without cars everywhere is one of our best evenings we have ever had cycling
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1 year ago

Kirsten KaarsooWe watched people in a few different areas in Bilbao parks, sidewalks etc we felt happy, rejuvenated and enlightened seeing multigenerational families chatting, playing and being together all while hanging out in areas with no cars. It was peaceful and fun.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Kirsten KaarsooI don’t doubt you enjoyed Bilbao. It’s really a lovely city. We’re ticketed to start our fall tour there this fall and are anxious to see it again.
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1 year ago