September 7, 2015
Day 48: Parma to Cremona
A convenient summary of how interesting a town is, from a general tourist point of view, could be the absolute number of churches, palaces, forts, museums, city halls, and suchlike that are listed on the typical map handed out by Tourist Information. By that reckoning, Venice must surely be the greatest we have visited so far, though as I recall, the map did not have a grand total because the city was divided into six or more fabulous zones. But Sabbioneta, I think, had about 26. By contrast, then, Parma has over 50. (Critical readers will note that this measure is about as goofy as my pots of jam measure for hotel breakfasts.)
Obviously, you can not check out 50 spots in a casual sweep on a bicycle. But what we did was awfully darn minimal. We checked out the Duomo, one other church, and (on our way out of town) the Parco Ducale.
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The Duomo was worth the visit to the town, though. Most of the churches we have found in Italy are amazing examples of design, and feature one form or another of intricate artistry. This Duomo had some really nice design elements and colours, such as this:
Surprisingly, the ceiling paintings also had some quite evocative nudes. I wonder if the Pope, who will not let me into the Vatican churches if my shorts are above the knee, knows about this??
Speaking of the Pope, I had been under the impression (from movies, maybe) that there is a pretty strict control over what the religion believes in and not. That is why I was surprised in past years to find so many dragons lurking around churches. A priest friend explained that they do not necessarily believe in them, but they are symbolic of evil. OK. So what's with the Centaur on the Parma Duomo? :
Across the Parma river (now dry for some reason) there is a Ducal palace and a large geometrically arranged ducal park. We passed by the palace and looked through the park, fantasizing about where in the huge palace we would put our computer room, and whether if we were the Duke and Duchess we would have strength to walk the park or whether we would need a horse and carriage. Either way, we concluded, we would have to return to the palace soon for a nap. This probably all reflected not enough sleep for us last night.
The name of parma has long been associated with Violets, and indeed there are strains of violets that originate here. It seems that Parma Violets are best known as a British candy, but here in Parma violets are part of the mystique of the place. Before leaving we were able to get a small violet thing for grand daughter Violet!
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Upon leaving the old city, we naturally ran through the reverse of yesterday's arrival drama. First we had just ordinary blah modern city, then the ring of dangerous roads. This time we seemed to penetrate the ring with less trauma, so that was good. The next stage was the long chain of small towns, joined by ok but never entirely safe small roads. Our path north (back up to the Po) did follow for a good while a tributary of the Po, the Taro. There was a pretty much dedicated cycle way along the Taro, which we much appreciated.
Whether following the Po, or the Taro, on a dike, the riding is fairly boring. One can drop down into any of the passing towns, but during the day anything that is in them is likely closed, and there actually is not at all much in them in the first place. For this reason it was good, essential even, that we were carrying lots of water and also lunches.
Near where the Taro joins the Po there is a bridge over the Taro that was needed to position us west of the Taro, though still south of the Po. Without this bridge we would really be in trouble, for there were no other ways to cross either the Taro or the Po for dozens of kms. So we were naturally dismayed to get to the bridge and find it closed. We were having none of it, though, - could not afford to not cross. So we pushed aside a barricade and marched past workers who were engaged in refinishing (repainting?) the superstructure. They did not mind, and just waved us on. Whew. About 8 hours of pedalling saved!
The next hurdle was to cross to the north side of the Po, for Cremona - our day's destination - is on the north. Strangely, there are quite few bridges over the Po, and every one we have seen so far has been a huge affair. Our only choice was the bridge at San Daniele Po. This bridge is many kms long, and crosses over what seems like ordinary farm land for a long time before finally jumping the river. We got on the approach road, which of course has no shoulder, and tried to asses the danger. The traffic seemed reasonably light, though there was a fair number of big trucks. To our right was a steel guard rail, which eliminated any chance of ducking out of the lane, such as when trucks from behind and ahead of us would pass, leaving us the meat on top of the sandwich.
We pedalled as fast as we could, and endured the passing traffic with white knuckles. But when more than one car or truck rocketed past, too close and with speeds of perhaps 130, we had had it. We knew the feeling. When you sense that this was a big mistake and that disaster is imminent, it's because it was a big mistake and disaster is imminent. We were helped in this thinking by a white bike and flowers beside the oncoming lane!
So we picked up the bikes - straight up - and hoisted them over the guard rail. On the other side was a space just wide enough to push the bikes, but not wide enough to ride. If we have to walk 5 km, that fine, we said. And that's what we did. What's more, even from the safety of our side of the guard rail, it was terrifying. Heavy large trucks careened past, shaking the bridge, and making for white knuckles all the same.
When we reached the end of the bridge, we found the access to our lifesaving walkway was barred by a red barrier. Were they kidding? And just how nuts was Bikeline for making this bridge a main link in their Po Radweg? And mostly, how could the Italians be so callous as to think of putting bikes and perhaps pedestrians out in the driving lane!
We disassembled the stupid barrier, and lowered our bikes to safety. Then we took a sharp right and off the murderous road forever. Honestly, if it had not been for the option of lifting the bikes out of the lane, it would have been a very very bad scene. I think by about the middle of the bridge neither of us would have had the guts to go forward, or backward.
As we pedalled now along the north side of the Po, we were thinking some pretty sour thoughts about Italy. The big cities and towns were indeed fabulous, but the dike riding was boring and the small towns held few services. Mostly, though, we were ticked that we the road network seemed largely unusable to us, because of dangerous drivers.
This situation hit home as we saw that Cremona was still a fair distance away, at least as we crawled along the river, but that we could make it faster if we took the innocent looking more direct but still small roads on our map. I think maybe Dodie would have gone for it, but I refused. So we crawled into Cremona on the smallest roads available.
Unlike Parma, Cremona did not present any rings of modern city ugliness or expressways as we approached. In fact, we had a dedicated bike path that took us right in. In no time we were beside the Duomo. We had actually passed the turnoff to the camping as we came in, but this time our excuse was that we were too beat and rattled from the traffic experiences to be setting up camp in the nearing dark.
Cremona hotels turned out to be few, heavily booked, and expensive. So we ended up in the "Impero" an impressive sounding place with too high prices, poor furnishings, no breakfast, and dubious plumbing.
We are asking ourselves if we should spend one extra day here, mainly to chill out. If we do, we will move to the camping. If not, we could hop to nearby Piacenza. Piacenza has no camping, however.
Cremona was headquarters for Stradivarius, and there is a violin museum here. We will have to check that out. After that, we will think about that camping/no camping situation and either stick or move on down the line!
Bonus Insect Section
Today's ride: 73 km (45 miles)
Total: 2,356 km (1,463 miles)
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