Ostello San Pietro, Piacenza

September 16, 2009

Sure enough it rained. We woke to heavy rain and decided we couldn't continue then at 9.00 it pretty much stopped. We walked along the road to a café and had a cappuccino and a pasta con nutella. Back at the hotel it looked pretty good so we loaded up and set of at 10am. We hadn't gone more than 1 or 2km before it started raining again and was quite heavy for an hour or so. We had planned to take the ferry as was strongly advised in the guide but thought the condition of the track was too bad for that so we needed a bridge. THIS WAS A BAD MISTAKE. There were difficulties with navigation but we eventually found the bridge and set off on a very busy and narrow road. The bridge was about 1km long and the only way I knew that Tricia was OK was that the trucks still kept coming. We wouldn't do it again but we did get to the other side.

Then followed small roads that would be OK in dry weather but the lowest point came when we got onto a boggy track. Mud stuck to everything and soon the wheels wouldn't turn. We turned around and followed a gravel track for 1-2km which took us to a small town. There we had a chance to get on a straight road to Piacenza and grabbed at this even though it was fairly busy. The speedo had given out by now. Eventually we stopped for lunch on a wet seat in a small town. We got into Piacenza about 2.30 but went for miles around an amazing brick defensive wall with a moat - there was very heavy traffic on the way in and Tricia's handle bars were getting very loose.

It is a big city and eventually Tricia found the central square and the information. Most hotels were very expensive. Then we met Andeas, a German Pilgrim and he said come with him. We walked with him for 4-5km to the Ostello San Pietro which was a hostel for pilgrims attached to a church. It was excellent and we had a 3 bed room to ourselves.

I found the local humungous Supermarket and bought juice, beer and cheese. Then spent half an hour trying to get some of the mud off the bikes. Dinner was at the Pizza place across the road, it was huge , a lot of fun and our meal including half a litre of wine cost under 30E

There must have been a brief pause in the rain

I think this is the church our hostel was attached to

Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 1,545 km (959 miles)

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