The morning dense fog

Me and Christoph cycled together to Mantova which is only 10km from Rivalta Saint Mincio. He would spend the entire day there, where I wanted to move on, but instead of going to Verona where I was planning to go and meet Romeo and Juliet, I was convinced to head east toward the little town of Montagnana.
Mantova is a very nice city indeed. It is surrounded by a river and has an old nice city in the center. Maybe I should have spend a extra day there as well to explore it but also get some rest.

Mantova's main square

One of the entrances to the old city of Mantova

The weather was a lot nicer today after the morning fog was cleared and I wouldn’t mind going back to a camp site. But being Sunday with everything closed the easy option was a hostel again that I knew where exactly it is.

- Put me in your living room!

The only interesting part of today’s ride was the town of Legnago, where I stopped for an ice cream. There is a river just at the border of the town, with a really nice, but short cycle path.

Legnago riverside

Three grades of brown

I moved on quickly, as I wanted to have plenty of day light light in Montagnana. I got there at around 5pm, unpack my stuff, had a shower and I was out again in an hour. The main point of interest of the town is the medieval castle. It dates from 1400, is surrounded by very tall walls, the best preserved examples of medieval walls in Europe and inside there are many houses, a few churches and of course many restaurants and cafes. I spend a good couple of hours wondering around, before I started getting hungry.

One of the four entrances

Montagnana's walls

The wall towers

The main church

I went to a restaurant for dinner, in desire for some good pasta. Without understanding much of the menu and without paying much attention, I ordered something random from the page where I saw carbonara, thinking that’s the pasta section. But unfortunately it was a pizza. It’s the last three days that I am having pizzas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Don’t get me wrong, I am in Italy and the pizzas are great here, but it’s a little too much for everyday. I’ve been in so many restaurants and that’s all they have.

The hostel it self was ok, but I was unlucky that its section within one of Montagnana’s towers was closed. Other than that for €21 is the most expensive one I’ve been so far in Italy. It didn’t have breakfast and they wouldn’t give away their internet to the guests.

I was ready and just about to leave the hostel when I realized there was breakfast included in the price, which of course I didn’t want to miss.The plan was to spend about an hour in the tourist office where there was wifi. I have to say though, these Italians should be a little bit paranoid with their state security or something, as I had to fill out forms and applications, give out my passport along with other details in order to get the login and the password to access the internet. A process similar with applying for a VISA and along with waiting the old lady before me to do the same, I really waisted half an hour of my precious morning time.

Nice little houses

The weather was once again foggy and very humid, but I was in the mood for many kilometers. The scenery was preaty much the same with yesterday’s and flat for the entire day. It was a little bit more interesting though, as this time though there were a few rivers to cross.

Crossing river Po

Very nice to be able to see the river below

The river side

The tyres of Hanoi

The lunch break took place in Cremona for a picnic style food in the main square, where a big open market was taking place. Without knowing the facts, I assume Cremona is famous for its violins. I saw plenty of shops making and selling violins and many posters all around the town.

Cremona

One of Cremona's churches

Violin shop

A big violin

Initially I was Planning to go to Bergamo, but the tourist office told me there are no camp sites or hostels there. I had to alter my route a little and after looking the map with all the hostels of Italy, I decided to go more to the east, rather than North, to the village of Rivalta Saint Mincio, where there was definitely a hostel open all year round. Going there, I decided to leave the main road and join secondary ones and go through nicer landscapes. It was indeed a good option, as the road was very quite and the scenery a lot nicer. There were vasts land fields covered with newly born trees and I assume they export all shorts of trees. Again, looking at the map, I decided to go through one of the smaller road, that goes close enough to the river, which was off road for about 5 kilometers.

Me in half a century

The off road bit by the river

Some of the many trees

A nice and quite road

I got to Rivalta Saint Mincio and I found the hostel straight away, next to a fantastic setting by the river. After a pizza for dinner, I met another cyclist in the hostel. Christoph is from Germany and he has just started his year and a half cycle trip all around the world! He rode from the east Italy, so he gave me valuable information about the cities I am going to visit over the next few days and made me alter my plans a little bit.

The river right in front of the hostel

Within the same courtyard with the hostel, there was a tourist informtion office that I had visited the previous afternoon. In the morning, I went back in for further information and ended up spending about half an hour talking to one of the girls about my long cycle trip. As I was leaving the courtyard, they called me back and offered me presents! A jacket, a tShirt and a bandanna with the regional logo and the website of the tourist office. They said I will need them when the weather gets colder. I kindly rejected the jacket, as I am already carrying two, but I was happy to keep the bandanna and the tShirt as the one I have, has changed three colours during the trip.

Outside the tourist information office

The hostel's courtyard

The entrance to the courtyard

Before I left Alessandria I went to the center to buy a map and to visit one of the bakeries, where I couldn’t resist and I bought a collection of stuff to eat for breakfast and later on. I left the town at around 11pm which is relatively late. It did rain during the night and for the entire day it was cloudy and a little foggy, making the ride feel a little miserable. The road was entirely flat, so the scenery didn’t change that much, apart of crossing a couple of dried out rivers. On the way I saw a car crash. That’s the second one I see during my trip, but I get the impression they occur more often in Italy. Over the last coupe of days, I’ve seen drivers doing some very stupid things on the road and that worries me a little bit.

Today's scenery

It was a little misty today

One of the many factories I saw on the way

And the car crash

It was around 5pm and I still didn’t know where I’m going to spend the night. Unfortunately not all the towns in Italy have a tourist office like in France and those that I visit will only have information about their department, which is usually smaller than what I cycle each day, making planning a little difficult. I was heading to the relatively big city of Piacenza, hoping there will be something cheap to sleep. When I got there, I didn’t manage to locate the tourist office, but the locals I asked said there is no camping around, but luckily there was a youth hostel. I didn’t mind at all, since the ground was still wet from last night’s rain and the hostel looked empty and once again I had a 7 beds room for my self. I had a big pizza for dinner along with an Italian beer called ‘Birra Moretti’.

At Piacenza's main square

Today was a very good cycling day indeed. It started by a 5km pleasant downhill from the hostel to Ganova’s center. I bought a couple of focaccias and a few fruits and started making my way to the north.

I bet the residents can park their cars on the roof.

The first part of today’s ride was over mountains and I am really happy that my knee didn’t hurt at all. It’s not perfect yet and I am still looking after it, but it doesn’t bother as it did a few days ago. That really made my day and I was in a very good mood all day. I was also in good mood, because once again I was ridding within nice country side and small villages. I had really missed that after spending 10 days cycling by the coast which is full of towns almost connected to one each other. The slope of the mountain was not very steep, with a col at 472 meters and the road running parallel to the river Scrivia

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Back to the small villages

On the mountain tops again

The river along the road

In the afternoon I stopped at Novi Ligure to look for the tourist information, as I didn’t know at the time where I will sleep at the night. The office was closed until 3:30pm, so I had to take a nap on a bench and eat an Italian ice cream to kill some time.

For just €2 I am definitely a winner

Small roads, small cars

The streets of Novi Ligure

I love my pillow

It seems that there are not many camp sites in the area. The lady at the office was very helpful and called the tourist office of the next city to ask for more information. The only option was a hostel at Allesandria, which I didn’t mind at all, as the weather forecast was predicting rain.
I cycled another 25km and got to Allesandria, where I had to wait until 8pm for the hostel reception to open. I wondered around its nice center and I wanted to approach the big citadel that I could see on the map. It was a little strange, because the bridge over the river that leads to it, was knocked down and I couldn’t see anything from the other side of the river. The hostel it self is in a nice old building in a church’s courtyard and for €17 he put me in a two beds room and nobody else turned up, which is a very good deal. If only the guy shared his wifi password with me…

A bridge is missing here

This is the Great Wall of Cheese