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