110km of 3503km so far…

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