24 Pavia to Piacenza
121 m climbing
6h 44m elapsed
23 sunny
78.14 km
4h 13m moving
61% off-road
Pavia to Piacenza GPX file
Just like yesterday
There’s not much to say today… it was just like yesterday… astoundingly beautiful early morning followed by coffee every 10-20km until it got so hot I just ploughed on to reach yet another large old Italian town. Two observations today: 1) I passed 4 wild dogs who though scary looking had nowhere near the aggression levels of the ordinary yappers you find in Italian towns 2) I made a rookie mistake in ordering a “pizza con pepperoni”. Tomorrow hopefully 100km and the start of the Appenines.
Avoided the “official route” first thing this morning and rewarded with plenty of mist and sunrise.
Where the Po and the Ticino meet
Piacenza
The way I've planned t
Overnight: Ostello Del Teatro
This is the first time on the Via Francigena I’ve stayed in a hostel or similar. Its 20 minutes walk outside of the “town centre”, but its a great hostel - very modern with kitchen, showers, washing facilities etc. Its also unstaffed apart from a brief period around 1700.
If you’re the kind of person that travels alone to be with other people then it’d be great post-pandemic. I’m travelling alone to be somewhat alone: not having to interact with others for a week is a break from the rest of the year. Nevertheless, I’d wanted to take in the hostel experience but I guess because of the pandemic there was only one other person in the entire place. Nice enough but might have to find a real “donativo” next year.
