• 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.

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.