25 Piacenza to Sivizzano
310 m climbing
8h 52m elapsed
23 sunny
96.34 km (the longest day)
5h 15m moving
22% off-road
Piacenza to Sivizzano GPX file
EARLY MORNING
I deliberately got up well before dawn today to see the sunrise but there’s a 10km industrial estate / Amazon warehouse on the way out… and when I got to the fields the sun was behind clouds. ☹️
More coffee stops today… and at last some fantastic croissants (although I think they’re called cornetos). However the coolest thing was that in 2 towns some old guys came along commenting what an amazing bike I had… I felt just like a Ferrari owner getting his kicks from other men admiring his equipment.
Tomorrow the weather is expected to be “biblical” so I’m super excited.
There’s quite a few industrial km to get outside of Piacenza.
It was no fun cycling this bit
As good as it got for sunrise today.
Lots of old castles. All of today was Emilia-Romagna.
LUNCH
After Fidenza, I departed completely from the usual Via Francigena because 1) It looked like great off road cycling by the south side of the Taro and 2) The official route is hilly.
First stop and lunch was Noceto. Definitely worth a detour. Great food, cafes and an interesting castle.
AFTERNOON
I headed over the river from Noceto and joined up with the Via Francigena (the variant that comes from Parma). I think this is quite a new route but was well signposted and fun off road on the bike.
First up is a big gravel factory or something like that.
The trucks coming and going from the factory actually cross the river to get there.
There’s a different vibe to the flora here.
Overnight: Chateau de la Garenne
Another pleasant B&B without the host… you just type in a code to get a key. Only two rooms so very small. There is a restaurant up the road but was closed (I think because of Covid).
The hay fields over the river from the back of the B&B (this isn’t the view from the B&B unfortunately… that’s more like a couple of sheds).