Lombardy

The weather has been hot and our two day stay in Viareggio was not long enough. With the increased demand on places to stay we were forced to book the remainder of our trip. Not our style but we had no choice if we wanted decent places to stay. We decided to head north to the Lumbardi and Emillia-Romagna regions for some flat early day rides to avoid the extreme heat. Now soaring into the mid 90's or higher with high humidity.

A train under, over the mountains to the Lombardy Region we go.

Train stop in Carrara

Carrara marble mines 

We arrived in Alessandria, a nice town but not very remarkable, with a quick stop for gin and tonic fixings and then to the apartment. A little cool refreshment after a long day.  And what do we see across the street from our apt? A Chinese restaurant! Ohhh, nice! We've had nothing but Italian food for the past 2 months. As wonderful as it is, different flavors are tantalizing us. I must say it was probably some of the best Chinese food we've had outside of China! Ordering was a bit strange on a tablet, but what the hell! The funniest thing is all noodle dishes are called spaghetti and all dumplings are ravioli. And don't forget the side of French fries with mayo! Italians love their french fries.

No Walla Walla sweets for us! 
A walk through town brought us to another flavor change, however they were closed. Oh well, I'm sure they didn't have Walla Walla sweets anyway! 

A side note:  almost all the apartments we stay have freezers, but none have ice in them.  We love ice in our drinks, so the first thing we do is find a small pan, fill it with water and voilà we have ice in short order. 

Ice cubes. We see these disposable plastic bag ice trays occasionally. So why do we need more plastic in the world? 

We left Alessandria for Pavia. A 50 mile ride and one of a series of longer rides we will be riding in this stretch. Flat country for sure and a pleasant change from the hills.  With the humid temps in the 90's it's lot like the mid west, but riding the flat longer distances is easier.

The many colors of wheat fields mixed with corn.

Castello di Piovera, a 14th century castle built on previous Roman military camps and probably on the ruins of a Templar convent. It is now used for romantic and elegant events.

We arrived in Pavia to find it to be a very beautiful and interesting university town. Thirteen miles of walking around Pavia found us at their local castle dating back to the early 1300's and now a musem. It was nice to be off the tourist route, we were one of about 6 people wondering through for a couple of hours. Much of what was on display was from the old cathedral of Pavia, Santo Stefano. 

Covered Bridge into Pavia

Inside the Pavia Castle, now a museum. 

The castle.

Original fresco dating back to 1300's

Mosaic tile floor

Mosaic floor. The grooved layout pattern can be seen where the pieces have fallen off.

 

The wooden model of the Cathedral of Pavia has a length of 5 meters, a maximum width of 3.64 meters and a maximum height, at the lantern, of 3.64 meters. Artifacts like this, made to scale with respect to the size of the building to be erected, had the function of serving as a reference model during construction but also to present the project to the client. For this project, an appraisal was requested from Leonardo da Vinci in 1490 based on this model.

The cript below the cathedral made from the wooden model.

Dominus Vobiscum Et Cum Spiritu Tuo
Are you ready for the sermon?

Carrara marble 

Marano blown glass 1800's

A little cooler start from Pavia to Piacenza, 85 degrees but only because we started early. It didn't take long for the temps to rise above 90 again! Plus headwinds for the whole 45mi made it seem like we were riding uphill even though it was mostly flat.

On the way to Piacenza 

Along the river to Piacenza 

The way to serve their regional Gutturnio wine in Piacenza. A little like drinking out of  a miso soup bowl! 

Tortelli, Piacenza's specialty pasta with little "tails" filled with spinach and ricotta and topped with butter and sage.  

From Piacenza we head to Parma, home of parmesan cheese and Parma ham - prosciutto.  Of course when in Parma you do as the Parmas do! (Parmanites Parmazionans? Whoever!) we went to the local market and got 4 different kinds of prosciutto, which was just a few to choose from and a couple kids of parmesan. Yummmmm!