For a few days, from Piacenza to Vercelli, we were on a functioning pilgrimage route, though we were moving counter to the flow. The Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome has become more active than when we walked and cycled it in 2012 and 2013. ...
“We are going to be crossing the Alps, Ruth,” Gord announced with surprise. Where was he for the last week when I was talking about the climb and worrying about how steep it would be with the trailer??? I am always surprised to realize how ...
Today we passed through the small town of Sabbioneta. It is completely enclosed within Renaissance walls, and has UNESCO status in conjunction with the city of Mantova (Mantua). Both places were ruled by the Gonzaga family, who produced a saint and a shocking number of ...
We have spent the last two weeks moving slowly across Italy on and off the Via Postumia. Our best days are always the ones Andrea Vitiello has carefully planned on either the cycling or walking Via Postumia . For reasons of time and availability of ...
There are few things more annoying than reading endless blogs about beautiful towns and villages. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to read for once that we arrived in a cesspool of a place that smelled like sewer gas and looked like a dollar store exploded in ...
I’m sitting in the waiting room in the hospital at Cittadella. I had a brief glimpse of the intact medieval walls before turning into this large modern brick structure. Yesterday a watched a blood engorged tick backing out of my leg after a good feed. ...
We are staying at a lovely house with our host Lilica in a small community halfway between Portogruaro and Treviso. I offered to cook spaghetti carbonara and she laughed and said that’s what she was going to make. She insisted on making us dinner and ...