Stage 27: Tromello to Pavia (30,11 km)
The day starts out well, a good breakfast in the small hotel I stayed in with a server so vibrant and full of good cheers that I feel immediately energised.
After that it is on to more straight flat roads in grey-in-grey weather.
I reach Pavia, todays goal early afternoon and have time to relax in a good B&B.
Stage 26: Vercelli to Tromello (42,69 km)
Unharvested fields
Harvested fields
Fields by the roadside
That was pretty much the day. And it was a long one. Want to see more fields? Check the video ;-)
Stage 25: Santhia to Vercelli (22,3 km)
Canals more than rivers that are part of an elaborate irrigation system mark this area.
The roads are straight and flat, not much too see but fields of rice and fields of wheat as far as the eyes can see.
It is easy hiking, but also quite mind-numbing. I feel quite tired, so I decide to take a rest day tomorrow.
Have a look yourself. Check the video.
Stage 24: Bollengo to Santhia (25,7 km)
The day greats me as beautiful as the last, the roads below still covered in mist.
The local pets pay their tribute (or is it the other way around?).
Here, the via Francigena becomes more prominent in the landscape.
Around noon I pass Ropollo, home town to one of the founders of the modern way to Rome.
I have left behind the Alps for good and enter crop-country
Stage 23: Verres to Bollengo (38,43 km)
The river accompanies me as the Aosta valley widens in the morning. It is easy hiking.
on backcountry roads and cycling paths for most of the day.
For lunch I have a sandwich and ten scoops of ice cream in memory of my uncle Edgar, who has passed away.
I leave the Aosta and enter the Piedmont region before he day ends with a short and steep climb to my wonderful B&B for the night overlooking the valley.
Stage 22: Aosta to Verres (42,41 km)
Yesterday, I chose a nondescript hotel well west of Aosta proper, to save some distance on this stage stage. Turns out, I have to backtrace almost 3km, due to the facts that the only "exit" of the road my hotel is on leads to the highway and ridiculous fences keep me from reaching the bike path that I will travel on most of the day.
Once I reach that though, it is smooth sailing, following the river, with no traffic most of the day. I feel like crap though. The alps appear to have taken more out of me than I had though. Rest and walking stretches come in a more and more frustrating ratio. I seriously consider cutting the stage short and forfeiting my booked hotel by midday.
I decide to take a longer rest at a beautiful picnic area, take of my shoes, get some fresh water and lye down on a picknick table to have a nap.
"Stefan", "Amigo". Who is that waking me from my doze? Antonio! Antonio, who I have met up on the Col St Bernard. A young Italian man who had quit working in the UK and the wonderful idea to walk home to Milano along the Via Francigena.
That is all the interaction I need to find new energy to continue trotting on to my original destination. I arrive - way to late - in a, small we say very basic, hostel, with the probably most worn out bed I have ever slept in. Pizza is at a nearby take-out-place-bccome-restaurant. Anyhow, I get some much needed rest.
Tomorrow will be a new day.
