After leaving the Apennines behind in Fidenza, I enter the Po valley where I will walk for the next seven days. I can understand why I have met a number of people starting in Fidenza going south, today’s stage is as fat as a pancake, where the biggest climbs were the overpasses over the motorway/railway tracks.
Today consisted primarily of walking through agricultural farmland that had just been sown, was being sown or was ready to be sown. The variation was absolutely minimal, field after field after field. And they are massive areas, with barely a tree to break the monotony. After deciding to stop to eat my egg and apple for lunch, I walked for 2km before finding some shade to sit down.
Another chaotic breakfast, with too many people for what was available to eat. I went for an early morning walk around town, visiting the Cathedral. Today is Italian Liberation day, so the town hall was getting ready for speeches and commemorations, as well as concerts later in the day. I was told that pretty much everything would be closed, so I was ready for a long stage without services.
On a day with a beautiful clear blue sky without a cloud in site, and temperatures that reached 27c, the sun was baking down on a lonely walker, that despite sun blockers with factors 30 and 50, I arrived at the hotel looking like a lobster.
There is very little to say about today, other than it was pretty boring. It was a day mostly on roads, with a tiring pebble stone dirt track at around the 10km mark.
Leaving, with relief the pebble/dirt path, I passed a pizzeria just opening. I went in and ordered coffee, coke and the ubiquitous jam tart cake. As I was going to pay, the owner came and told me that it was on the house. A very nice gesture.
I passed through the village of the Abbey of Chiaravalle della Colomba.
I finally found a place for lunch under a tree. An older man, who told me he was from Morocco came cycling past and sat in the shade, He asked me to tell him when it was 2pm, at which time he cycled back the way he came.
At Fiorenzuola there was a break in the endless fields as I walked through a small town, where only the barber and ice cream parlor next door was open, so I treated myself – but I had to eat it quickly, before it smelted in the heat. After Fiorenzoula, it was back in the endless fields
I didn’t meet many walkers today. At breakfast I spoke to a Dutch couple walking to Rome, and concerned about the state of their garden when they returned – they started in Pavia. Just outside Fidenza I met Italian Luigi, who started in Aosta and going to Rome. Angels and Tiziano, also Italian were taking a few stages every year, whilst Wouter from Holland and Maria from Italy were walking to Rome from Aosta, and were wondering whether they were the only ones, as they’d only met five fellow walkers so far. I finally met two other Italian walkers, just as I finished my ice cream, today was their last stage.
The motel that I was due to stay in cancelled my reservation 4 days ago, but luckily I could rebook 1km down the road. Unfortunately it meant a longer stretch on the relatively busy SP9, also known as the Via Emilia.
I had dinner at the hotel soup, tenderloin and tiramisu. I’ve now walked 181km in 6 days, so looking forward to a shorter 24km day tomorrow. Unfortunately it will be more of the same – temperature and scenery wise.