I was up early this morning, and off to the laundrette, before joining a long queue at the bakers, having breakfast and saying hello to the owner of the room I was staying. She had sent me lots of info about Pavia during my 3 day stay.
I took the bus just after 10am, back to Torre d’Isola, where my very short stage yesterday had ended. Today was also going to be short, 22km and 223m elevation. But a day 100% on tarmac.
I left Torre d’Isola along a cycle path next to the road, and quite a few cyclists passed by, both those all kitted out and those with cycles packed as they tour north Italy. I continued along the cycle path through a mix of countryside with trees lining the road – which I haven’t seen for some days as I have primarily passed through farmland – and small villages.
I passed a garden centre with beautiful flowers blooming at the gates. I stopped for a coffee in Bereguardo. It was a desolate place (the bar), a couple of women feeding the slot machines in a large undecorated room with a old tables and chairs. When you choose the first cafe/bar you meet, there is always a better place around the corner. If you don’t choose the first one, there isn’t any other place around the corner. I should have waited, as there were several cafes as I passed the castle in the centre of town.
I was a third of the way through the stage. The rest of the stage followed the Naviglio de Bereguardo, an 18km long canal stretching from Abbiategrasso to Bereguardo and a system of canals connecting Pavia and Milan, via the River Ticino, and thereby enabled good to be transported far and wide. The canal was abandoned in the early 19th-century when a larger canal was built.
A tarmac path ran next to the canal and is used by cyclists, joggers and dog walkers. The water ran gently down stream towards Pavia, with the occasional waterfall where the locks used to function. Trees line the canal in many places, hiding the long flat stretches of fields.
I like walking next to water, so it was a pleasant enough trip, but a bit of a monotonous walk, I think the pictures tell their own story, without going into detail.
I walked 15 of the 18kms, before reaching Morimondo, famous for the Abbey of Morimondo, established in the 12th century and its medival centre with small stone houses that reflect its medieval origins.
I managed to visit the Abbey just as it was closing, but had a few minutes to look around.
All in all a long, but not super strenuous walk in sunshine. Three people were staying at the hotel in town, all walkers.
