Iteranti
A small roadside shrine inscribed 'Madre mia, fiducia mia' stands at a field edge in the early morning light, with a gravel track curving past a lone tree towards distant hills.

Ivrea to Vercelli (day 22)

Ridden · Jamie Brammer

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Miles of flat stuff

Wonderful early start through a deserted Ivrea. It’s not exactly hilly but there are some nice views over the lake at Viverone. After a small hill at Roppolo the land is flat… and stays flatter than Denmark for the next 2-3 days. It sure makes cycling easy, so this year the idea was to to 70-100km legs these first few days. Lets see how it goes.

Is it just me or are the pastries in italy rubbish?

The sun is shining, the people are cool and the pastries are rubbish… where did they go so wrong… 3 breakfasts today… great coffee but stale croissants filled with marmalade and hard cake things filled with cream. Now I don’t consider myself a cake expert, but I know what I like and these things wouldn’t be acceptable in Paris or Vienna… even in Manchester people would be right to expect their money back.

I’m hoping for better things further south.

Overnight: CASABONA 1910, VERCELLI

At least Italians get dinner right. I’m off out for the local risotto tonight: after cycling through miles of rice fields today I kind of feel I need to do it.

  • A laden orange gravel bike leaning against a cobbled wall beneath a brown Via Francigena waymarker pointing straight ahead, with pastel Italian townhouses lining the alley behind.
    Starting Via Francigena 2021, second summer of the pandemic.
  • A tiered clock tower rises above a pink and cream piazza building, with café tables and umbrellas set out on the cobbles below.
  • A small roadside shrine inscribed 'Madre mia, fiducia mia' stands at a field edge in the early morning light, with a gravel track curving past a lone tree towards distant hills.
    Goodbye to the real hills.
  • A wooden 'Via Francigena – Sosta del Pellegrino' pilgrim rest stop with benches, a table and an information stand set beneath a tree beside a maize field.
  • A yellow baroque church facade with a stone cross on its pediment, seen from below alongside a tall brick bell tower with a clock.
    Plenty of temple - bell tower complexes around.
  • A quiet cobbled street bathed in evening light, its ochre buildings edged by a low wall thick with red roses.
  • Rows of trellised vines climb a hillside above a hazy lake, with hills rising beyond the water.
  • The roofless stone and brick ruins of a small chapel, its arched niches open to the sky above a grassy floor.
  • A wide lake seen from a hillside, with a lakeside village and power lines crossing the valley below.
  • The ornately painted domed ceiling and nave of a baroque church, with wooden pews lining the aisle below.
  • A gravel track winds between grassy meadows dotted with round hay bales, bordered by trees under a hazy sky.
  • A cut-out wooden figure of a yellow-cloaked pilgrim with a staff mounted on a wall beside a no-entry sign and a 'Comune di Santhià Area WiFi Free' notice.
  • A gravel path runs beside a ripening golden rice field towards a cluster of farm buildings under a clear sky.
  • Close-up of golden rice stalks heavy with grain, growing from cracked, sun-baked mud.
    My first rice field. Had been drained and there was not a mosquito in sight.
  • A loaded orange bikepacking bike propped on a low bridge parapet above a straight irrigation canal running between rice fields.
    Irrigation and more rice fields.
  • A rusted marker post beside a concrete-lined irrigation canal bending away between rice paddies, with a road bridge in the distance.
  • The pink station building of S. Germano Vercellese, its facade lettered with the town name and the Trenitalia logo above green shuttered doors.
  • A quiet cobbled street between weathered plastered houses, with a silver estate car parked outside a faded doorway.
    Even the little towns feel flat.
  • A cobbled village lane lined with old terraced houses and parked cars, marked by the street sign 'Vicolo Attilio Ferreri'.
  • Electrified railway tracks curve into the distance past overhead gantries and a signal post, bordered by a gravel path and rice fields.
    I think I used this railway line yesterday. Still flat.
  • Four workers in wide conical hats stoop among golden rice plants, with railway overhead-line gantries visible on the horizon.
    A shinkansen and you’d be in Japan.
  • A straight gravel track runs between golden rice fields towards a distant farmstead and church tower.
    Did I say it was flat?
  • Looking out through a stone archway onto a sunlit piazza where pedestrians walk past a fountain.
  • A crenellated brick tower rises above a piazza in Vercelli, where a statue of Camillo Cavour stands on a pedestal before pastel-coloured townhouses.
    Vercelli is quite a grand town.
  • Looking up at the medieval brick Torre degli Avogadro rising above a row of shuttered townhouses, its identifying plaque fixed to the wall below.
  • An ornate cream-coloured townhouse facade with wrought-iron balconies and a small Italian flag, cars parked along the cobbled street below.
  • An ornate cream stucco townhouse in Ivrea, its wrought-iron balconies overhung by a fluttering Italian flag, with cars parked along the pavement below.
  • The rear wall of Ivrea's medieval brick castle, its round corner tower pierced by barred windows and grown over with a bare climbing vine, seen across a lawn shaded by a tree.
  • The barrel-vaulted nave of a Baroque church, its marble-clad pillars and painted dome leading the eye down empty wooden pews to a gilded altarpiece.
  • An open illuminated medieval manuscript, its dense brown script broken by a decorated initial and the large capitalised heading 'ENDALEO'.
  • A gilded and silvered medieval reliquary cross bearing the raised figure of a crowned, robed Christ, displayed in a glass case against a dark blue backdrop.
  • A Renaissance oil painting of the Adoration of the Magi in its gilt frame, showing the Virgin and Child receiving gifts from richly dressed kings and their retinue.
  • A museum case of episcopal vestments and jewelled shoes in white, crimson and green, displayed beneath the inscription 'S. Eusebius Episc. Vercellensis et Martyr'.
  • Two elaborate gilt and silver chalices on display at Vercelli Cathedral, labelled as the Chalice of Leo XIII and the chalice of the priest Pietro Garrone.
  • A large gilded and silvered crucifix suspended beneath a coffered dome, its figure of Christ picked out in gold against the ornate plasterwork of the church ceiling.
  • Looking down the nave towards the organ loft, past tiled arches and a black-and-white marble floor inlaid with the monogram 'IHS'.
  • A row of grey marble columns lines the nave, leading past a carved wooden pulpit towards a bright window at the far end of the church.
  • The high altar of Vercelli Cathedral, its marble steps flanked by tall silver candlesticks beneath a niche statue of a bishop saint, with carved relief panels on either side.
  • The pale stone facade of Vercelli Cathedral, its pedimented Corinthian portico topped with a row of statues and a green-domed tower, fronted by an empty pedestrian crossing.
  • The red-brick Romanesque towers and apse of the Basilica of Sant'Andrea in Vercelli, rising above a monastic wing and a tall conifer.
  • Looking up into the ribbed, red-and-white striped vaulting of the basilica's nave, with rows of numbered choir stalls below.
  • The painted and banded stone vaulting above the crossing of the basilica, its ribs converging around a small octagonal lantern.
  • Gothic ribbed arches and rose windows in the basilica's aisle, the red-and-cream brickwork catching light from the round openings.
  • The cloister of the Basilica of Sant'Andrea, its arcaded walkway and central well garden set beneath the church's brick bell towers.
  • The grey stone west front of the Basilica of Sant'Andrea, its twin towers and central rose window rising above a scattering of visitors on the piazza.
  • The basilica's bell towers seen across a lawned garden, with a bronze monument inscribed 'Umberto' standing among trees in the foreground.
  • A pastel-coloured apartment building with shuttered balconies on a Vercelli street, its ground-floor shopfront caged behind security grilles.
  • A tall stuccoed apartment block with balconies and awnings on a Vercelli street, a comic-shop sign visible on the building opposite.
  • Shuttered apartment balconies above street-level shops on a Vercelli street, a red banner reading 'VIA' hanging over one of the shopfronts.
    Nice to see some modern architecture too.
  • A tree-lined residential street in Vercelli, parked cars and wheelie bins along the kerb and a cyclist riding away down the avenue.
  • A colonnaded arcade along an Italian piazza, flags hanging from the upper storeys and a stone clock tower rising above the rooftops beyond.
  • A narrow street in Vercelli lined with shuttered buildings, cars parked along the kerb and a brick clock tower standing at the end of the road.