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 27 April, 2007, Friday (II) - Frogs, Birds and Mosquitoes in the Italian Rice Fields
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Day 7, Friday, 27 April 2007, Sant'Albino Abbey just outside of Mortara - Who knew rice fields in the middle of the Italian plains could be beautiful? I'm not talking just sort of nice, I mean really beautiful. I didn't know it, and I'm betting that unless you are from Vercelli, Pavia, Novara (Italy's three rice regions par excellence) you didn't know that either.
You have to hurry though because the absolute best time to see the rice fields I'm told is right now until about mid May when they are flooded. If you are reading this from Milan and are stewing in the city's heat, hop a train to Vercelli and come on down. Be sure to bring some anti-mosquito spray if you are going to be here soon after dawn or around dusk. Ask anybody who is from Vercelli or this part of Pavia and they'll tell you the region's one handicap is the blood sucking insects.
Gigi Serra and Pino Conti, two seventy-something Vercellese who know absolutely everything about the area, accompanied me from Vercelli to Palestro. When I say they know everything that is not a stretch, I actually mean everything. If somebody wants to write a one volume encyclopaedia on this area that touches on history, geography, flora, fauna, geology, cuisine, dialect and everything else all they have to do is invite Gigi and Pino to dinner and make sure there is a back up set of batteries for the tape recorder. Boy can they talk, especially Gigi, but when your time with them has expired you'll be wishing it had just begun.
You have not seen passion in somebody's eyes until you have seen these two talk about the frogs that inhabit the rice fields and the birds that feed on them. Who knew you could get so passionate about frogs and who would have guessed it could be contagious. You can and it is (if Gigi and Pino are doing the talking).
In Palestro I got a hero's welcome from the mayor and Renata Crotti, Pavia's councilwoman in charge of tourism, who today officially kicked off the province's "Year of the Via Francigena". Lots of photos and signing of official registers followed, but the absolute best part of the day and one of the top highlights from the week I have been on the road was the reception I got from a class of students from the Felice Ressico middle school. They streamed into the square in front of the town hall and peppered me with questions about what I was up to. I'd have stayed talking to them all afternoon if I could have.
One tip, Palestro is a nice little town, it has a pharmacy (fundamental for pilgrims) and the kids are terrific, but there is no hospital and no place to get a blood transfusion so when you come to do the Vercelli to Palestro stretch along the banks of the Sesia river if its early morning or late afternoon bring some anti-mosquito spray.
For the entire day I was something of a baton in a relay race being passed off from one person to another so that I was never unaccompanied.
From Palestro Elio Garone, who is with a group that among other things is looking after the local piece of the Via Francigena, shepherded me to Robbio along a just sign-posted trail among the rice fields. Until about yesterday pilgrims have had to do the piece on the busy road. Yesterday is not much of an exaggeration as I'm the first pilgrim to take this newly mapped route, which by the way is wonderful.
Just outside Robbio I'm met by Corrado Morelli, the forty-something head of the local tourist board. Before leaving town there is lunch (an excellent fish risotto) with Mayor Mario and Crotti. In Nicorvo Corrado passes me off to Gianmario Ruzzoli, who has Corrado's same position in Nicorvo. In Mortara councilwoman Pinuccia takes me the final two kilometers to the Sant'Albino Abbey, from where I write.
I'm received with open arms by Don Anunzio and Tino, the custodian. Both treat me like a king and I come to realize what the Via Francigena has and the Camino de Santiago is losing: that intense personal contact with the people running the places set up to receive pilgrims (whether they be clergy or laymen).
Padre Nunzio and I dine together on a wonderfully simple meal of pre-packaged food (tortellini, bresaola, breaded chicken and salad) that I wouldn't have switched for dinner at a three-star Michelin restaurant. We are joined later for some conversation by Gianmario and his companion Francesca, a committed promoter of the Via Francigena.
Padre Nunzio is gregarious and kind and among other things we hear about how he got his calling, so to speak, at 23 when he happened to be visiting a monastery with his girlfriend and was struck (figuratively) by a group of praying monks.
I'm the 412th pilgrim to stay at the abbey and a previous nearby spot where walkers were hosted. Sleeping arrangements are simple - a folding bed in the middle of a big room - but impeccably clean and way beyond perfect.
Trip details: Vercelli to Mortara, 33.5K, altitude change: 64 meters up and 69 meters down (most of that is attributable to the going up and down the stairs of several city halls).
State of the route: excellent, well signed most of the way. Splendid stage. No water for first 12K then every 5K more or less.
Weather report: hot. 19 degrees C on departure at 7:30 am, 26 on arrival at 7 pm. Sun was scorching from about 1 to 4 pm.
Medical report: Pinky toe blister nearly debilitating at times and a new blister on middle toe of right foot. Right knee began to hurt after the first 20K so that's an improvement. General fatigue very high and sets in after only 10K. |
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Supporting the Project: |
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In collaboration with: |
Assessorato al Turismo e alle Attività Termali della Provincia di Pavia |
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Viaggiare in Puglia |
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L'Arte di Vivere
con Lentezza |
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