Day 11, Tuesday, 1 May 2007, (just south of Piacenza). It's not the Mississippi river, but it's what they have here and it you forget that the water level is so low in parts that it wouldn't come up above your belly button then it can have a certain appeal.

After a three kilometer walk from Orio Litta we approached the Po river, which is at the lowest level that many locals can remember yet five years ago it was spilling over its banks and flooding the nearby plains. As the river rushed by Joakim (the risk-averse Swede) and I waited with the two Swiss (who are really half French, half German and have lived in Switzerland for nine years) for the special pilgrim boat to come by.

"I don't think I will ever get used to the Italian concept of time," said Carl as he looked at his watch. It was 9:45 and pick up time was 9:30.

Five minutes later Danilo Parisi pulls up to the little dock and jumps over the railing, complains for several minutes about how poorly the pilgrims are treated on this side of the river (Lombardy) and then whisks the four of us off to his side (Emilia-Romagna).

The 15-minute ride across and down the Po is just long enough to give you a taste of the freedom a river can give. Think Huckleberry Finn and you've got me pegged for those 15 minutes. I was just getting my life on the river programed when we pulled up to the dock on the Emilia-Romagna side of the river. With the help of Danilo, who gets funds from the local governments to operate the free taxi-ferry service for pilgrims, we crossed what used to be a formidable obstacle for the pilgrim of the Middle Ages.

A stop-off at Danilo's house for a lunch consisting of various types of cured meats (pancetta, coppa, salami) ensures its well past noon before we begin the main part of our walk to Piacenza. Joakim and I swap stories with the brother-sister Swiss duo (Carl and Claire) as we work our way along the asphalt roads first between fields of grain and then on the long, straight road into the city. Joakim leaves us here for a train back to Milan and the three of us head down the Via Emilia to Montale.

Having risked my life several times walking along the various state roads here I now find myself trying to fall asleep about five meters from one of the mightiest of them all, the SS 9 - an old Roman road called the Via Emilia that connects Milan with the Adriatic coast. As if that were not enough to guarantee a night with very little sleep, the church bell is practically right above my head and when it rings (every half hour) the building shakes. Oh yeah, I'm on a mattress that's as thick and as hard as two coins stacked on top of each other. But I'm a pilgrim and pilgrims do things like sleeping on the floor of a  church building (cost = five euros for the night) just a few meters from a road where 50 cars pass every minute.

Just in case anybody is counting, I beat Claudio with the better dinner. My menu: various types of cured meats + fatty and yummy cotechino for appetizers; risotto with safron and sausage + pasta (garganelli) with cream, sausage and bell pepers for first plate; veal and pheaseant for second plate; almond cake for dessert.

Tonight's dinner was just a beer and a piadina with a friend named Loris who lives near Piacenza and came to see me with his new wife Sabrina.

Trip details: Orio Litta to Mortale, 21.8K, altitude change: 73 meters up and 58 meters down.

State of the route: very nice 3K to the Po and then the first 3K after the crossing, but then it was asphalt for the whole rest of the way with almost no trail markers. Water easy to find.

Weather report: hot. 18 degrees C on departure at 8:15 am, 25 on arrival at 5:30 pm.

Medical report: Generally very good. Right swollen knee hurt only occasionally and only the blister on the right pinky toe hurt.