30 April 2022
All hell broke loose when I ventured down to the cellar to load up the bikes….as the alarm broke the early morning lethargy of the whole village!!
We set off soon after!!
A nice wee start to the day…but then found ourselves on much busier roads as we approached Asti (of Spumante fame). And it got no better as we headed North. Much flatter now…so we started to make real distance on the map!
Thankfully we eventually found some quieter side roads, which took us into…..rice paddies!! One forgets that Italy is Europe’s biggest rice producer. Extensive irrigation canals serving dead flat land.
And sunbathing beside one such waterway….was what looked like a Capybara…a giant rodent!! In Italy? It scurried into the water when we turned back for a closer look. But it turns out it is a Coypu, a kind of giant rat, originally also from South America..but evidently now very at home here.
Vercelli is the main town of the area…And we pulled into our lovely B and B around 3pm. Lovely but for having to lift the bikes up two floors!
And Vercelli was a surprise. Very lively, stylish town. Never heard of it! Spectacular aperitivo to accompany cheap beers in the main square…following which we satisfied Martin’s hamburger yearning!
