September 10, 2024
Our trek on the historic Via Francigena from Montreux, Switzerland to Rome, Italy had taken us over the high Alps and through the Aosta Valley foothills to the Po Valley floor. After six stages and 93.6 miles of trekking to the Po River, we only had 72.4 miles to go before reaching the Apennine Mountains. Not only would we hit the halfway mark of our 700-mile trek at the mountain foothills, but we would also arrive at our second trail break and the beginning of an Eastern European journey.
A Busy Road Walk and Rest Day in Piacenza
As we disembarked from our boat ride across the Po River, we left Lombardy and entered Emilia-Romagna (the fourth region on our trek). We still had about eight miles left to hike before reaching the city of Piacenza. Back on the route, we mainly walked along paved roads and some busy highways. Along the way we passed several beautiful churches and castles.
Some of the buildings we passed on the trail
As we neared Piacenza, the route turned to a bike path next to a busy highway. After all the days of hiking through the rice and corn fields, I was having allergy issues. Coupled with walking next to road traffic pollution, I had developed a bad cough. It was not getting worse, but was annoying.
When we chose our rest days on this trek, we took into account both the timing between our breaks and the location. Even though it had only been three stages since our last break in Pavia, we chose to take a rest day in Piacenza because it was a big city with some interesting sites.
One thing that we love about this trek is the joy of new discoveries in off-the-beaten cities and towns. We knew nothing of the city of Piacenza (population 100,000) but were surprised at its beauty and history as we explored it on our rainy rest day.
Our accommodations were just down the street from the Piazza Cavalli in the center of town. In the square were equestrian statues of father and son Alexander and Ranuccio Farnese, the 16th century dukes of Parma.
When we entered the 13th century Piacenza Cathedral, we were awed at its grand scale. Its nave and dome were decorated with a series of beautiful frescoes. And the walls were adorned with such incredible artwork that we took our time to see it all as loud thunder clapped over us from the storm.
Piacenza Cathedral
Off the Route to an Agriturismo Stay and Dinner
After our enjoyable day in Piacenza, we began a 14.3-mile stage the next morning. Before leaving the city, we stopped at the Basilica of Sant’Antonino. Piacenza’s first bishop, San Vittorio, was appointed in the 4th century, and the basilica, which houses his remains, was dedicated in 1014.
We came to a challenging section of hiking on a narrow shoulder with constant traffic speeding by us. It required a lot of concentration to navigate along the busy highway. As the cars whizzed by us, we came across two Great Danes barking ferociously at us. One of them almost jumped the fence as Darren passed by.
Soon, we were back among the more peaceful fields. Most of the vegetables had been picked, but we did see several tomato crops growing.
Later, we passed the Chiesa San Michele Arcangelo before turning off the official route to walk 1.8 miles to our agriturismo accommodation.
An agriturismo is a farm authorized by the Italian government to provide an overnight stay. In addition to the sleeping experience, there is usually an option to have a farm-to-table dinner on site. So we booked a reservation.
We sat down to an outdoor four-course dinner as the sun was setting behind our table.
Our first course was gnocco fritto, a puff bread prepared with flour, water, and lard. It was served with cheese and prosciutto. The pasta courses consisted of gnocchi with mushrooms and sausage, as well as a tortellini stuffed with ricotta cheese, spinach, and sage. We agreed that the tortellini was among the best pasta dishes we had ever eaten.
A meat course of roasted pork and potatoes followed, and for dessert we ate panna cotta. Accompanied by local red wine, the entire meal was amazing. It was well worth our diversion off the trail.
Our agriturismo dinner (clockwise from upper left): Gnocco fritto; tortellini stuffed with ricotta cheese, spinach, and sage; gnocchi with mushrooms and sausage; roasted pork and potatoes
As we neared the end of the Po Valley, we began to see the foothills of the Apennine Mountains ahead of us. At the same time the weather began to change from the heat and humidity we had initially experienced to cooler temperatures and even some rain.
During our next stage we walked 1.8 miles back to the point where we left the Via.Francigena route. A little later, we hiked by the Castello di Cerreto Landi, dating from 1385.
Later, we needed to ford the Torrente Chiavenna stream. When we arrived we weren’t comfortable with the water level, so we opted to take a detour, adding 1.4 miles to our stage distance. Our day ended with 12.1 miles trekked.
There was actually heavy rain (greater than one inch) in the forecast for our next stage, so we decided to walk the 13.5 miles to Fidenza very quickly, with no breaks. We did make one brief stop at the Abbey of Chiaravalle della Colomba. It was founded in 1136 by the bishop of Piacenza. As we viewed the church and its courtyard, it reminded us of the California Missions we saw during our 800-mile trek.
Visit to the Abbey of Chiaravalle della Colomba
We were able to maintain a three-mile per hour walking pace until the rain began with about 2.5 miles to go. So we got a little wet, even though our packs stayed dry with their rain covers on. With temperatures in the 70°s F, the rain actually felt a little refreshing to us.
As we were walking in the rain over a highway bridge on the outskirts of Fidenza, a car pulled over and a man jumped out. He came over to us with two bottles of water in his hand. Speaking Italian, he motioned to the rain in the sky and pressed the water into our hands. We were grateful for his kind gesture.
It began to pour just as we arrived in the city of Fidenza.
It was too early to check into our Airbnb, so we got under some cover and pulled out our phones to find a place to eat lunch.
A highly-rated restaurant was close by. But when we got there, the owner said that all the tables were booked. Disappointed, I mentioned that we were Via Francigena hikers, and that we were looking to get out of the storm. He excused himself for a moment, and then came back to seat us at a table.
Soon, the small restaurant was full with the table bookings. We were able to enjoy some wonderful homemade ravioli and gnocchi, and relax as it continued to pour outside. As we left, we thanked the owner for kindly fitting us in.
Lunch ravioli and gnocchi
After we finished lunch, the rain had stopped. We headed to Fidenza’s cathedral on our way to the Airbnb..
We marveled at the cathedral’s exterior bas-reliefs from the 12th and 13th centuries. One sculpture had Via Francigena significance: the apostle Simon held a parchment showing pilgrims the way to Rome.
Bas-relief detail; Simon statue and close-up of his parchment
Beginning the Foothill Climb to Our Break
Arriving in Fidenza marked the end of the Po Valley section of the Via Francigena. It was evident that our flat and fast hiking was over the next morning, as we left Fidenza and began climbing almost immediately into the Apennine Mountain foothills.
The scenery was stunning. Looking back, we could see the Po Valley slowly fade away.
We passed the Castello di Costamezzana, dating as far back as the 11th century. Much of it was in ruins with only the castle tower intact.
The weather was definitely cooler than our valley stages, but a series of steep ascents and descents in the full sun made us tired. We stopped for a break at a grocery store toward the end of the stage in the town of Medesano. While Darren went to buy some cold water, I waited outside with our packs.
A young Italian woman exiting the store approached me and asked if we were hiking the Via Francigena. When I nodded yes, she turned to her bag of produce and began to pull out food to give me. With her limited English and my few Italian words, I managed to talk her into just giving us a couple of bananas and plums. She was so overjoyed at helping us. I thanked her profusely as Darren arrived, and we began hiking again.
A few miles later we arrived in the town of Felegara, with the mountains looming right ahead of us. We covered 17.5 miles and gained over 1,700 feet during the long stage.
The next day we set out on a short 4.3-mile hike to the town of Fornovo. It was a fast walk on a path near a river.
Before arriving in Fornovo we crossed a bridge over the Taro River, a tributary of the Po River.
At the end of the bridge was a pilgrim statue.
It mirrored a (now headless) external sculpture on the 12th century facade of Fornovo’s Pieve di Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral.
Fornovo’s Pieve di Santa Maria Assunta Cathedral; headless pilgrim statue
We arrived in Fornovo exactly one month after beginning our trek on August 10. In that time, we have hiked slightly less than halfway through our 700-mile distance, completing 323.8 miles in Switzerland and Italy and averaging about 13 miles a day.
It is in Fornovo that we are leaving the trail for another break. This time we will travel to several countries we have never visited: San Marino, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The break comes at a good time for us as we are both feeling weary. I have my cough and a persistent heat rash on my legs to contend with, and Darren has a sore foot and hip. Our 3 ½ week break allows us to rest and heal before tackling the challenging Apennine Mountain stages. Once we hike over the mountains we will enter the Tuscany region as we continue trekking the second half of our journey and getting ever so closer to Rome.
