Via Francigena Days 11 and 12 - Pavia to Santa Cristina & Santa Cristina to Piacenza

 Thursday, August 28th

We spent the morning and early afternoon in Pavia sightseeing. First to the Certosa di Pavia, a monastery complex built in the 15th century by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan. We were able to join an Italian language tour led by one of the monks. Although we were unable to understood what he was saying, we were able to see areas normally closed off to the public. 

From the Certosa we went to the Chiesa di San Pietro Ciel d’Oro (Church of Saint Peter in the Golden Sky) where the remains of St. Augustine are interred. We also visited the Chiesa di San Teodoro (Church of St. Theodore).

Our plan was to then take the 3:12 train from Pavia to Santa Cristina where we were to meet our driver who would transport us to the Agriturismo San Bruno where we would spend the night. There are two train stations in Pavia and the station where I thought the train came through at 3:12 was actually the station where it came through at 3:06. To make a long story short, we missed our train and had to wait an hour for the next train, our driver refused to wait for us (said he had other work commitments), and we had to order a taxi from Pavia (no local taxis in Santa Cristina). By the time everything got sorted out and the taxi picked us up, it was after 6:00 and we were $100 poorer. The owner of the Agristurismo left the keys under the mat for us and we let ourselves in. 

Our afternoon from hell didn’t stop there though. When I opened the door to our room, it was flooded with water! There had been a huge deluge of rain while we were waiting for our train in Pavia. The window of our room had been left open, but it also looked like the roof might have leaked. Took at least another hour plus for the owner to come back and move us into a new room. All in all, definitely not a day I want to repeat.

First order of the day - getting our pilgrim 
passports stamped at the Cathedral

Walking toward the Certosa church

Interior entry way with a
view of the altar

Interior courtyard of the
monastery complex

Each rooftop represents a monk's cell

Reliquary with St. Augustine's bones

Elaborate sarcophagus of St. Augustine's tomb

Interior of the Church of St. Theodore

Santa Cristina train station

Friday, August 29th

Our journey today started with a ferry crossing of the Po River, followed by a flat 8.5 mile walk along paved country roads and busy highways. Our highlight of the day was definitely our ferry ride with Danilo. As we crossed the river we could see evidence of yesterday’s storm with lots of logs and debris floating in the river. Once we docked, Danilo invited us to his house where he stamped our passports, had us sign his log book, and offered us coffee.

We then left to continue our walk to Piacenza. We again crossed the Po River to enter the town of Piacenza and continued into town through an industrialized area. Rich met us along the way and walked with us the rest of the way into the charming old town city center and our lovely accommodations for the night.

After having a delicious lunch at a nearby coffee shop followed by a refreshing gelato, we did a bit of sightseeing of some of Piacenza’s more impressive churches. So far, Piacenza and Pavia have been my two favorite towns on this journey.

Our ferry across the Po River and driver Danilo

Becky captured this photo 
of a heron as we were
passing by

Me, Danilo and Becky

Tomatoes ready for harvesting

Bridge into Piacenza

Via Francigena Days 9 and 10 - Mortara to Garlasco & Garlasco to Pavia

Tuesday, August 26th

Our route today took us 12.6 flat miles through more and more rice fields. I never thought I would complain about flat terrain or say I missed climbing mountains, but I’m definitely ready for a change of scenery. We left Vercelli this morning via train, arriving in Mortara (the beginning of our walk) @ 9:30. Most of the day was spent walking gravel or sandy dirt paths with little to no shade on what turned out to be a very warm day. We were all hot and tired when we finally arrived in Garlasco.

At one point during the day, after passing one too many rice fields, Jerry asked whose idea it was to walk this pilgrimage route. I responded that he was the person who initially sent me a text about it.  He didn’t believe me so I found his original text (sent when he and Becky were walking the Camino Del Norte May 2024) which read:

”Becky thinks she wants to do part of the Canterbury to Rome Camino. Maybe just out of the Alps to Rome. I don’t think I’m interested but who knows.”

I guess technically it was Becky who suggested it (to be fair I had also been looking at this route as another pilgrimage possibility), but it was Jerry who got the ball rolling. As I told Jerry, he was the instigator!

Typical view of the landscape and walking paths we
encountered today

This gentleman passed us on his bike (painted the colors of
the Italian flag) as we were entering one of the small towns
today and motioned us to follow him to the town center.
Once there, he opened the door of a small office where he
 stamped our pilgrims' passports and gave us each a
Via Francigena pin.

Some of the garden art we've seen along the way

Working locks on one of the canals we passed

Chiesa di San Georgio (with a huge statue atop the
front door of St. George slaying the dragon

We've seen this Jubilee 2025 banner at a number of
churches along our way. The saying translates as
"Pilgrims of Hope"

Interior view of the church of St. George

Wednesday, August 27th

Today was much like the last few days, only longer: 15 miles, with minimal elevation. The weather forecast was threatening thunderstorms @ 2:00, but it never did materialize. We had a slight drizzle walking into Pavia this afternoon, but it felt refreshing. The last few miles into town were on a lovely forest path and the view of the three bridges over the Ticino River into Pavia felt like we were entering a medieval town. 

Pavia is a bustling university city with a number of sights to see: the Basilica di San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro where the remains of St. Augustine are interred, the Castillo Visconteo di Pavia, and numerous other historical churches. Too many sights to see in the few hours we have left today so we’ve decided to take an additional rest day tomorrow and then train to our next destination in the afternoon.

View of the Ticino River which runs through Pavia

Interior view of Pavia's 15th century cathedral

Another of of the interior of the cathedral

Via Francigena Days 7 and 8 - Santhia to Vercelli & Vercelli to Robbio

Sunday, August 24th

Our walk today was supposed to be18.5 miles, but we decided to shorten it by @ 5 miles and took the train to the small town of San Germano Vercellese and walked to Vercelli from there. We were accompanied by a Swiss gentleman we had briefly met yesterday (Yvio). Minimal elevation gain (or sights to see) as we zigzagged our way through numerous fields of rice. We did see flocks of egrets and some other bird that might have been a type of heron. Other than that, it was rice field after rice field.

Exterior of San Germano Church

Interior of San Germano Church

The pipe organ in the San German Church was built
in 1775 and is still in working condition

Rice fields

Looks like they're draining these rice fields

Saying good-bye to Yvio as he returns home
to Bern tomorrow

Monday, August 25th

We are definitely in the flatlands now! During our 13.5 mile walk today we crossed from the Piedmont region of Italy into Lombardy. The scenery hasn’t changed much, however. We walked by rice field after rice field after rice field. Since it was warmer today the mosquitoes decided to join us also. I won’t know until the middle of the night how many new bites I have. 

Rich walked with us to the town of Palestro, about 7 miles into our walk. He was then able to catch a train back to Vercelli, which is where we’re staying again tonight. We walked another 6.5 miles to Robbio and caught a train from there to Vercelli. Our train was close to on time, but Rich’s train was over an hour late and that was in addition to initially getting to the train station an hour before the train was scheduled. By the time I got back to our accommodations, he had been here less than an hour.

On our way from the train station to our bed & breakfast, we stopped at the beautiful 13th century Sant’Andrea Basilica.

We're getting closer and closer to Rome

Rice field and poplar grove

Rice fields as far as the eye can see

Some of the birds we've been seeing

A difficult crossing

Blazing a trail - we had at least a mile of this 
type of track

Happy we're through the jungle

Welcome to Vercelli with view of
Sant' Andrea Basilica in the background

Exterior of Sant' Andrea Basilica

Interior of Sant' Andrea Basilica

Via Francigena Days 5 and 6 - Ivrea to Lake Viverone & Lake Viverone to Santhià

 Thursday, August 21st

We had two highlights on our walk today. The first was meeting a representative of the Via Francigena organization as we were leaving Ivrea. We talked to him for a bit, Jerry filled out a questionnaire on behalf of the four of us, and he took a picture of all of us that might be used in promotional material.

The second highlight was meeting Elizabeth and Sophie, two fellow pilgrims (mother and daughter) from Australia. In the 5 days we’ve been walking we’ve only met one other pilgrim, a South Africans man who started his pilgrimage at the Great St. Bernard Pass and ended it yesterday in Verres. We walked with Elizabeth and Sophie for a while before they decided to slow their pace as they only had an hour before they would get to Piverone where they were staying for the night. Hopefully, we’ll meet up with them again somewhere along the way.

We walked 13 miles today past a few small lakes, more vineyards, and two 11th century churches (both closed), before reaching Lake Viverone, our destination for the next two nights (tomorrow is a rest day). Lake Viverone appears to be a very small, sleepy town now that their summer tourist season has wound down. Looks like tomorrow will definitely be a rest day for us.

Our last view of the Dora Baltea river
and the mountains in the distance

Lovely stand of trees - we think they might be poplar

11th century Chiesa di San Pietro
 (Church of St. Peter)

Bucolic picture of the Italian countryside

Piverone - typical street view of the small
Italian towns we're passing through

Our first view of Lake Viverone

Another view of the lake

Saturday, August 23rd

After a brief uphill climb out of Viverone this morning. the majority of our walk today was a gentle downhill. Total mileage was 12 miles with 632 feet of elevation gain. We are now in farm country, having passed corn, rice and pea fields, each fed with its own irrigation canal full of water.

On our journey this morning we passed through the town of Roppola and its 10th century Castello di Roppolo which has a somewhat bizarre history. In the mid 15th century, Bernardo di Masse, a knight wounded in battle, disappeared after entering the castle. The lord of the castle at the time was Ludovico di Valperga who, in 1459, was found guilty of the knight's murder, although the victim's body was not found at the time. It wasn't until renovations of the castle were underway in 1800 that the knight's body was found, dressed in full armor, entombed in a castle wall! You can't make this stuff up!

After reaching Santhia in the early afternoon we had time to do laundry (badly needed!) and buy lunch for the next day. We also visited the Collegiate Church of Saint Agatha and Becky and I enjoyed a very thorough history/tour of the church and its crypt by a young man associated with the church. Jerry had to come find us in the crypt, as did the parish priest who needed the young man (we never did get his name) to assist at Mass which was going to start in just a few minutes. We had forgotten it was Saturday and decided to stay for Mass before heading back to our hotel for dinner.

View of Castello di Roppolo

One of the flower-lined paths we've been walking

According to this sign, Rome is 880 km away
(547 miles)

Interior of St. Michael the Archangel Church
in Cavaglia

Church of Santa Maria di Babilone outside Cavaglia

Walking through the Italian countryside

Roadside art

One of the side altars inside the Church of
St. Agatha