Vercelli to Orto San Giulio

May 29, 2022

It was cool today, cool enough that we stopped within the first km to put on our gilets and then never took them off. The road was reasonably quiet for the first while, being Sunday morning, but traffic eventually picked up. We turned onto what we discovered to be a tow path beside the Canale Cavour. We surmised that the canal was to provide water for agriculture and when I later researched it, I learnt we were correct and that the water came from the Po near Chivasso. I also learnt that it somehow goes under the Sesia River (the web page was in Italian), the river Vercelli is on.

We crossed the canal on this old bridge; there were several such bridges along the canal.

The old trees along this part of the towpath had been cut down and new trees planted.

Leaving the tow path, our route crossed the high speed train line and an autoroute by an overpass and then followed some farm tracks between rice fields. Pleasant, but bumpy.

Then we were back to a moderately busy highway until just before Barengo. We were on quiet roads now until Gozzano, where our road merged with the bigger highway to travel up the east side of Lago Orta. Not pleasant but far from the the worst and only 4 or 5 km of this until we reached out hotel. The rest of that road, unfortunately, is the beginning of tomorrow’s route.

Ruins of a church in the rice fields. There has to be a story!

These fellows were selling edelweiss plants in front of the church in Fontaneto d’Agogna. When I asked if it was okay to take a photo, they all jumped in to pose.

We had seen a few course marshals setting up not far from Vercelli but here was the main event, though perhaps not the same event. This didn’t look like a serious race, more like a participation event. Waves and cries of “buon viaggio!” for us.

Seen from the roundabout on the highway in Orta San Giulio. “A mosque!” said Al. No way, said I. I looked it up. A wealthy industrialist commissioned Villa Crespi in 1879 to be built in Moroccan style. It had a succession of owners but the current ones transformed it into a five-star hotel and restaurant. I’ll bet it’s nice!

Our room wasn’t ready so we left our panniers at reception and rode to the historic centre of the town. Our hotel is on the highway, overlooking the lake. In fact, its driveway was the most challenging climb of the day.

The town centre was interesting but was it ever crowded! We are happy we are staying somewhere quiet because last night, after the rain abated, it was incredibly noisy in the area of our B&B, even though the closest bar was some distance away. We continued on through to the public path around the north side of the promontory, walking our bikes on its flagstone surface. We got back to the hotel just at the 3 p.m. check-in time.

Street between the closest parking and the main piazza with the ferry dock, Orta San Giulio. Crowded when the ferry disgorges!

Bike portrait on the lakeside path, Orta San Giulio

Later, I took my camera to explore the Parco Sacro Monte d’Orta.

There are 20 chapels, each with sculptures illustrating an event (real or fictional) in the life of Saint Francis of Assisi. Each chapel is also decorated with frescos but those are showing their 400+ years. A selection: