Casalmaggiore - An Italian Spring, 2023 - CycleBlaze

May 25, 2023

Casalmaggiore

We open the door of our apartment building this morning and can barely get out with the bikes because the street is clogged with vendor stands and shoppers.  It’s market day!  We have to push our bikes through the first six blocks on our way out of town until we finally escape the pedestrian zone because the crowds are too dense to bike through.

Piazza della Erbe has a different character this morning.
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It’s another brilliantly sunny day today, something we haven’t quite mentally adjusted to.  We’re still in the frame of mind of expecting to have to dodge the rain, but in fact the weather has been fair and warm  ever since we arrived in Verona five days ago.  There’s still plenty of water in the system though, as a pair of bikers warn us on our way out of town, alerting us to the large puddle flooding the trail just ahead.

Not bad, as long as we’re careful not to slip down the slope into the lake.
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Keith AdamsThat counts as still dodging the rain, doesn't it?
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10 months ago

Our destination today is Casalmaggiore, a riverside town on the north bank of the Po that splits the distance between Mantua and Cremona.  We’re not particularly interested in seeing Casalmaggiore itself, but even a flat 65 miles is more than we want to tackle in one bite any more.  The previous time we biked from Mantua to Cremona we split the distance at Brescello (Don Camillo’s town) but picked Casalmaggiore this time for the sake of variety.

The ride is flat nearly the entire way, which doesn’t mean it’s without interest or surprises.  Perhaps the biggest surprise is how much more time we’re spending on unpaved surfaces than RideWithGPS warned us of.  It slows us down and for better or worse adds interest to what might otherwise have been a pretty monotonous ride.  One big plus for me was to finally see a purple heron, a bird I’ve had my eye out for ever since I learned that they were a thing - I’ve probably seen them in the past and just assumed they were a darker grey heron.  For Rachael, a highlight was the nutria that suddenly surfaced in a narrow channel right next to her and kept her company while she was pushing her way through some pea gravel.

And there was the cat.  It’s always nice when one seeks you out for attention, in this case walking up when we were stopped for some reason to sniff out first my pannier and then my shin.  Rachael tried unsuccessfully to coax it her way, but it apparently prefers guys.

The typical look of the day. It’s striking how fast the grains are shooting up, and how abruptly it feels like we’ve moved into a different season.
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We’re in the broad, long Po basin now. We won’t be seeing any hills for the next few days.
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There’s still plenty of variety in the ride though.
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Bales of fun.
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The low point of the day comes when we cross the Oglio and pass through the small riverside town of Gazzuolo, which we’ve been very slowly dropping to for the first fifteen miles.  From here it’s mostly an uphill grind the rest of the way, climbing all of 30 feet in the next fifteen miles.

Passing through Gazzuolo.
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Saint Rocco Oratory, the architectural highlight of this small town.
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Without this information we wouldn’t have known what we were looking at. It’s not listed on the map.
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We couldn’t get inside to view the wooden furniture inside, but the door was attractive and interesting.
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There’s more of this than we were hoping to see today. How long will it go on like this, she’d like to know?
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Quite a ways yet.
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It will get worse before it gets better though, with about a quarter mile of pea gravel too squirrely to bike through.
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#160: Purple heron! I saw this dark bird in the field up ahead too late for a shot of it, but was pleased when it circled back close enough to give me a second look.
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It’s a wall.
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Keith AdamsHow unusual!
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10 months ago
Scott AndersonTo Keith AdamsYes, until you recall that Mondrian lived in northern Italy for a season. Perhaps this was his home.
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10 months ago
Patrick O'HaraGreat photo. Love the texture and colour.
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10 months ago
Graham FinchMasterpiece!
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10 months ago
Scott AndersonTo Graham FinchIf we get a home again someday I’ll go with this color scheme.
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10 months ago
Prefers guys.
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Keith AdamsAwwwwwwwwww....
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10 months ago

Video sound track: Sembra Impossibile, by Fabrizio Moro

Casalmaggiore is a small place and no tourist destination, but it serves well enough for us.  There’s a fine B&B here, and just enough of interest - more than we expected to find here, really - to fill some time for the short walk we take before dinner at a quite good pizzeria.  The only other guests at our B&B tonight also arrived on bicycle, and as Rachael noted it’s likely that most of the town’s tourism activity comes from others biking the Po like ourselves.

Casalmaggiore is a river town
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In Casalmaggiore.
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The arcade beneath XV century Palazzo Manganelli.
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The top of city hall. It’s quite an elegant building with a large, attractive Piazza facing it, but the lighting was too sunny and backlit for a decent shot when we passed by the main facade.
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In Casalmaggiore.
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In Casalmaggiore.
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In Casalmaggiore.
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The Church of Santa Chiara.
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The Church of Santa Chiara.
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The Church of San Sebastiano, built after the latest of a series of plagues in about 1630, devoted to the Saint who was a know protector against plagues.
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The Church of San Sebastiano has been generally unused for decades, but the door is still open for a look round.
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Keith Adams"The Church of San Sebastiano ... devoted to the Saint who was a known protector against plagues."

You'd have thought maybe COVID might have revitalized his brand.
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10 months ago
One last photo opportunity for the day.
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Keith AdamsMy kind of terrain profile!
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10 months ago

Ride stats today: 32 miles, 400’; for the tour: 1,388 miles, 62,800’

____________________

2023 Bird List

     160. Purple heron

Today's ride: 32 miles (51 km)
Total: 1,431 miles (2,303 km)

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