DAY 88 – PONT SAINT MARTIN TO IVREA

We are now used to the fact that many shops and restaurants are closed on Sundays and Mondays, so choosing where to eat last night was easy: we returned to the pizzeria we ate at last night which is open 7 days a week all year. They work very hard! Tottering back down the hill to our room we noticed an interesting sculpture in the middle of a roundabout with a circular stained glass which looked very similar to one we’d seen in July higher up the Aosta valley at St Remy-en-Bosses (day 81, depicting a pilgrim in front of the St Bernard Hospice. This one seems to depict a woman with traditional head covering and staff crossing the Roman bridge (the ‘Pont’). Is she a pilgrim? We can’t seem to find anything more about it.

We made another early start this morning, setting out well before the sun emerged over the mountain top. On the way out of town we were amused by a couple of notices about dog fouling. We certainly think there’s a dog problem here because instead of house alarms people seem to keep dogs which bark aggressively at anyone within earshot, regardless of whether they’re actually near the property they are supposed to be guarding. It becomes quite trying when walking through a quiet village minding your own business!

After a difficult scramble up through abandoned vineyards we came to a chapel, closed of course, but then wound our way around the hillside through well tended vineyards to the village of Carema, which was an absolute delight. We were interested to see that some of the old abandoned vineyards are being restored, some of which are perched on steep terraces, rather resembling the terrace gardens you see in Peru.

Looking back up the valley to Carema – colourful beehives producing licensed honey for sale according to a formal notice on the fence

Onwards through more vineyards, along the main road to get past a narrowing of the valley, and passing through several more villages, the valley suddenly opened out to the south and west suggesting the end the the Alps and the start of the Po Valley plains. However, any thought that we were to have left the higher ground behind was quite wrong as our route continued to follow the western edge of a chain of foothills stretching southwards.

Not long after leaving Carema a young German hiker caught up with and we stopped for a chat. He told us about his night camping which had been disturbed by wild boar, unable to smell him and keep clear because of the wind. He assured us the boar were more frightened than he was! He also thought we must have been camping too, looking at the size of our rucksacks, but we explained that we’re just carrying too much stuff. He strode on ahead of us hoping to find somewhere he could stay and get a shower tonight, and we came upon him again later, sitting in a village square brewing tea on a stove and eating a second breakfast to lighten his pack. Perhaps if we ate more our packs too would get lighter!

One of the water sources found in every village, but this one was covered with a metal grille…to keep out leaves? No, because there were koi carp in it!

At the village of Montalto Dora we dutifully followed the excellent signage for the Via Francigena, only to find ourselves taken on a detour of several kilometres to pass by a restaurant and circumnavigate three sides of a lake (Lago Sirio). It was beautiful, with a castle commanding the hill behind, but we could have done without the additional hour of walking, not least the several ups and downs on cobbles or rough gravels covered with fallen leaves which made for treacherous walking. We’ve noticed before how the route can be ’commandeered’ for commercial reasons like this – rather frustrating, especially as the likelihood of us stopping for a large lunch this late in the day’s stage was pretty unlikely.

Our route into Ivrea passed through an area of splendid villas in large gardens locked behind high metal gates. One amused us, perched high on the hillside with a glass lift shaft up from the garage to the level of the house, several storeys above. We found our accommodation, La Gusteria, not far from the castle in the old cobbled centre of Ivrea, tucked away on an inner courtyard, though as it’s Halloween tonight there is a lot going on in town.

Castello d’Ivrea – for a visit another day

Finding somewhere to eat proved a challenge as almost every restaurant is closed on Mondays, some when their web listings say they’re open. We eventually found a pizzeria on the main square and retired early to bed exhausted, ignoring the entry buzzer being raided intermittently by people out doing ’trick or treat’. Halloween seems to be a big thing in Ivrea judging by all the families who were out dressed up as witches.

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