Tuesday September the 21st
Total distance driven: 8.127Km
Today’s distance: 216 Km in 4:26h
Walked distance: 9,8 Km

Buongiorno ☀️

The sun is shining and there is a wonderful Panorama for breakfast. Actually the two ladies of the B&B are serving pieces of different sweets “Crostate” they personally baked.

They kindly ask me not to mention the sweets in an eventual review on the usual platforms, as according to the Italian law, B&B are only allowed to serve single packaged goods from the supermarket 😳The human kind is doing everything in its power to destroy this planet and itself 😒

Traverde is on a hill on top of the village of Tremoli. Both lie on the road to a famous pass for motorcycle riders: La Cisa.

Wonderful curves and panoramic views.

Guess what road are we crossing again? Yes, the Via Francigena. By the way Siena, Monteriggioni, Orvieto are all part of it. I could rename this trip the Via Francigena tour 😁

Suddenly I could not see further than my nose…

Then I saw some pilgrims in the fog. I was at the Cisa pass.

The temperature had dropped to 10C and my hands were freezing. It was dangerous and thrilling at the same time to drive through the fog, guessing on which direction was the next bend going to be. After 1:30h I arrived in Parma.

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Walking through the city, I found a simple enoteca called Enoteca Fontana and had Tortelli and Parma ham for lunch. While eating, a strong smell of cigar came from my back: a man was smoking. I looked at him and we exchanged few friendly words about smoking in open spaces. Then he asked me if I wanted to seat at his table.

Sure! I replied, knowing this encounter had the potential to change my day. And so I met Francesco, a 75 years old professor of psychology. We talked about life and psychology. In few minutes he psychoanalysed me and he figured out many things about me. Impressive 😳 But he also opened himself to me and told me about his life and stories.

Then the coincidence I was almost waiting for popped up. He is from Rome and was teaching at the same University I studied: La Sapienza. The university campus is big but with so many students, some faculties were positioned outside of the campus. Computer science, my faculty, was outside of the campus sharing the building with… psychology. It means that for some years we were both in the same building, but I met him first by chance in Parma 😅 Crazy.

He provided some indications to visit Parma and I continued my sightseeing.

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Parma is a nice city but not so interesting as the towns and villages I recently visited. I considered what could be my next stop and Borgo Panigale, hometown of Ducati near Bologna, came to my mind. Unfortunately due to COVID, the visits to the factory have been suspended and the museum has limited slots. The next available one would have been 3 days later 😕

So the choice fell on Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet. With a short stop in Mantova, it took me 3h to arrive in Verona.