28 August - Susa to Piacenza, then Alastair

We collected Alastair today. We didn’t have too much time pressure, because it was less than a 3-hour drive to Milan airport and he didn’t fly in until 7pm, hence after an excellent sleep and a bit of a lie-in we’d packed the car by 10:30am and left it to find the Roman arena, one of many significant Roman remains here in Susa. We’d already scouted the arch and a few other structures yesterday evening, but the arena was one of the draw cards for the area.

Roman arena

Attractive piazza in Susa

We sauntered into the courtyard of the town hall building where there was a fabulous deco theatre being renovated and John enjoyed chatting to an Italian man (in English) to find out that he had lived in Badalucco, an area of Liguria (on the west Mediterranean coast of Italy) that we know well. John was thoroughly enjoying interacting with the locals, and was in fact seeking out every opportunity to do so. An example is when we sat down to have an espresso/macchiato at a little local café. John caught eye contact with an older guy popping a little biscuit in his female partner's mouth. He was momentarily embarrassed until John smiled at him and he grinned back. I must add here that our coffees were magnificent. John went all starry-eyed!! Then, when we found the old Roman arena, John started a conversation with a French tourist. He’s clearly very much enjoying ‘feeling continental’. We both get a huge buzz from interacting with the locals, whether they are residents or, like us, merely passing through. 

Amazing art deco theatre being renovated

Great coffee! A very satisfied customer.

A few impressions of Italy from our few days here so far: compared to France it seems scruffier, perhaps more lively and laid-back, friendly, and certainly Susa has a very comfortable open feel to it. We are intrigued by the intricacy of the ironwork everywhere, whether it is in the balustrades, gates or fences. It is very impressive and clearly highly skilled. We are very taken with Susa. The area around is it mountainous, with some terracing for agriculture or viticulture, but we imagine it will be extremely cold in winter, with snow for many months of the year. We very much enjoyed our overnight stay and half day here.

Susa is very much in the Alps

Looking at the tourist information available, we’d selected a few places we’d check out on the way to Milan. One was a wonderful-looking rural church complex. Unfortunately, after we’d driven up increasingly narrow hillside roads, for about 5km, with no idea how much further it was to get to the church, we decided to cut and run. Back through the little hamlet, to the motorway, and onto the next proposed stop, an incredibly huge monastery complex. Unfortunately we soon saw that this sat atop the mountain ridge above the valley. No, we were not going to attempt that narrow, zig-zag and time-draining climb so we satisfied ourselves with photos of it from the valley floor and continued on to a town called Casale Monferrato. Here was a pleasant place, complete with its own castle (no surprises there) and a very nice place to pass a few hours, as we had time to spare.

Sant'Ambrogio di Torino

A Ferramenta in Casale Monferrato

It was then time to drive the final hour to Milan airport. We got a little sidetracked when, deciding it would be good to get a full map of Italy, we followed a tourist sign down a side road. The only trouble was, after driving about 5km through tunnels, and appearing out the other end at a complex roundabout without any tourist information sign to follow, we gave it away and drove all the way back through the tunnels to the main road. Not happy! The lack of rest areas is very evident. There are many very small places for a vehicle to pull off the carriageway, but they don’t provide enough space for a picnic or any mental break from cars/trucks tearing by immediately adjacent to you. It seems that the only true rest areas are formal pullover areas adjacent to motorways, where restaurants and service stations are provided.

From Susa until Milan the landscape was dominated by rice fields, not something we had anticipated and was quite amazing. We even saw Asian workers in one field. Clearly this is where the rice comes from for Italy’s risottos.

Rice for miles

The road network south from Susa was very complicated, with radiant patterns of toll roads, motorways and local roads, some as viaducts, and all with seemingly endlessly interconnected loops, half-loops, on-ramps and off-ramps. My head couldn’t deal with it so I was very pleased that John was happy to do the driving. He coped brilliantly.

After stopping in a pullover area near the airport for 10 minutes, we timed our pick-up of Alastair perfectly as he exited the terminal. It was wonderful to see him. Just as quickly we jumped back in the car for the 1:25 hour drive to Picenza, where we had accommodation booked for the night. Of course we talked the entire way and the trip went very quickly. After a minor delay we met up with our host at 9pm, were soon into the Airbnb, then dropped the car at a nearby parking space for the night and walked to a trattoria just around the corner. It was quite late and we weren’t sure if we were hungry or not, but the food was stupendous. The primo (first course) was a huge plate of sliced salamis, the second course the most succulent tender beef steaks we perhaps have eaten, ever, closely followed by a delicious coffee. All for just 16E. Home to bed.