Monday, 27 April
Piacenza to Cadeo - 13 km today
838 km on my Via Francigena
13 km for today
851 km on my Via Francigena (13 km for 2026)
I am back on the road at last
To get here from London included attendance at the ANZAC Day service at 5 am at Hyde Park Corner, a barbie at the home of my London based son, his partner and my grandson before going to Gatwick for the 2 hour flight to Milan. The train to Piacenza (my restart point) had me seeing the sights I missed in 2023.
My accommodation is but 300 metres from the Via Francigena route to Rome. This is quite new with a good set up and E24 for the night.
Monday up, breakfasted and off just after 07h. As always, with the sun to the south, way finding can be check and check and check again. This time I had a major land based feature, the railway line always on my left both on the map and in reality.
After 6 km the only choice was the major SS9 highway: one lane in each direction and a barely adequate shoulder with some rough to use when large trucks rolled past. But well before 10h I arrive at Pontenure for morning coffee, church visit, note a new (2026) memorial “Ai Caduti “ (to the fallen), lunch break, encounter a French pilgrim (who is staying at the same hostel as me tonight), afternoon coffee before setting off with the sun behind me. The last 4 kilometres are also on the SS9 and takes a while. I stop for every big truck to pass. But a I arrive, get a key to the hostel and encounter, not unexpectedly, the French woman(Nadine from Loire Valley) from Pontenure town square. We agree to have a meal together. We don’t have a language in common so we use a translation app. She is from the lower Loire valley and knows of Le Puy-en-Velay in the upper Loire valley. The meal ends.
And so to our own beds.
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