Joanne's long walks: Road to Home 2023 Day 69: Bollengo

Declining from the public ways, walk in unfrequented paths.

- Pythagoras

I haven't met any more pilgrims since Sunday. Partly because many people choose to walk only the most scenic sections of the Via Francigena, doing a week in Tuscany, or in Valle d'Aosta - definitely among the prettiest parts. But also because I left Pont-Saint-Martin late on Sunday morning, after spending the weekend in Valtournenche: knowing that I wouldn't resume walking on the Via Francigena until 11, I had planned a short stage, to San Germano. This means I am now staying off-stage, in villages that are halfway between the classic stopping points.

Today, however, I met several walkers doing the Cammino di Oropa, a route that is very popular because it is easily accessible from the major northern population centres of Milan and Turin and can be completed in only three or four days. On this stage, the two routes coincide.

Not having to wait for breakfast in my self-catering accommodation, I set off early in the morning, heading uphill from Bollengo to the 12th-century Romanesque church of San Pietro.

From here the Via Francigena continued along the side of the hill - still the same morenic ridge as I had been walking towards and under all day yesterday - to Palazzo Canavese. On the way I passed an abandoned roadside chapel and a small shrine to San Rocco, or Saint Roch, patron saint of pilgrims.

I paused at a bench and pilgrim rest area which has its own stamp for the pilgrim credential, provided by a certain Duilio. I wrote him a thank you note and a description of my walk on one of the forms provided, in a waterproof case: Duilio's is a very well-organised rest stop!

In fact, I have been finding this whole section of the Via Francigena to be particularly well-cared-for, with plentiful trail markings, benches and rest stops.

I passed through the village of Palazzo Canavese, with its tall brick clock tower and houses with the wooden balconies and wide wooden eaves typical of traditional homes in the area.

A freshly asphalted road led uphill to Piverone. Luckily for me the morning was cloudy, or it would have been a hot slog up the hill on the black pavement! Soon I was entering the centre of Piverone, where the main road was closed to traffic and workers were replacing the asphalt with traditional paving stones. A painstaking job, but a great improvement!

I stopped at the café just past the clock tower for my customary second breakfast, and purchased some cheese and fruit from the local grocer in preparation for a picnic lunch. Then I continued my way along a pretty path through the vineyards; one of the vineyard owners had set up a rest stop with benches and a view over Lake Viverone.

I continued past the ruins of the 11th-century Gesiùn church, once at the heart of a village that has since disappeared, replaced entirely by vineyards.

Vineyard well-protected against birds

White and red grapes intertwined

Lake Viverone

Harvest time!

The former monastery of San Michele is now a winery

Lake Viverone is a small lake that formed in a basin carved out by a glacier, like all the lakes in the area. The town of Viverone has a new part, with restaurants and bars, by the lake shore, and an old part higher up on the hillside. The Via Francigena took me through the older upper part of the town, which has been decorated with paintings of cartoon characters... and more!

A traditional house with wooden balconies

At the exit from the town of Viverone is a water fountain with a clean public washroom: an item of information of use to pilgrims!

Only a kilometre or so after Viverone comes the pretty little village of Roppolo. Here I stopped to say hello to Loretta, the proprietor of Villa Emilia 1899, the bed and breakfast I stayed at on my last trip before the Covid lockdown, when I was in Roppolo to attend Franco Michieli's seminar on natural navigation.

B&B Villa Emilia

Loretta showed me into the summer breakfast room in the garden, which I hadn't seen before as I stayed with her in February, and invited me to stay for lunch. I had worked up quite a thirst walking through all those vineyards and was very happy when she opened a well-chilled bottle of Erbaluce di Caluso from a local winery to celebrate our reunion!

After a delicious lunch of much-appreciated vegetable dishes - it's always hard to get your five-a-day when walking, or travelling in any way - we said goodbye and arrivederci until the next time I come to Roppolo, quite possibly to walk the Cammino di Oropa!

I continued on my way through Roppolo, past the Casa del Movimento Lento where I had attended the seminar three years earlier, and into the woods for another hour's walk.

Upon arriving in Cavaglià I stopped at the pilgrim information point, manned by Marcello, a very helpful volunteer who stamped my pilgrim credential, gave me suggestions on where to eat tonight and where to stay tomorrow, and, in response to my question, explained more about the geography and geology of the area. As he was doing so a group of Cammino di Oropa walkers arrived, so I said goodbye and went down to the bar to get my end-of-stage beer and the key to the pilgrim hostel across the street.