Pilgrimage is what one does of necessity, to avoid being lost in a desert; to invest the walking with a purpose while wandering the land with no destination.
- Zygmunt Baumann, From pilgrim to tourist (1996)
Wide awake at 6:06, we were in the café having breakfast before 7 and on the road by sunrise.
Walking southeast through the cornfields toward the sun, in just over an hour we reached the Abbey of Chiaravalle della Colomba.
The Abbey of Chiaravalle della Colomba
Chiaravalle is a Cistercian abbey founded in 1136 with the goal of reclaiming the swampy land of the plain and making it suitable for human use. The name Chiaravalle is essentially the same as Clairvaux and Vauclair, two Cistercian abbeys I passed by in France, and means "valley of light": these two abbeys were all established in an east-west valley so that they would be in the sunlight all day. At the abbey of Chiaravalle della Colomba this is not an issue as the Po Valley is so wide, nothing is ever in the shade! 😄
The Abbey at Chiaravalle dates back to the 13th to 14th century, though it was radically transformed in the 17th century. After falling into decay for some time, it was restored in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, eliminating the Baroque additions. There are now five monks who live in the community.
After a brief pause to look around the abbey and ask the abbot for a stamp on our pilgrim credentials, we continued on our way, crossing on a viaduct over the motorway A1 and the high-speed railway line. Back in the fields, we zigzagged along paved and gravel roads, passed the church of San Rocco, and took a break at a pilgrim rest area outside a house by the way.
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| All pilgrim rest stops should have a hammock!! |
In the village of Castione Marchesi there was another abbey, but this one was shut; I continued on my way and lost sight of my companions, who had decided to follow a different route. I had already eaten my cheese and fruit in the hammock at the rest stop, so I proceeded along the roadside to the hamlet of Bastelli, where I stopped at a picnic table in the shade by the church to drink some water.
The rest of the way into Fidenza was on paved roads, with no particular sights of interest. I crossed over the motorway A1 and the high-speed railway line again - couldn't we have just stayed on the same side all day? - and then on a bridge over a river, then followed a cycling track to the train station of Fidenza.
It was 1:30 in the afternoon, very hot, and everything was closed, so I met up with Mariella and we took the train one stop - ten minutes - to Parma, where we will stay with my daughter this evening.
We'll see the town of Fidenza tomorrow morning!
Fiorenzuola d'Arda - Fidenza 23.5 km
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