Italy to Santiago II Part 1: Vercelli - Ronsecco

I piccoli sogni abitano dietro casa.

I grandi viaggi finiranno quando non si avrà più il coraggio di sognarli.

(Little dreams live right next door.

Great voyages will end when people no longer have the courage to dream of them.)

- Matteo Rivadossi (mountaineer)

After a restful night at Mariella's home in Vercelli, we turned down Antonio's offer to drive us out of the town centre and set off on foot from the main square, where the twice-weekly market had filled the whole piazza with vendors' stalls.

Following the route of the secondary branch of the Via Francigena that leads towards France via the Montgenèvre pass, the first ten kilometres out of Vercelli are entirely on busy roads, where we almost regretted turning down the offer of a ride. But the road always had a broad shoulder to walk on. We crossed above the motorway on a viaduct and then turned off onto a slightly smaller road, provincial highway number 1 (SP1). 

Eight kilometres from Vercelli we came across a ghost town. Well, not technically a ghost town, yet; the village of Larizzate has a population of ten (fifty percent of whom are members of a single household). We spoke with one of these remaining inhabitants, who sells rice from the surrounding fields out of a shop in the farmhouse where she lives. Not long ago, she told us, Larizzate was a thriving village of one hundred souls. Children played in the street under the watchful eyes of a Madonna and child painted on a farmhouse wall, and of the local nonnas, who sat outdoors with their knitting. 

The entire village was owned by wealthy landowners, who died without an heir and, no doubt with very good and charitable intentions, left all their possessions to the hospital of Vercelli. With time and the nationalisation of healthcare the village became the property of the national healthcare authority - and got completely tied up in red tape. The result is that the authority will not, or cannot, sell the property, but refuses to pay for the upkeep of the buildings. Unwilling to pay the cost of major repairs to homes they do not even own, 90 percent of the tenants have abandoned their former homes and gone to live elsewhere, leaving the beautiful old houses to crumble and decay. The village is dotted with graffiti lamenting this state of things.

The abandoned town of Larizzate

"Twinned with Atlantis, Pompei, Herculaneum and, since July 6 2019, Beirut"

"Bring a little hope, ye who enter here"

"Life used to make noise here"

Old marble plaque stating that the farm is the property of the hospital in Vercelli

Mailbox, cemented up 😫

One of the ten remaining inhabitants 

The writing on this house is not graffiti but a patriotic slogan painted during the war

An abandoned rice mill on the way out of town

After another two kilometres walking on the shoulder of the road, we finally left the highway to walk along gravel farm tracks among fields of rice. It's rice harvest time, and in fact we had to stop and wait for the manœuvres of a disconcertingly large and spiky rice harvester which, along with its accompanying tractor and trailer, completely blocked our path. 

Rice on the stem

Rice spill!

This pleasant dirt track through the fields brought us to Lignana, a somewhat larger village which is still alive enough to have a café, where we stopped to rest our feet and share a mid-morning pastry. 

Lignana: Caffetteria Garibaldi 

Lignana: the main square

Lignana: the castle

Lignana: the main street

The main street of Lignana took us back to the highway, which we followed for another three and a half kilometres, almost an hour, surrounded by rice paddies on either side. We turned off the highway onto a narrow paved road for the final three kilometres into Ronsecco.

"I walk the line" 

Follow the yellow arrow for Santiago, white arrow for Rome!

Rice harvester

Twenty kilometres from Vercelli we arrived in Ronsecco, our destination for this first stage. There is no pilgrim hostel until Lamporo, 34 kilometres from Vercelli, though the good people of Ronsecco will allow pilgrims to sleep on the floor of their gym and use the shower in the locker room. However we had no need to settle for such a basic accommodation, being only twenty kilometres from Mariella's home: her husband Antonio arrived in Ronsecco at the same time as us, but by car, and whisked us home for another comfortable night in the former church sacristy that is now their house!

Vercelli - Ronsecco 20 km