Pavia and a challenging journey

Today started well with a visit to Pavia, but turned into an epic, with a much longer and more eventful journey than we expected.

In the morning, we left Molly on the aire in Certosa, walked to the railway station and caught the train to Pavia. We enjoyed wandering around the bustling streets. There were lots of young people because the city has a university (dating from 1361), and hardly any other tourists.

We visited the cathedral of Duoma, which was begun in 1488 but not finished until around 1900. The 11th century tower that once stood next to it suddenly collapsed in 1989! We preferred the inside of the cathedral to the outside, which looked rather tatty in places!

After a coffee stop, we went to the Basilica di San Michele, which was mainly built in the 12th century. We preferred the outside of this church, decorated with friezes of fantasy animals, to the inside, which was very ornate.

I’m not sure why, but my favourite attraction in Pavia was the covered bridge over the River Tocino, which has a chapel halfway along it. I enjoyed wandering along it, and the views from inside and outside the walkways.

We tried to visit the 14th century castle, walking for about 15 minutes to get there, but unfortunately it was closed until later in the day. We needed the exercise though, and the area we walked through was very pleasant in the sunshine.

We fancied a meal out, so I found somewhere that looked promising from internet reviews. Infernot didn’t disappoint with its Pavia-Sicily fusion of food that was absolutely delicious. After lunch, we took the train back surrounded by young students.

We were back at Molly by 3 o’clock and John decided he’d be happy driving the 2 hours 40 minutes south to the aire in the mountains that we’d chosen for our next stop. He had planned a couple of walks from Santo Stefano d’Aveto and we felt it would be good to be waking up there ready to go.

We left Certosa and everything was going well until we were south of Pavia and the heavens opened, the thunder started and it started to hail very heavily. By now we were on the motorway and John had to slow down because we were worried about damage to Molly and the solar panels. Lots of vehicles were parked on the hard shoulder under the bridges to escape the huge hailstones!

We eventually seemed to outrun the storms and left the main roads heading steadily up into beautiful wooded mountains. Unfortunately, the road became steeper, narrower, bendier and worst of all bumpier! We had about 15 miles of the worst road surface ever, and Molly Moho doesn’t like bumpy roads at the best of times!

One by one a number of our ‘ornaments’ went flying… Enya the dragon and the beardy man and his cacti flew off their shelf, Sharky stopped dancing and jumped off the dashboard, and Sally Sheep fell out of bed! At one point the vacuum cleaner turned itself on, in its home under the floor!

We eventually reached the pass and the road surface improved markedly on the last stretch, although we did have to avoid cows grazing on the verges! We were very relieved to finally reach Santo Stefano d’Aveto, but then gutted to find the aire was shut for redevelopment. No!!!!

Plan B… I found another village with an aire an hour away, so we set off again to Santa Maria del Taro. We went back up the good quality road, but then turned off and travelled deep into the woods on narrow twisting bumpy roads, again. It was by now getting dark and raining too. Luckily there was hardly any other traffic to worry about. We only passed 2 other cars in half an hour.

The road gradually improved and widened and at about twenty to 8 we arrived at the aire as another thunderstorm hit. There was room for Molly, once a little VW had put in his awning. It was dark and cold by now, so we shut the blinds and made Molly cosy.

This morning, the sun is shining… what a difference from last night! We’ve discovered we’re parked up by a river next to a pretty village. After brekkie, we’ll go exploring.