Day 35: Stage 30: Vercelli, 27 kms, cloud & sun, 28° humid!

Into The Rice Fields!

Last night was a crazy night of lightning and thunder with intense rain. When it wasn’t raining near me and the thunder had moved on I could hear it reverberating across the sky from somewhere not too far away. It was pretty cool! I wasn’t sure if I should leave the balcony doors open overnight because of the possibility of heavy rain, but I decided that the apartment was just too stuffy after a hot day not to do so. So I did, and the floor was fortunately dry this morning. 

Up a little later, and after an ok breakfast and a clean up in the kitchen I headed for the centre of town and the start of stage 29. 

Of course when I saw this overpass I couldn’t help but think of Astorga in Spain and that famous green overpass. Looking at it I also couldn’t help but think that this might be the high point of the day. Altitude wise that is! 

This was to be the only view from an elevated position all day. What a change from the mountains! Looking ahead into the gray skies and flat, flat, flat horizon I decided right there and then that this was going to be a music day. I dug out my earbuds and they pretty much stayed in place the entire stage.

I know some people love these long flat stages, and I really enjoyed the Meseta in Spain on both the Frances and the Plata. That said, there’s just so much flat walking this cowboy can handle in a lifetime. The last time I crossed this sort of terrain in Spain was in 2018 and it was freezing cold and very non-descript in November. So it was with some trepidation that I set off to cross this very, very, very flat stage.

After crossing another very significant canal I stepped out on a highway and I was happy to get off it quite quickly. 

And then very soon I was into the heart of the rice fields. Now I have been fortunate to walk through some amazing rice fields on this planet, but these ain’t them! The rice fields in Japan have their own special feel and look about them, with frogs by the thousands croaking away and the farmers busy working their way through them. The terraced rice fields in Vietnam and Indonesia are something special to behold. Stunningly beautiful! These definitely are not. 

They are just square uninteresting feels of rice stretching out for kilometres and kilometres.

All of that is simply a visual representation. The fact of the matter is that I’ve learned to find beauty in just about every place I’ve travelled or walked. This was no different. As the day progressed I began to see the beauty in the sky.,,

…and yes, even on the land. 

There also the distractions from the many trains that were zipping past me throughout the day.

There are many egrets and herons plus many other varieties of birds in the area. The problem is they are extremely skittish because it seems that they are regularly the target of hunters. I found evidence of that today as I walked. I never enjoy seeing that as I feel that our bird life should be protected. On the positive side my beautiful feather collection gained a few new entries today!

I’ve read that because of the drought just south of this area that rice yields are down this year. I believe I read by as much as 25%. This area produces the vast majority of rice in the EU, making this is a real hit to this area’s economy. Most of the rice fields I saw today looked ready for harvesting, and in fact I saw the start of this process later in the day.

I walked for a while beside the rail line today. I kept waiting for a major train to race by so that I could video it for the kids, but it wasn’t until I moved away from the train line at a really interesting working type train passed by.

Before I left home I read a comment by Paul Chinn one of the authors who contributes to the Lightfoot guide books for the Via Francigena. There had been an issue on this stage because something had happened. I forget exactly what that was, however, being who I am I took note of the area where the problem was and mapped the route that Chinn recommended.

You have to understand that being in the centre of a maze of rice fields there’s also a maze of irrigation channels. Going off route presents a number of challenges, and I’m usually fairly comfortable with most of them, but today was a little bit funny. I came up against an irrigation channel early on with lots of overgrowth. It took me a little while to find a few boards to walk across so that I could continue on my way. Annemarie, you would not have enjoyed this! I don’t think that Chinn actually did a ground recon!

Safely across with all gear dry I continued along the prescribed deviation. 

One of the nice things about walking in places where most others don’t are the beautiful things you find that right in the middle of the path that haven’t been trampled by a thousand boots. 

Who is this little guy? Actually about 2 to 3 inches long. I suspect part of the Millipede family. In Japan do you have to be careful of these buggers because they can give you a very nasty, poisonous bite. I took it’s photo, but didn’t touch.

After completing the deviation I decided that I was confident enough to navigate my way through certain parts of the rice fields, thereby saving some unnecessary loops in the official route. I didn’t get off to the best start, and had to loop back around to the other side of an irrigation channel.

Once organized things went a whole lot better.



I eventually found my way back onto the formal route and congratulated myself for not having had to climb over two massive crossings above the train tracks. Just think of the energy I saved!

I entered Vercelli to honking horns and people waving at me. It took me a little by surprise. Was this how they responded to the first person to arrive each day having successfully navigated the dreaded rice fields? There’s great support in Italy for the Via Francigena. The awareness of many people seems pretty high, and I’m often asked where I started my day, where I’m going tomorrow, when/where I began my Camino and where I’ll complete it.

My simple accommodation for tonight. The owner was nice enough to set up his washing machine for me so that the majority of my few clothes could have a needed and deserved cleaning. I was extremely appreciative.

Vercelli is quite a beautiful city. It took me a while to settle in as I went looking for a stamp for my credential. The real issue was that I needed to rehydrate, and after a fruitless venture to the cathedral I found a seat in a little café. I had a cold lemonade and went through my pictures. Shortly after that I bumped into a young Italian couple I’m getting to know a little bit who are from Trieste in north east Italy. They told me where I could get a stamp and also showed me their collection of  rice used in risotto. I carefully took photos of each type of each to show my foodie daughters and Annemarie. Apparently the black grain is the very best. What do I know? I left them quite delighted I don’t have to carry all that rice in my pack as they will have to tomorrow.



The little cafe I stopped at to regroup. 

I’m going to make a little jump tomorrow, not because I don’t love this very, very, very flat topography. I still have lots of that ahead of me, but I have a little scheduling issue to deal with that will come to light down the road. It’s unfortunate because I’m getting to know a few people along the way, but such is life, and I suspect our paths will cross again. I will walk a stage tomorrow into Pavia where I plan to take a rest day. More on that tomorrow. It’s now 7:30 and I have to get out and find some dinner. I’m starving! I had planned to go to a very special restaurant that I learned about on a cooking show of all things. However, my host says that I don’t have appropriate attire to go into that sort of restaurant in Italy. He also said that I probably can’t get in without a reservation. So I’ll go looking and see what I can find, in my shorts and T-shirt! Such is life on the Camino.