Wednesday 17 May 2017

Italy part 7

last stop Turin..
Pic - sunset over Bobbio

Well I have had a great time and some wonderful memories to take back with me to the UK. Let me go over the last few days since my last update. I reached Bobbio after a 5 hours drive through the mountains - I must admit I was surprised how few stops I made to take photos - on top of that it rained just after my arrival
- I only had an hour to glance around town - to be honest that was long enough. I saw Ponte Gobbo or hunchback bridge which is its landmark and is a nice piece of historical architecture. Also had a quick look around town - my B&B was on the top of a mountain and had lovely views down into the valley where Bobbio was - so I took a few photos at sunset.

The next morning I was off through the mountains again towards Pavia.  This journey was more fruitful that yesterdays as I was met with a stream of vistas that had me stopping the car every 20 minutes or so.  Pavia itself is not in the mountains but on a plain - aprox 100 metres above sea level. Now these areas are known for farming rice, yes you heard it right - rice. For miles there are flooded fields with inches of water waiting for the shoots to come through - its an amazing sight and one that is great for photography with the immense reflections.
Pic - the main bridge (Ponte Coperto) in Pavia stretching out over the River Ticino

There is more water this side of the mountains - the rivers are wider, there are lakes, huge ones and all this makes for great farming. Especially rice and grapes - my next move was to Novara which in agricultural terms is similar to Pavia - but closer to the Alps at the top of Italy where it borders Switzerland and France. Novara has a pretty impressive cathedral that looks like a stretched St Pauls - you can see it for miles outside the city. The city up close had a half a day worth of sights but that was enough for me as I'd spent the morning in the car driving there.
Pic- farmland outside Novara - you can make out the towers and the Alps in the distance

This almost brings us up to date - today I left Novara and headed to Turin - as usual I made a few detours on route so I could get some extra photos. I arrived about midday and dumped the car at the hotel car park. The hotel is right by the Turin Eye so not far to walk to all the main attractions - which I did.  I also managed to hike up a hill on the other side of the city so I could get some shots looking down on it. A wonderful site and well worth the extra effort - head for "Parco pubblico di Villa Genero" ..
Pic - view of Turin from Parco pubblico di Villa Genero.

That's it folks - I have a morning of driving via my detours to the airport then fly home - I plan to do one last blog on the subject which will be about tips and notes for the traveller... for now - Ciao.

More images from the trip..

https://raywise.co.uk/2017/06/06/italy-part-3/
https://raywise.co.uk/2017/06/03/italy-part-2/
https://raywise.co.uk/2017/06/01/italy-part-1/

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