Over the Appennines

We followed Gianni Gandini's advice. After Torino we passed and visited Asti, Alessandria and Piacenze. Italian towns, historic and beautiful as you wish Italian historic towns to be.

First we avoided – as advised – the strada statale (national road) because of the traffic; a nightmare they said. So we chose beautiful countryroads along the vineyards of the Grignolino and the Barbera d'Asti. Later, since the Po-valley became less interesting and it was weekend, we used the strada statale after all just to make progress, with a rear wind to assist us. Just before Parma we turned south to enter into the valley that would lead us to the the Passo della Cisa (alt 1041). Through this pass we would cross the Appennines and leave the land of the Parmezan cheese and enter into Tuscany. The road up to the pass was not light, but extremely beautiful, we enjoyed the crossing very much. Now we've put up camp in Villafranca in Lunigiana, some 30 kms north of La Spezia and the coast of the Ligurian sea (Mediterranean). From here we intend to continue via the famous coast-line with f.e. Viareggio to Pisa (Lucca), San Giminiano etc. towards the east.