6 th & 7th of September - . - . - . - . - . - . - . -P(h)O(tos)

A taxi took me down the 7 km down to MELARA on the PO river where I'm heading east, to reach FERRARA by Friday, to meet up with Ferrarese Clemente. It is a bright day, with no clouds in sight wherever you look, which is apparently – and as one would expect along a big river like this – quite rare.
All along the Po you walk on a dyke (called ARGINE) about 10 metres above the current river level, but it floods up to this quite regularly, apparently. There is a small road on top of the dyke and that?s what I was going to be walking on?.for longer then I thought when starting out?the first 7 km seem to be done in no time but the day gets hotter, the muscles tire etc so I made it to STELLATE for the albergo at 5 pm.
The one thing that was quite amazing, apart from the vast views was a bit of woods I went through. They were all polar trees, like thgey mostly are here, but overgwrown by this weed right op to the top of the trees. They looked a bit like a huge population of green men. They were all being pollinated by wild bees and the only sound you heard was the droning of the bees. Quite eery.

And this is some of the other things to relate on the way (today:
Walk, walk, walk, bicycles passing me by (loads) with funny looks. I normally initiated the greeting. The person on the bike would then unfreeze and grunt some sort of hello in return. Stopover at CASTELNMASSA for sandwich and beer at ¼ to 12 and next stop in CALTO for a Pizza and very local entertainment at BAR MARINA?

Difficult to tell you really, but I was looking for this Trattoria that my local map indicated for local specialities, but after having ambushed a passing car who?s driver told me that my guide/map was completely out of date, so I headed down the path off the Argine and bumped into this bar where I asked for a sandwich was offered a pizza and things escalated?.pizza was good, wine was more than what I asked for, conversation multidirectional. The photo is going INTERENET ( a definite sales pitch when you speak to people).
I was half into refining my perception of who hangs around a bar at anytime of the day – because there is always people in or outside any bar you go to at any time of the day. – when I noticed that one bloke was a permanent feature, i.e., ea was still there after there had been about thirty people coming in and out sitting in standing out, stand at the bar with no drink, go outside, sit down, go inside again, drink appears in his hand, go outside have a smoke etc and all that in about 10 minutes. He didn?t really look like it but he was the local wino and I will tell you more about him in a minute.
I was sitting outside and chewing at my pizza and both the landlady and landlord came up to me, apologizing they weren't really running a proper restaurant and sorry for not having any other delicious bits to put on. Well, the bloke mentioned above looked at it and said it looked great. He the sat down at a table opposite me and started chatting. (My suspicion is that he was gambling on me buying him a glass of white wine at some stage, but he did in ever such subtle way?.and I did in the end).
To his explanation to me that he was a bricklayer, ther came a shout by the landlord from behind the bar:
"He's building the cathedral of white wine?!!?
(His name was Gabrielle BOTA (one T only, so he didn?t actually get our architects fame.)

Nice old chum though: by coincidence his sister in law was running the hotel in STELLATE where I was headed for this night. Being able to quote his name, helped me secure a huge and cheap room that night and to eat he worst duck I?ve ever eaten.
The hotel room was about 30 square metres with three beds against the side of one of the longer walls, ceiling at about 3 metres, paint peeling of the wall and one side lamp for the whole thing plugged into a plug that was hanging out of the wall. Decrepit but all perfectly clean and one of the funnier hotel rooms I?ve slept in. The
Duck was just crap?.and I?m trying to stay polite.
The village was preparing for the ?Duck festival? that weekend. Not only was the food well below any standard but the general noise and noise mix level was well above normal. What is pretty standard is the radio going full blast in the bar next door, plus a TV blaring (those two nobody pays attention to, they are mixed out of everybody?s brain soundboard as ?silence?)..
On top of this normal white silence we had here one layer of the guys trying out the P.A. System (not for 10 minutes, but till well past 10.30 pm at full blast?they seemed to think that they had to test each start of songs being used for the next 2 days) plus – on the other side of the building- the carrousel had started running ahead of schedule. It?s own P.A. system could have catered for a small town of 20?000 in this village of probably about 200 and I did not notice anybody using it.
The next day was pretty much similar landscape and when I reached OCCHIOBELLO, having done nearly 20 km that morning I decided to have a quick bite and take a bus to FERRARA, so I would have some time to at least have a look around before Clemente would join from Milano.
So that?s all for today?..if this reaches you, it means I managed FINALLY to connect myself to the web??



Next report when I reach FLORENCE (I think) on around the 14th of September.



Un gran salutone di Sasso Marconi a FERRARA a tutti I Gandini e tutta la gente fantastica che ho incontrato ieri a Ferrara: Gandini, genitori, sorella e fratelli e il loro palazzo stupendo e la piccola fata collo zaino-grasole, del quale sono molto geloso, perche e tanto piu leggero di quello che devo portarmi indietro!!! Leggero come I genitori-Zepplin di Angela che sono, pare, stratosferci? Leggero come il Mueller-Thurgau?.almeno le prime 4 o 5 bottiglie. Leggero come la notte di Ferrara.
E, sinceramente, mi dispiace, Max Fields, Quantity Surveyor cum Gentleman Farmer, che non la faccio per un altra bevuta e qualche disputo sui romani questa sera, ma devo scrivere tutte queste cazzate e attraversare gli Appennini domani. Sara per un altra volta: faremo un altro giro neutrino con Domenico .............
E quello che accadera accadera
BACCIONI E GRAZIE ANCORA