Before we set off, we decided to go down to the lake and, once again, we heard English being called out, this time by a different voice. A timekeeper sat on the shore was keeping track of the pairs rowing a set course. I went over and chatted with him. It turned out that he was with a rowing charity that helped junior rowers in the London area. They had brought a group of promising rowers from a number of rowing clubs and were training them on the lake. It certainly wasn't a holiday! They were up at 06:30, rowing by 08:00, back on the coach at 15:00, three hours homework each day and in bed by 10:00. Apparently the training was very hard work and most of them were shattered – this was their last day. We also found out that the previous day it had been the English rowing team who had been there for two weeks. This would explain the Antipodean voice yelling “Keep those oars up! The waves at Henley can be one foot high!”.
As normal, we tried to avoid the motorways but it wasn't long before we were caught in the urban sprawl that seems to spread all around Milan and the journey became slow and tedious. We joined the motorway ring road around Milan and left on the SP415 towards Crema and Cremona. Soon there was a significant improvement with rural scenes replacing suburbia.
There were two noticeable features in the flat green landscape. The first was farms with the farmhouse, livestock buildings and barns totally enclosing a large square courtyard. This is very reminiscent of the standard layout of an ancient Roman villa, which was after all an up-market farm. The other feature were the many very large walled cemeteries placed in an open areas outside village and towns. Huge mausoleums poked their heads over the high enclosing walls that were obviously designed to encourage the souls to fly up to heaven rather creeping out into the surrounding area.
Jane had spotted a number of aires close to the River Po and that was where we were heading. The journey was much easier than yesterday, still flat but without the traffic delays. We approached the river but could not see it but what we could see was a massive bank, flood defences for the river and we follow this for miles. We saw a sign to the first of the aires and this took us up onto the bank where a narrow road along its summit. However, despite the directions, we could not find the aire and decided to look for the second one. Some miles further on, we again ascended the bank but this time found the aire on the top of the bank with a wonderful view of the Po. We sat and watched as the sun set colouring the sky and the river a glorious red.
Photos: The life of the lonely timekeeper, Gavirate; Sunset from Castelmassa aire.
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