Via Francigena 2022: Stage 28: Ivrea to Cavaglia

19 km — 26^oC and cloudy and rainy — We saw 1 more pilgrim on their way to Rome.

(By Laurel)

It rained. It poured. It came down in absolute torrents. I don’t think we’ve ever seen rain fall so fast and so hard.

We had been warned, as the weather forecast for today indicated rain. Upon awakening, looking out the window, we saw no rain yet although there were some grey clouds. So, hoping for the best weather-wise, we set out on our trail along some city blocks and then into countryside. After about 4 kms and just as we were passing by a small lake, we noticed some raindrops. We stopped briefly to put rain covers on our packs and then continued walking. Two minutes later we had to stop again, this time to don our rain jackets, then kept walking. Two minutes later and it was raining cats and dogs! Luckily, Jim spied a dry spot close by under a building overhang. We had been standing there, keeping dry and watching the rain, for 45 minutes when, to our surprise, the figure of a hiker appeared across the park and marched toward us through the pouring rain. She was a 72 year-old pilgrim named Claudia, walking from her home in Stuttgart (Germany) to Rome! After chatting with us for 15 minutes under the overhang, the rain eased off somewhat and she decided to head off again on the VF. We waited a bit longer and then also headed out again; however, with the forecast in mind and the heavy grey appearance of the sky, we decided to walk back to Ivrea. The Rome2Rio app listed a bus from Ivrea to our destination, so this became our Plan B and we purchased bus tickets at the news-stand. While waiting for the bus departure, we made good use of a few hours to explore Ivrea: we visited the cathedral, where an elderly professor who happened to be there explained the meaning of an ancient fresco that we were viewing in the crypt of the church; we met five hospitable volunteers who were manning a VF Info-Point (they gave us some homemade baking); and we had a tasty lunch at a cafe run by a husband and wife — they have a coffee museum in their cafe, so Jim was in his glory talking coffee with them! All this was a silver lining, as had we not returned to Ivrea we would have missed out on these nice encounters.

So then it was time to catch our bus ….except no bus appeared! We learned, to our dismay, that there is NO bus on the route we needed. Rome2Rio and the lady at the news-stand are out of date on this one. Now it was later in the afternoon and starting to rain again. Our only option at this point, to get to our pre-paid accommodation, was to take a taxi. As we rode along in the cab, the rain intensified. By the time we neared Cavaglia, it was a deluge and coming down so hard that our taxi-driver had to pull off and park for a while under a gas station roof. He had to do this twice. We appreciated that he was a safety-conscious and patient driver. Finally, the rain slowed and he was able to drive to our destination. An hour later, to our astonishment, the sky was completely blue and the sun was shining.