Tuesday June 25, Oropa

The top of the beautiful Bassilica from our campsite.

It was a rather late start this morning after our very late wine tasting last night! The air was very warm and Maria warned about the hot day ahead and an even hotter one tomorrow. Would really have loved to have stayed longer to explore the area but the heat beat us. She gave us a tour of the winery, with all its bottling machines, corking machines and large vats then we loaded our purchases into the van and said goodbye late morning after a particularly great stopover.

We found out the best road to return to the valley, it was very easy and simple, and had to educate Jilly as she wanted us to return on the rather narrow road we had arrived on!!! Back on the Autostrada and our destination was finally in the mountains at a place that Mike and Marla, our neighbours at Lake Tarawera had recommended. They had spent time hiking here and raved about it. Checked the weather forecast for the temperatures and it was talking about 24 degrees for today. Perfect, finally some cooler weather.

Enjoyed the drive especially through the vast areas of rice, this is the biggest growing area in Italy. The water from the River Po is used to flood the fields and it has been grown here for over 400 years. Evidently until the 50’s it was all planted by hand but now the operation is fully mechanised.

Spotted a huge modern building in the middle of the agriculture area with vast numbers of loading bays and presumed it was a Logistic Centre until we spotted the sign…Amazon. Guess it’s the Italian warehouse for the company.

After negotiating the town of Biella at the foothills of the mountains we started our climb up to 1100 metres which took about 20 minutes. It was a very windy and steep road that initially was particularly narrow as it wound through the houses. Italian drivers often don’t seem keep to their side of the road and could easily give us several more metres of clearance, but we are getting used to it. As we got higher the road was wider thankfully and arrived in one piece.

Wow, what a place. The focus is the Sanctuary of Oropa, a huge group of Roman Catholic buildings dedicated to the Virgin Mary, set in the magnificent surroundings of the alps. It is listed as a UNESCO site. No photos today, but they will come. We are staying at an excellent designated sosta, only 3 other campers here. The views are amazing. I went for a little wander tonight to the river that tumbles over huge rocks and nearby a herd of cows with their bells on.

And so nice to feel a bit cooler. Planning to spend a few days here so lots more photos to come as there is so much to see and do, including a cable car up the mountain!

Vine covered hills of Piedmont

Just a small section of the Amazon warehouse.

A real mountain stream.

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