Day 19 - Fidenza to Fornovo-- Friday July 3, 2015

Day 19 Fidenza to Fornovo- Friday July 3, 2015

This was our precious day off, and we slept in until 8am. I thought breakfast was 7 to 9:30am, and at 8:50am Russell said, we better hurry up, breakfast is over at 9am! He was right, but we weren’t the last people to arrive. We did get our coffee at least before the ladies started cleaning the coffee/cappuccino machine. It was a lovely breakfast, with everything I like, and a soufflé, which Russell really liked.

We checked out around 9:30 and started sightseeing until our 12:38pm train. We followed the via Francigena in Fidenza and visited the old city gate/bridge, which they have excavated to reveal a series of more ancient bridges into the city.

We then toured the beautiful Fidenza Cathedral, a Romanesque basilica dating from the 12^th century. A fellow came to us and said come, get a stamp, which we did. We told him we were walking the via Francigena but he obviously figured that out on his own or wouldn’t have offered stamping our credenzia’s. He treated us as kindred spirits. We then visited the Museum of Duomo (or, museum of the cathedral), and he came along as our guide. Unfortunately he could speak no English or French, but a cleaning lady in the museum spoke English and she joined us as our interpreter!

The gold and silver treasure of the cathedral bears witness to the generosity of Bishops and devotion of the donors over the centuries. It also represents the evolution in taste and style of the sacred vestments and vessels from the end of 1600 to the middle of 1800. Two other notable items in the museum were the Madonna and Child, a masterpiece of Benedetto Antelami, and an extraordinary baptismal font for infants in white marble which dates from the end of the 12^th century and is the work of students of Antelami.

The front of the Cathedral is one of the most important evidences of Romantic sculpture in Europe. It was built at the same time of the famous Portico of the Glory in Santiago de Compostela, the doors in the Collegiata de Notre Dame in Mantes, near Paris, and the ones in the Cathedral in Sens.

David and Ezekiel’s cartouches explain that the heaven door is open to the just and closed to the sinners who can, however, find redemption in pilgrimage. The importance of pilgrimage is constant in the reliefs of the front: the statue of Apostle Simone bears a cartouche showing via Roma, the principal way to Rome. The same concept is confirmed in the right portal, with the statue of Raimondo from Piacenza, a saint pilgrim, who died in 1200. Two families of pilgrims are represented on the sides of the central portal and others are identifiable on the Trabucco Tower.

Our guide then invited us up to view the cathedral from the high balconies. It was a very special tour.

When we were done, the gentleman called his colleague to copy explanations of the history of the Cathedral in English, which we greatly appreciated. After many gratzia’s, we exited through the cathedral and ran into Louis, the German pilgrim. I was very happy to see him and exclaimed ‘hello’, whereupon he hushed me because we were inside the church (empty other than us, but that was beside the point, of course). We all met outside. He was taking today off, which we were as well, but we have to advance to Fornovo to our next hotel, which he doesn’t. I hope our paths will cross again.

After that we visited San Michele Church. It was pretty run down. There were marriage bans posted, which stated the bride to be was a virgin, and the groom was celibate. Hummm. Seemed a bit heavy.

We could have only gotten a direct train as late as 9:15am, the next was at 6pm plus. We opted to go through Parma, the train from Fidenza left at 12:38pm and arrived at Parma at 12:50. The train to Fornovo left at 12:56. The problem was that when we went to change trains, they didn’t list Fornovo but the final destination. I looked at the alternatives and guessed that we wanted the train to Pontremoli, because it sounded like a place we staying, but we really didn’t want to take a chance on it, and by the time we confirmed we wanted the train to Pontremoli, we missed it. We got to the right track just as it sped away.

The next train was at 14:42 so we went out of the station, found a bench in the shade, and constructed our lunch. We had salmon pate and earlier in the morning had bought a lovely lettuce, which I washed at a bar. It was delicious. We were right across from a bar and the people were looking at us as if we were aliens! After lunch we wandered around Parma, hitting the Italian national Archaeological museum, the Library, the theatre, and the Commerce buildings. Very ancient Roman!

If we had walked today, it would have been a very difficult day, much climbing, and more than 31 km. Our route notes even said: ‘Important notice: the walk today is very long and tough, we suggest you get a ride with the baggage transfer to Costemezzana’. That is at km 11.8.  We were, nonetheless, on our feet from 9:30 to 12:38; 12:50 to 14:24, except for maybe 15 minutes for lunch, and then from 15:09 until around 4pm. It was 36 degrees.

A few more via Francigena signs were visible today in Fidenza, and then again when we got to Fornovo. We had our usual adventure finding our hotel, but I suggested to Russell we do a mapquest on this, since we were not coming in on our route notes or GPS. But, I didn’t do the mapquest search either, so can’t complain. Anyway, we did get some help from the locals, and we had a bit of a hike, but found it.

I went swimming in their pool, and it was every bit as nice as the picture. 

The dinner was excellent as well. We had salad and vegetables, a pasta primo, and I had roast veal and Russell had winnerschnitzel.