Summary
We woke up to find the piazza below covered in trucks, vans and umbrellas. The weekly market was in full set up mode. Leaving Vercelli, our first destination was Parco Burcina in the Biellese Alps. A 1.5 kilometer hike way UP a rough gravel road brought us to the payoff – the rhododendron dell. Many of the 1200 species were past their blooming peak but still beautiful as was the whole park. Drove to our next hotel outside of Biella in time for lunch and poolside reading. Drove into Biella where we heard we needed to see the high up old part of town. “It’s easy” they said. “There’s a funicular” they said. Unfortunately, the funicular was closed so our tired legs climbed way UP the very steep round rock-paved street. The payoff was the really pretty, picture perfect Piazzo Biella. (And a well-earned Campari spritz for Scott and crisp white wine for me)!
Details
Today we’re up early, we have a lot to do. We’re relocating to yet another town, Biella, again to keep our driving from being too long in a single day. Out our window we see the market being set up. We are excited to see the automatic deploying umbrellas. They go from being collapsed to being deployed in about 30 seconds. Pretty cool.
We have the cold breakfast in our room that we bought yesterday. Blueberries and yogurt, fritta (egg omelette with onions). Hot coffee. In all it’s pretty good and tastes healthy. It’s filling. We then take a walk and check out the market. It’s pretty much just clothes and housewares. Nothing we need.
A quick message is all we need to do to check out. We carry what we can comfortably manage to the car, ten minutes away. We then drive to, er near, a little standing spot by our room. That was the plan anyway. Normally we’d park right in front of our building but with the market going on that’s not possible. Plan B is to drive to this standing space behind our building. I’d leave the car and Karen and then go grab the two big, heavy bags. No joy. Market is blocking our path. Plan C now… double park further away. Oh well. Karen sees the police as we’re double parked. She pre-translates what’s going on and why she shouldn’t be hauled into jail. It was never needed.
On our drive we see more rice paddies. Pretty boring. We do see the seeding of a rice paddy, that’s pretty cool. The tractor has big diameter, very narrow metal tires with spikes, we guess to avoid getting stuck in the mud. They’re planting the rice in flooded paddies.
We drive to Parco Burcina and have a very nice, long walk. The place is a long maze of wide, winding paths, going way up and down a huge piece of land. There are lots of people out also enjoying the views, flowers, and exercise. Karen was hoping for maximum rhododendrons but what we get is some last gasps. Not peak rhoddy.
We drive on to our hotel. There’s a parking spot for charging electric Porsche. I have a Ford, close enough. I park and find the plug unlocked. No request for credit card. I plug it in and it starts charging. Yay.
At the hotel we have lunch outside under an umbrella. Ravioli, caprese salad, beer. This is a spa hotel and a place where business people have meetings. The three other single people also having lunch out are all obviously business people.
We do go out to the pool for a while, just so we can say we did it. I get into the water, up to my ankles. Too cold in the water and too hot in the sun. You can’t win.
Back in our air conditioned room we relax and make a dinner reservation at the hotel. That’ll be easy.
We drive into town. The old part of town is way up on a bluff, a mesa, a plateau. The city is very proud of their funicular built back in the 1800s. Alas it’s closed, no explanation. We shrug and have our GPS guide us to walk up. It’s a steep, long slog. The “road” is made of smooth round river rocks. There are steps but they’re more river rock framed by maybe granite.
Up top are churches, old cross-timber houses, and a big square. All around the square is a galleria (covered sidewalk with more living space above). Some of the storefronts are pharmacies but more are bars, restaurants, gelateria, or empty.
For our afternoon cocktail we opt for the tabachi (tabaco shop) that also is a small bar. A full service bad habit business establishment. They have a small assortment of alcohols and wine. They have glasses and ice. We’re set. Karen has wine. I am pining far a simple Negroni but scale my ambitions back to a Campari on ice.
We sit at a table outside. At a nearby table is a clatch of middle-aged housewives gossiping. They’re all smoking. Many people around have dogs. What dogs we see are all small and not much on exercise (Like their owners). One lady wheels a baby carriage, leading her cat on a leash. We’re certain the carriage is for the cat when it gets tired. The animal is calm and obviously used to this routine. Everyone seems to know everyone else and exchanges occur. It seems like a good life. The younger generation appears to have accepted their lot in life, socializing over gelato for now. The cigarettes and alcohol will come soon enough.
We make the perilous hike back down to our car without incident. It’s five or so kilometers back to the enclave of our luxury (though not costly) spa hotel. If we’d been keeping track of attractive looking places we could imagine having dinner tonight, I’m not sure we’d have gotten up to ‘one’. We had lunch and are having dinner at the hotel, and will do breakfast here tomorrow. This isn’t really a place tourists come.
While our plug-in hybrid again charges for free, we go to dinner. The long upper floor room is lined with windows overlooking the pool, grounds, and the huge white inflated tennis/pickleball court. We sit and soon open the big window to let in the cool evening air. Outside swallows swoop to catch insects, occasionally skimming the pool’s surface for a drink.
Dinner is quite good. We, like everyone, have wine and do a bit of socializing with our neighbors at the next table (mostly just exchanging Buono Appetito’s). Beside us are two middle aged businessmen. They share a full bottle of wine, a first course, a second course and two big plates of bread. Where do they put this food? There’s a lively and lengthy three way conversation on one of their smartphone’s speaker. We’re not in Kansas anymore.
Or pedometers say we’re pushing 16,000 steps for the day and so keep our after-dinner walk short.
Photos
