HELLO – PASTA & PORCINI
No Border Guards at Gateway to Italy.
Within 40 minutes we were entering Italy, though we found no border and no guards to check our passports. You would hardly notice the tiny sign tacked onto the rock walls of the mountain tunnel: It read simply ‘Italy’ above the red, white and green flag. (That’s the EU for you! A world without borders would be a nice thing to aim for.)
We were taking a route to revisit Novara, though I now see that Rivoli was right on our road. Since 2016 I have learned that Rivoli is a ‘Must – see’ place. We missed – but you need not. Novara is a mainly modern town, but beautiful, with spacious elegant streets and squares paved in cream marble and stone tiles – even the roadways. As we arrived a sudden cloudburst sent us scurrying from our car to the shelter of the gracefully colonnaded streets, which we followed towards our destination.
We did not, sadly, this time find the square with the many fountains, but we did visit the beautiful Basilica di San Gaudenzio . It has an especially impressive four-tiered cupola by the famed architect Antonelli. (It is visible for miles).
A FINE BUILDING – GOOD INFO
It is a fine building with good info:
The interior, apart from its side chapels (most famous being those of The Guardian Angel, with beautiful frescoes – and another to The Good Death), is relatively empty compared to other Italian church interiors. But the pillars are attractive – painted in designs reminiscent of the contemporary Books of Hours. The inlaid marble floor is beautiful, too. Most striking is the almost hidden gold figure of a saint in flight. He is holding a banner. I believe him to be San Salvatore.
Other Special sights in Novara –I P Broletto’s arcaded building; the Cathedral of Santa Martia Asssienta (huge, impressive, amazing statues; Casa Bossi (a lovely Romanesque building – hidden gem with a great past).
NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THIS CHARMING CITY
As usual, we could not spend enough time in this charming city on this, our third visit. We had to find the E64 to Presezzo The total drive from Embrun takes 5 hrs; but mainly we suffered from the intense heat, since our car’s air-conditioning had been wrecked by a careless mechanic during the pre-holiday checkup– and not worth replacing in a 2005 vehicle.
Lap of Luxury.
DAY 10: 11th & 12th September:
PRESEZZO – FIRST OVERNIGHT STOP IN ITALY
This is where we really lucked in. I don’t think we could have afforded this hotel while booking a three-month tour – our one and only. Luckily it came up on Booking.com with a generous special offer, and so we were able to enjoy staying in the lap of luxury for two nights.
A most strikingly beautiful conversion from a former ancient farm, we enjoyed everything about our stay.
BATHROOM WORTHY OF A POEM
Our semicircular ivory and malachite-tiled bathroom was worthy of a poem. The truly spacious bedroom had a curtained sitting area with couch, full sized TV, large refrigerator, and ample cupboards. I threw myself down on the enormous bed, exhausted from journeying (why is sitting in a car passenger seat so exhausting, I wonder?).
We enjoyed having drinks brought to us on the terrace, and walking through the many varied rooms – each with a different decor. Modern sculptures and paintings were successfully blended with antique furniture in many of the dining rooms – all uniquely different. There was an elegant small indoor bar, where you could ‘dive’ down steps through a cave entrance to find the gym and indoor swimming pool (there were smaller versions of both outside in the grounds). This place was such heaven that we did not explore the area far.
Settecento Hotel Via Milano, 3, 24030 Presezzo, Italy.
(Our photos did not come out well, so please look it up for yourselves if interested).
Because of the heat we did not go to Bergamo on our free day in Presezzo, as planned.
Lazing by a Lovely Lake.
Instead, we visited the very small Lago Iseo – and took a boat to the island in the middle. It was beautiful, though we soon got tired of walking – it was so hot. So we went back to the gelato by the quay and had Italian ice creams, then caught the little boat back to make use of the great facilities in our hotel for a welcome rest. I would LOVE to go back to both the lake and hotel. Here are some photos:
Text by – Jackie Usher, SWWJ. (aka author Debbie Darkin, & ‘Graham Liverpool’ on Trip Advisor.)
Photographs by – Graham Usher.
