Appennini Bike Trip - from the Lombardia flatlands to the Mediterranean Sea

Our stop in the morning after the first hard ascent, Monte Lesima in the background.

 

I've just finished a book about extreme alpinism (opening of new routes, solo ascents, etc) from Hervé Barmasse, an italian important alpinist of the new generation. His adventures are inspiring, but make me feel an eternal begginer on mountaineering (for what I've been dedicating great part of my life for 12 years). I disagree with his sense of "the pure alpinism", but I agree with the feeling of "discovering the unexplored", I just think it is relative. I've just came back from a trip by bike crossing the Appennini Moutains in Italy, from the northern flatlands to the Mediterranean Sea by 350 km, basically with none experience with bike trips. It was discovering the unexplored for me, even if it is by roads and villages. 

 Thus let's go through the Appennini Bike Trip, that I've done with Luis Antonio Marcos, a Mexican partner of adventures in Italy. My proposal this time was departing from Milan and arriving in Genova, but not by the shorter way, we should go first to Cremona, at the base of the Appennini in Lombardia, then crossing the mountains of Emilia-Romagna and Liguria in diagonal, doing free camping, and then arriving in the northern Mediterranean Sea of Liguria, totalizing ~300 km in 4 days, plus some rides more in Liguria. 

 1st day: Milano - Cremona - 104 km, 70 m of elevation gain 

This day was crossing the flatlands of southern Lombardia until Emilia-Romagna. It was mostly flat but long, by 6 moving hours. We started by the "Naviglio della Martesana" that it is kind of a bike/pedestrian lane by the side of a channel, from Milano to Gorgonzola for 18 km. After this, we moved by a provincial road until Crema, where we had the lunch: focaccia slices in a park.

Duomo di Crema at the Background.

Then, we entered another channel lane, the "Naviglio di Cremona" in the middle of the harvest fields, mostly of gravel and totally exposed to the sun, what make the trip more rough and slow. This lane was infinite (we did ~ 80 km there), at the end it was at least more shaded by the trees and barely asphalted. 

Naviglio di Crema - Cremona.

 Naviglio di Crema-Cremona

We've reached Cremona and this is an old beautiful medieval city with bricky constructions. This night we've slept at a very good hostel called L'Archeto.

Duomo di Cremona

Cremona.

2nd day: Cremona - Bobbio - 82 km, 365 m of elevation gain

Graceful fields of Emilia-Romagna, grape plantations in the background. 

 

Crossing the Po river (the longest of Italy) in Piacenza

From here the trip started to be more interesting. In the morning we ride by the channel lanes at the side of graceful fields of Emilia-Romagna, with old houses and greap and olive plantations.

We also crossed the Po' river leaving Cremona, the longest river of Italy, flowing from the western Alps until the Adriatic Sea. The bridge to cross it is giant.

 

 

Grape plantations in Provincia di Piacenza

The lettuce we used in our sandwich.

We ride until Piacenza, and stoped at a shaded woden bench where we had lunch: sandwiches with the 2 leaves of lettuce that we've collected in front of us.

Our lunch.

In the beggining of the Appennini.

 

At the end of the day we finally entered the Appennini and I feel happy. I mean more happy then before by being rounded by the mountains, more isolated from civilization, even if the elevation gain started to be considerable and we had to decrease the bike velocity and increase the leg strength.
 

Monte Maggiorasca of the Appennini di Piacenza.

 We stopped at Bobbio, a fascinating medieval city that keeps some of the oldest latin and roman scriptures at its monastery (Monastero di San Colombano), and crossed the Ponte del Diavolo (Devil's bridge), a roman bridge of stone arcs above the Trebbia river, and find the perfect place for our tent. (The Trebbia valley was descripted by Ernest Hemingway by the most beautiful in Earth, during his trip from Emilia-Romagna to Genova in 1945)

Duomo di Bobbio, Castello Malaspina and Ponte del Diavolo above the Trebbia river. 

Our bath and sun bath at the Trebbia.

Our tent place

In the river we had bath and sun, and at night the sky was completely starred above the illuminated stone bridge and medieval city. We've spent sometime doing night photos and drinking a wine, simply a perfect Saint Friday!

Saint Friday in Bobbio.

3rd day: Bobbio - Torriglia - Scoffera - 70 km, 1000 m of elevation gain

 This day was undoubtedly the best!! We started to ride in the morning by the SS45 road, that is above the Trebbia river, that normally is trafficked, but due to quarantine it was empty!! What amazing views of the Appennini! The Trebbia river is green and blue, rounded by the white and gray rocks that fall from the stratified mountains that expose folded and tilted layers of turbidites. 

A curve of the Trebbia.

The Trebbia and the Monte Lesima at the background. 

 

 

 

Our stop in the morning after the first hard ascent, Monte Lesima in the background.

The car's deviation that we did not follow.

In the middle of the way we used to see the Monte Lesima, with 1724 m with still some snow at the top and a white radar. In the morning we did a long ascent, it is interesting how the body works and adapts similar to trekking in ascent, I started to ride very slow but constantly, using the intermediate chains, strongly breathing and sweating! We stop for water at a deviation for the cars, and decided to follow the same road (not doing the deviation), and it was incredible. 

Radar at the top of the Monte Lesima.

 The road was completely free of cars, and was a lot of descents, I feel in a Harley Davidson listening "Born to be Wild". The dream just ended where we do find the reason of the deviation, a completely broken bridge, it is astonishing!

The broken bridge and the cause of the deviation.

For our luck, the bridge is under repair and there is the road of the works, that we need to cross carrying the bikes because it was really steep and rough, also using four hands, two pulling and two pushing my bike that was very heavy with the backpacks. Rough part done, we came back to the road, had lunch at a hidden entrance, the day was sunny and hot, and then continued until a water fountain. 

After the lunch stop.

From this point the ascents started to govern again, we became slow, and I was totally immerse on the nature at that moment. No cars, just the noise of birds, just the dry trees of the ending winter, just the rock walls. When we started to approach Genova was kind of sad, start again to see civilization at Torriglia, a big village (or a small city), and entered a gallery of 2 km completely cold! Here, we decided to exit the main road, we had to pass the bikes by the metal fence, and do a deviation until a village called Scoffera, in the woods again.

Our tent in the woods near Scoffera and Torriglia.

 

 

 The last 4 km were infinite, it was a curve that we were seeing the village, but it never arrived. When it arrived we've found a rude supermarket to have food, and then found a piece of forest to hidden and put the tent. This night rained, we had a bare humid paper bath, cooked some pasta with atum, drink 2 beers, and after a while the sky was clear and starred again.

 We spent some time in the cold to enjoy the forest, far from the noise and smoke of cities

 4th day: Scoffera - Genova - Quarto dei Mille - 51 km, 300 m of elevation gain

We started to descend to Genova at 1 PM, we've noted the change of vegetation from grey to green, due to the humid sea winds that enter at the valley. 

Last part of the valley in the middle of the mountains, already close to Genova.

 It was 26 km of descent, and then we've reached the metropolitan city, and the center of Genova, where the ups and downs made us to push the legs again. See the Mediterranean Sea of Liguria for the first time (in this trip) was insightful, in the same day we've changed from the woods of the mountains to the steep labirintic urban streets of Genova, and all this scenaries are unique.

First view of the Liguria Sea, in the steep streets of the Genova center.

Arriving the metropolitan city of Genova.

The bike in front of our hostel in the labirints of Genova downtown.

Duomo di Genova.

We arrived at a hostel in the center called Manena. It was not exactly a nice place, but not too bad, cheap and enough. The worst problem was that they were fixing the kitche and we had to wash the plates in the bathroom.

Anyway, we exit with the bikes again to have lunch at the beach, a rocky tip near the of harbor of Genova.

The bikes finally in the Mediterranean Sea of Liguria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we've ride until Boccadasse and Quarto dei Mille. At this moment we were so used to ascent with the bike and do long kms per day that the 20 km by the coast seemed too soft.

Boccadasse at Genova.

View to Camogli from Quarto dei Mille.

5th day: Genova - Camogli - 52 km, 620 m of elevation gain + Punta Chiappa trekking of 8 km and 490 m of elevation gain. 

We decided to close the trip going to Camogli by the coast, "la Città dei mille bianchi velieri", a medieval colorful harbour, with narrow houses with painted frames of doors and windows, used as an artifice to seem richness during the period of big navigations. 

Colorful medieval city of Camogli

 

 

 

 We actually passed fast by the city, and started a trekking (by foot) of 4 km by the sea woods until Punta Chiappa, a rocky conglomeratic tip. In the way we ate a real focaccia ligure (the focaccia is original from Liguria) with a Birra Moretti (common italian beer). We've arrived running and quickly stoped at Punta Chiappa, and came back running because we were feeling super energetic. In Camogli again we reached the sea and just enter the sea in one jump! We just close trully the trip, having a bath in the Mediterranean. 

During the trekking to Punta Chiappa.

Having the best focaccia ligure and Birra Moretti, the coast of Liguria in the background.

Finally at the conglomeratic Punta Chiappa.

We were planning to have the train of 17h45 at Genova and came back fast by the streets, I had cold because of being humid and suffering with the winds. Fast passage by the hostel, and we arrived at the train station at 17h41, 3 minutes before the train leaving. But, we haven't the tickets... I've enter super accelerated riding in the 1st platform, than entered the ascensor to the hall, and tryed to buy the ticket in time, but no way. 

We've lost it. We've bought the train of 2h after, exit the station, dried ourselves and ate the pizza we had prepared the day before (it was not very good and we gave a piece to an aleatory man that asked for it).

We finaly had the train, travelled safe, and arriving in Milan we've done the last 10 km of bike to home by the Naviglio della Martesana again. 

Carrying the bikes in the Milano train station.

Ended trip, super tired and super satisfied. I had never done it before and I love it, when you travel by bike you fusionate yourself with the places that you pass through and you change. You never come back the same person when you do an immersive trip, when you explore new places, when you test your limits. We realized that we are stronger than we thought, and are super motivated to new bike trips, or simply trips. I speacially loved to know a new mountain range and live it, sleep on it, and break it. The message at the end is follow your passion with any ways that you have available, make it possible, and the world turns for you!

I can be an eternal beginner but I'm always pushing myself to discover new places, new ranges, new sports, and get my catharsis on distant and quiet locations. Enjoy your trips, do what inpires your, or try until you discover what is it!