From a tiny agricultural village to an ancient town with cathedral, castle, one of the earliest universities and the tomb of St Augustine. We cater for all interests. Thank you.

We started the day like yesterday evolving our thinking from “it’s just a bit misty” to “I guess it’s really raining” and got wrapped up again. Ruth and Masoud are loving this trip and point out that the weather compares favourably with Manchester where they live!

We cycle along more of the flood bank of the River Po - quite atmospheric in the mist, but NOT like the photos in the guide book of course 🤨. We detour to track the flood banks as these are quite muddy today and discovered a coffee bar. The lady who lives opposite was hosing down her terrace (in the rain??) with a spray hose gun and was delighted to lend it to us to hose down our bikes (OK and waterproof trousers) whilst we had coffee 👍🏻👍🏻😍.

We made prompt progress on quiet country roads until we spotted Pavia’s huge cathedral dome in the distance. We cycled into town through its famous covered bridge and stopped for lunch in the main square. Beers all round.

We spent the afternoon sightseeing the cathedral, the university cloisters (one of the oldest universities in the world) the castle and its park garden and finally the church housing the tomb of St Augustine (of Hippo) who had a major influence on the direction of the early Christian church despite coming from North Africa.

On to our hostel for the night (which has a washing machine and tumble dryer 😍)