12.05.2010 just beyond Palastro to Mortara 27km

We squelch our way back onto the road to Robbio, the next village, under grey skies and the threat of more rain. Things can't get much more miserable. We are damp, grumpy from lack of sleep and non-communicative, but a coffee and a slightly bizarre encounter with a woman whose enthusiasm involves a great deal of shouting and spittle throwing, makes us laugh and feel marginally better, meanwhile the rain holds off. Once again we are walking between rice fields and drainage ditches and vegetation bursting with colour and scent (I can smell the Jasmine!) but we are also following and verifying the instructions from our latest guide and the good news is that they work! They are correct, we do not lose ourselves, which presumably means that other people do not get lost either. A good feeling. By the time we reach Mortara our spirits are back up and we stop to talk to the owner of a restaurant/hotel where we have stayed twice before – once with Lubie (where she was tethered at the edge of the railway track in front, until driven crazy by mosquitoes and his daughter gave us her garden to let her lose in) and our bike in 2006, and then again in 2007 when we did the journey for our first guide book. He and his wife recognise us immediately (and correct the telephone number in our book). Sadly, he seems to be slightly more frail each time we see him, but the welcome is a warm as ever. We tell him that we will back to eat a Pizza later that evening.

Religious hostels are an important feature of the VF and other pilgrimage routes, offering simple, affordable accommodation and spiritual extras for those who are looking for it. St Albino, run by Tino, on the edge of Mortara is a good example, but ironically the heavens open directly over it just when we are unloading Nellie. Another epic storm, someone is looking for an Oscar. Lights go on and off, the roof shudders under brutal claps of thunder and the garden where we have tethered Nellie, is transformed into a swimming pool, but she seems to be blissfully unaware.