Agricamper stop near Reggio Emilia - 23 September 2022

We were surprisingly happy in our little residential park last night, peaceful, had overhead street lights, but closed the blinds!

It was my turn to drive today. About 90 minutes, but only because we stopped off to get some diesel, then found a free moho service area.

In France, we bought most of our diesel from supermarkets. In Italy it doesn’t seem to be a thing. There are lots of fuel places along the roads, and generally one side only, so you could cause traffic hold ups if you wanted to cross over.

It’s actually quite tiring trying to keep to 50km/hr, good job Co-pilot beeps at us if we’re 5km/hr over the speed limit. Not sure Colin has the measure of Italy - he keeps telling us we can go at 90km. Apart from the autostrada at 130km, it’s generally 50km or 70km (or 30km!). When we’ve seen signs for 60km, maybe they’ve just run out of the other signs!

When we stopped for diesel today, once again we had to guess and prepay before we could fill up, €50 wasn’t really full, but who wants to waste diesel if you pay for too much and your tank is too full!

The Sosta in Reggio Emilia was just a big carpark, and we eventually found the service area. A bit basic, but free, clean and worked.

We’re staying on a farm! Another Agricamper, called Podere Giardino, just outside Reggio Emilia - run by Marco and his family.

We’re the only moho here - beautiful setting, looking out over the vines. They produce wines (he exports to New York), and keep cows, using the milk for Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan).

So, bikes out and a ten mile round trip into Reggio Emilia (population 172,000) along a very straight Roman road, mostly on a cycle track. It is a university town, and also called the Town of the Tricolour because on 7 January 1797 the Cispadane Republic adopted a flag that later became the the Italian national flag in 1848 during the first War of Independence.

Another lovely sunny day, feels a little cooler - but perfect for exploring.

We started off in the Piazza Prampolini. The reason for lots of rubbish in the photos is that we arrived just as the market had finished, and operation clear up had just begun.

The cathedral was built in the 9th century, and underwent various changes over the centuries. There is a statue of Madonna and infant made of gold-embossed copper plate if you look towards the top. There was a man cleaning the floors - was another first - the whole place smelt lovely! Again, lovely pink marble, very spacious in an elegant sort of way.

We walked through the Broletto arcades to the Piazza San Prospero - this basilica was closed. The 16th century bell tower made of octagonal stone looks impressive, despite not being finished.

We stopped off for the obligatory gelato. Tintin had the stracciatella (wasn’t as good as mine yesterday!), and I tried the After Eight. These were €5.60, and the lady made them look very pretty!

Wandered off to the Piazza Fontanesi - a nice shaded area - again, clearing up after the market.

Really was another day of very impressive buildings! Walked along the Corso Garibaldi, didn’t visit the exhibitions.

The Basilica of Madonna Della Ghiara was also closed.

In the Piazza Martiri del 7 Luglio was the Municipal Theatre, built in neoclassical style between 1852-1857.

Pretty impressive building for the Banca D’Italia too! Don’t think we’ve ever smelt as many man wearing aftershave as in the last couple of days - it’s quite nice walking behind and getting a whiff of whatever they’re wearing - seems more noticeable with the men than the ladies!

After another 10,000 steps decided we’d seen enough of this lovely city, and cycled off.

Stopped off at a Super Rosetto, as we haven’t tried an Italian supermarket yet. Was huge! Wanted some tinned peaches - for our morning Greek yogurt and granola - but bought a few other bits and pieces.

Saw Marco when we arrived back - he was busy milking the cows, and said he’d be free about 6.30, so we went back then.

In some ways, the cows have a sad existence. I don’t doubt they are very well looked after, it’s just economically, it’s cheaper to keep them in sheds rather than out and about. They have about 60 milkers, and between 100 - 120 other cows. There are some very cute calves as well.

They milk 10 at a time. Each cow has a tag on her hind leg which stores information as to the yield of milk, how much they’ve eaten of the pellets etc.

The little chestnut brown one was especially cute!

There’s loads of hay barns - fairly full, plus so many different kinds of farm machinery.

They have some friends who have their bee hives here, as they help with the vine pollination.

Marco’s dad is 85, and works everyday - here he is trying to mend a light after having been lifted up high.

Whilst we were waiting for Marco to show us around, the milk lorry arrived to take their milk away. It gets blended to make the Parmesan. We bought some, haven’t tried it yet. More expensive than buying from home - €18 per kilo. We bought €11 worth - good job it keeps, as we’ll be eating it for a while!

We were shown around the winery with the big vats. Not sure why, but we were given the very young wine to try. Previously they’ve produced around 25,000 bottles a year, but because of the war in Ukraine, only around 18,000 this year - in fact the harvest only finished two days ago. They also ship to Japan amongst other places, but he said the market is opening up again.

We bought a rosé and a red Lambrusco (€7 each) made with organic grapes - will be interesting to see what they taste like in due course. Their 5 year old Lambrusco was €18, but us being more rum drinkers didn’t buy it. Marco says people think Lambrusco should be drunk whilst young, but he says 4 or 5 years old is good.

He’s a lovely man, not sure how he’s so smiley and friendly - he’s passionate about his business, and his English is pretty good too. He’ll be getting up at 4am!

Meanwhile, we’ve had a donut for tea, as we didn’t get back here until about 8pm, and needed to write this! Must do better tomorrow.

Ah - tomorrow - haven’t even thought about where to next!