A Day Out on Tour in Bobbio!

We spent many summer days cooling off with the locals in the water under the bridge and many winter days walking the trail that runs along river. We now take our clients to enjoy this town and the bridge on our Classic and Fine Food, Wine and Wonders tours. After their long-lunch of superb regional food at 'Il Piacentino' our guests take a walk down to explore the bridge. Along the way is the most orderly vegetable patch you will ever see. I have a suspicion that a ruler is used to plant out the massive productive plot! Like many towns in Italy, legends flow down through the centuries. The legend of the bridge of Bobbio, known as Ponte Gobbo or the 'Humpbacked' Bridge involves Satan himself and a hero in the form of Saint Columbanus(the Irish monk and missionary who founded an abbey in Bobbio in 614).

Legend has it that San Colombano was saddened because of the Trebbia floods that prevented him from crossing the river so as to evangelize the inhabitants of the area. He was visited by the devil, who offered him the construction of the bridge in exchange for the first soul that crossed it.

The saint accepted the offer, and in just one night the bridge was built with the help of 11 demons who held up the arches, but since they were of different stature, the work turned out, and still is Gobbo(hunchedbacked).

San Colombano liked the bridge just the same and managed to stick to the agreement by means of a trick- he sent his faithful(and unlucky) dog to cross the bridge!

At first, we thought we had discovered another of Italy's many 'hidden' treasures only to find out that Bobbio has been a place of pilgrimage for hundreds of years. It is located on the "Via Francigena" , an ancient pilgimage road between Rome and Canterbury, it is also connected to the most ancient pilgrimage route, "Via degli Abati". Thanks to the monk Colombano, construction began on what later became one of the most important Abbeys of Europe due to its library and Scriptorium(a room in medieval monasteries devoted to the copying of manuscripts by the monastic scribes). The Abbey is the one in which Umberto Eco's novel 'The Name of the Rose' was based. You can walk through the Abbey and museum and be transported back into a more austere time.

The drive back to the agriturismo through the rolling green hills is a lovely way to reflect on your day out in Bobbio exploring the town and its history and eating at 'Il Piacentino' where tradition has been passed down for four generations.

On special occasions when our friends and artists Adelaide and Oliviero are home, we take our guests for a visit to their beautiful traditional house. The walls are covered in artwork and the garden blooms. Adelaide and Oliviero are welcoming and hospitable hosts and love showing our Australian guests through their home.

If you join us on tour in Bobbio, I hope that it makes a lasting impression on your memory, as it has mine.

Saluti

Lynette