Day 8: Santhià to Vercelli

The most positive thing I have to say about today is that the terrain was mostly flat and that the weather was terrific. The most appropriate word to use to describe the walk (27.9 km) would be monotonous. At one point, I abandoned the Way and took to the main road so that I could avoid rambling through yet more farmland - which shaved a good few km off the length of the walk (about 30 km). The farm houses along the way were of no structural interest, and you can only take so much of tilled earth fields or water soaked paddocks before you are over them. Funnily enough, I had toyed with the idea of taking the train from Santhià to Vercelli because of how spent I'd been the day before. I'm not saying I wish I had, as there were some real highlights to the day, but I am saying that if you were to take the train, you wouldn't be missing much. I met a really lovely couple in the village of San Germano Vercellese, and while we were chatting in the park, two pilgrims doing the VF in reverse came by. Their end point is Lausanne. Now for the highlights: unbelievably, the church was open this morning before 8 am! I was so glad I checked on my way out of town. Again, I had to help myself to light up the crypt (Saint Stefano), and it was worth seeing. The next two highlights happened when I was walking on the main road: I saw what I believe is a marmot as the tail was thin (I now know this to be a Coypu) swimming in the Naviglia di Ivrea, and I startled a snake in the grass on the roadside! It was about 1/2 a metre in length and may have been a barred grass snake, which is non venomous, but it set my heart pounding! No photos, I'm afraid.Read more