Sabbioneta

22/9

Unexpectedly, we’d enjoyed a really quiet night despite being camped near the Croce Rossa and the Police Station so our morning rise was not so speedy.

But Jen had to slip out early to call APHRA for medical registration (& learned it was Saturday, the little things!!) so she tied on her shoes & headed for a walk around the old town, appreciating quite a wealthy little pocket of Italy.

Our wonderful little students got on with the business of school in time for us to hit Lidl before siesta.

Having read about Sabbioneta, a small village that achieved world heritage listing only in 2008 for being “a perfect example of an ideal city planned according to the modern and functional vision of the Renaissance,” we thought it’d be an interesting stop.  Built by a chap called Vespasiona Gonzaga Colonna in the late 1500s, another of the wealthy families that established old Italy’s previous independent states or communes.

The drive through the Po Valley was wonderful, through heavy cropped regions now all recently turned & churned, obviously by enormous tractors given the size of the clay like thrown up clods of earth.  It’s been really interesting this year seeing the full cycle of planting, growing and harvesting and now the preparation for winter.

All of a sudden behind a small group of farm houses appeared these enormous moat encircled walls creating a hexagonal fortress with wedge shaped bastions at the corners & two beautiful old city gates at either side.

We arrived in siesta time to a virtual ghost town with the only evidence of life being the rowdy stragglers trickling after a wedding party.  Glitter & confetti sprinkled the steps of one of the small towns 5 churches (including a synagogue) and posters were splashed about the streets of the betrothed couple.

So we too had lunch and a siesta back at Ed before coming back in, this time a completely different town buzzing with small groups of Italian tourists & grinding coffee machines.  We looked at the old Teatro, the Palazzo Ducale, churches & the synagogue as well as the old stables and study residences of the dukes….. all from the outside, reserving our pennies for more significant monuments (& a coffee) and to not wear out the kids.

With THAT coffee, we chatted further about UNESCO listing and what criterion the town satisfied to gain it.

Italy is very campervan friendly and only a few kms down the road, still within view of the wonderful red city walls, we pulled up in a free over night stop alongside a playground (& morning 10BX exercise pad!)  A lazy long read capped off another great day.