A Missed Ferry and Angels Along the Way

Pavia to Piacenza, supposed to be 15 km with a 20 minute boat ride down the Po River, turned out to be 25 km instead. Overcast and cool.

We followed our given instructions faithfully…called to reserve the ferry across the River Po at 9;00am. Called the private transfer company to pick us up at 8:00am and to drop us at the ferry.

First mistake, assuming our driver, Vadim, knew where the ferry dock was. We found out afterwards, he’d never been there! Second mistake, not following along on our GPS apps to see where we were.

So Vadim dropped us and waved vaguely with his hand in the direction we were to go. Couldn’t see the river let alone a ferry dock. That was our third mistake, assuming a ferry when in reality it was a small motorboat. By the time we finally figured out where we were supposed to be, the ferry driver and his boat were long gone.

As we sat there, trying to decide what to do, our first angel, Lucia, appeared. An angel who spoke almost perfect English. She called the ferry driver, Signore Danilo who said (among other things) that he’d be back at the dock at 12 noon and could take us then.

Called S Capes and they sent us another route to follow, which we did. We walked a long way beside the River Po. Here are a few pics of our walk…

As we trudged along, tired, wanting a place to sit and rest (without luck), another angel joined our path….Christian, whose mom had recently passed, who’s mired in Italian bureaucracy, was walking in our direction. He too spoke perfect English, having lived many years in London. The miles flew by while we chatted about all kinds of things. Turns out he’s a vegan cake designer and baker – check him out at vegchris on instagram. He called himself the “Italian Liar” as he kept promising we would be arriving at a mall within 10 minutes. 5 km later, we did indeed arrive at a mall where we could sit and rest. And that, is why we travel…for these chance connections with total strangers.

Our hotel tonight is nothing special but…they did have driver take us to a great ristorante! Just waiting for him to come back to get us. I’m ready to fall into bed.