A view of B&B "Ca' Fiorìa", such a good place to be. Such nice and hospitable people. Time flew by talking to them. They invited me to dinner and we sat outside on the balcony with one of their daughters and her family, eating, drinking, talking and having a good time. A very pleasant evening.

A pretty church on the outskirts of Pollone, my destination for today. Another hot day, too, much too hot for this kind of walking and the path wasn't particularly nice. The stretch from Occhiepo Superiore to Pollone was entirely on tarmac, upwards for a long time without hardly any shade. Simply awful. I was more than glad to reach B&B "Ca' Fiorìa", where my welcome was more than warm. I was treated to juice and water, later tea and cake and very interesting chats. Giacomo is a retired textile designer (Biella is famous for its high-end textiles), Maria Pia is a retired teacher, writer and poet.

The route is very well marked by regular signposts and there are five good maps scale 1:25000 you can get at the "ufficio turistico" in Biella. A big compliment to the tourist information and the organisations behind them, not only are they extremely friendly and helpful but also very well organised, which is not to he taken for granted (sorry my beloved Italians, but the truth hurts).

The entrance to B&B "Le Trucche". I ended up here by chance, but was lucky to have come. Luciana, my host, is a very friendly person as is her son, and her house is a nice house with a huge room for her guests (more a small flat than a room). They drove me to a pizzeria in the evening, saving me more kms on tarmac to get some food and picked me up again. I had a good night's sleep, a good breakfast and a nice chat. A good place to be.

Part of the trek led through the nature reserve and ancient gold mining area "La Bessa". Piles of stones everywhere, stones which were extracted from the rivers in the mining process. I must say I suffered the heat and the mosquitos and the heavy backpack. At a picnicing place (benches! - Italians apparently do not believe in benches), I called B&Bs in Mongrando, the place I had intended to go and spend the night and found out that there weren't any vacancies. The woman that runs B&B La Varda was very nice and called a B&B she knew "nearby" and instructed me how to get there. Unfortunately instructions were given by a car person, so information that it "is not far at all" wasn't "not far at all". I had to walk for 3km on the road in the heat to get to Casale Trucchi to my accomodation.

Starting off wasn't easy. Seeing I have to be in Alagna on 10th July to meet Christina I can only complete a part of the route and in a way to reach a place where travelling onward to Alagna is possible and not too complicated. Best thing was to take the bus to Viverone and start walking there. It wasn't easy finding out about the buses, the Internet, Antonella and a friend of her's working in a travel agency were involved only to find out that there weren't any buses. None at all. So my friendly host took me to Viverone in the car and dropped me off at lake Bertignano, where I started walking. I'm not as picky as last year considering all odds, so I was quite happy with walking what were very peaceful paths mostly through sun-lit woods and over sleepy meadows. Later I was less happy because of the heat and the mosquitos, an aspect of July in Italy I had altogether failed to consider.

I am now walking the "Grande Traversata Biellese", or GtB, a 234km circular route divided into 57 short legs or 15 proper walking sections. Again a compromise, but good enough for a start and trying to get into better shape.