Along the pilgrim's path
Milan to Pavia, 6th April
When planning my journey, I deliberately didn't get too much into the details. In fact, I was so committed to this level of surprise (don't call it laziness) that until the day before I started riding I hadn't even looked ahead on my map to see what the next major town was. Luckily, I'm following a EuroVelo route which has done all the thinking for me: 30-ish flat and straight kilometers south of Milan I'd get to Pavia, a big town on the river Ticino. Almost the entire route was alongside a canal, favourite of lazy cyclists everywhere for the guaranteed lack of hills. After six months of me barely riding back in the UK (knee issues), I couldn't have asked for a better first day. The canal path was car free and more importantly saved me from the suburban drudgery that normally comes with exiting a major city.
On arriving in Italy I'd noticed that it was (surprise, surprise) quite warm, so while in Milan, that internationally renowned city of fashion, I'd gone out in search of some Crocs that I could use for flooded roads or warm days where my hiking shoes would be unsuitable. Luckily for everyone involved, my crocless record continues unblemished, but I did pick up a pair of sandals from Decathlon during the weekend, and I pretty quickly switched to these while riding in the sunshine out of Milan.
The kilometres went by quickly: I got to Pavia just after lunch. Nothing on the scale of Milan, but punching above its weight, Pavia felt like all 70,000 of its residents had come out to walk around the town centre, sip Aperol Spritz in the main piazza, or have a picnic on the riverbank. I acquired a Via Francigena pilgrim passport and joined the picnickers with my lunch leftovers: supermarket deli mozzarella, bread, and cherry tomatoes. I liked the town and wanted to spend the evening there, but I'd need a place to sleep and unfortunately both Via Francigena pilgrim hostels were full for the night. Hotels would be much more expensive, so that left camping. A little scouting along the river revealed a quiet green area for dog walkers - perfect. My first night of the trip would be in a tent, then - an exciting start, and at a price of zero euros, a welcome change from a high-spending weekend in Milan with a group of New Yorkers.
There it is then, the first day finished. I feel happily non-overwhelmed at what I'm doing: I'm free to change my plans whenever I like, I know I've done something like this before, and I seem to have successfully eased myself into the life changes one at a time, with my week in Switzerland giving me time to get used to living the itinerant life and doing laundry every day. The new bits now are just camping and, of course, cycling, which I'll have plenty more of soon.