Day 353 – EU – Italy [Cremona to Parma]

23/03/21

48.5km

  From Cremona (Italy) to Parma (Italy)

Europe

One of these days… they can’t be all awesome and fantastic!

Al Fresco sunny morning on the way to San Daniele Po

I left early this morning knowing I had upwards of 45kms to run today. At zero Celsius it was another al fresco start, but the sun was bright and the skies were cloudless. I thought that was the sign for a very good day ahead. The first part of the run towards San Daniele Po certainly was nice and I escaped the main road to run on parallel country road for a while. It was most certainly quiet and rural.

I enjoyed very few quiet kms today..!

Then I ended up on the “SP10” short for “Strade Provinciali” (secondary roads compared to motorways and national roads). When planning today’s route I was confident that a SP would be reasonably quiet (not to mention Italy is supposedly in lockdown and traffic ought to be lighter than normal). Well… that assumption was not verified today! Throughout most of 40km, there was an endless flow of traffic, essentially big trucks and I did not get a rest. It was very tiring. Endlessly turning my head back, as there was too much noise overall for me to assess how close the cars and trucks were coming. Running partially on the grassy bank because the road was too narrow and being constantly blown by the trucks. I ran after my hat a few times today.

Parma Centre with the Cathedral in the background

I was glad when I reached Parma. I thought it’s time to rest and I think I deserve it! Well… when things don’t go to plan, with me, it’s all the way! For some reason today’s reservation didn’t work out. And I ended up empty handed in the centre of Parma. I found something on Booking.com and then had to walk about 2km to get to the place! Now I thought, it better be good! I must say I have been using Booking.com for over a year now and 99% of the time they are just perfect and extremely reliable. Things like this happen. At least I’m in a great place tonight and I’m gonna get some good rest!

Besides being a beautiful city with great architecture, Parma is of course famous for the Parma Ham and for its Parmigiano cheese. I made sure to pack on these “essential goods” at my daily supermarket run. Rest, relaxation and good recovery they say – certainly loads of proteins for dinner tonight!

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: