Passing Through...

For tonight we are staying in a lovely guest house in the small town of Casale Monferrato in the province of Alessandria.

We drove up from Florence the long way round again to avoid the motorways. It meant twice as long traveling but it was worth it.

The first surprise along the way was that we passed through Pisa and saw the famous leaning tower, we didn't stop but we did get to see it from different perspectives as we passed through.

Later we had a fantastic drive through the mountains via the Passo del Bocco. The road was amazing with so many twists and turns it was fun to drive. Unfortunately we got stuck behind a truck on the way down, the driver was on his phone the whole way so rather than using his gears to slow down he was on his brakes almost the whole time. When we got through the pass and into the town below thick smoke was pouring from his brakes.

The next thing along the way was the view of the Ligurian Sea and a drive along the coast before heading inland again towards our destination.

Casale Monferrato seems fairly quiet but there's some fine architecture and a nice atmosphere. We popped into the Cathedral which is where the first picture was taken. In the entrance there were a few interesting sculptures and this shot is just a part of one. The Cathedral was actually closed and the priest came to tell us this but allowed us a few moments to walk around which was really nice as it was very peaceful with a simple elegance inside.

 The next shot is of a street lamp set against the windows of the building behind.

Finally, after dinner we went for a walk down to the River Po where I captured this beautiful sunset.

So today really has been a day of passing through different places but even  though we are just passing through the sights we have seen have left a good impression before we move on, this time into France.