TRAVERSE Issue 17 - April 2020 | Page 61

and water that accompanied us pleas- antly up to Santhià. Entering the territory of the rice paddies, that between the province of Vercelli and that of Novara cover 50% of Italian production. We quick- ly crossed the center of Vercelli to dive again in the lower countryside of Lomellina. At the bottom was Pavia, with its urban center founded by the Romans. Its beauty not lost, as the many monuments and covered bridge add a mythical, mysterious feel to the town. Orio Litta, with its beautiful villa Litta Carini and the ancient Grangia, as we cross the low Pavese, flood zone. Here, religious buildings scat- tered about the area trace the way that darts through the countryside, at times from the waters of the Po River, stretching almost without interrup- tion towards the Padana plain to discover the traces left by Cardinal Sigeric. It’s following these footsteps that TRAVERSE 61