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We started the morning taking the Genoa to Casella narrow gauge railway up 1000 meters over the mountains. This railway is a funky single-car chug chug chugger, which nevertheless accommodated our bicycles. The passengers were us, our bicycles, and a handful of shoppers heading back to the boonies from a big day in Genoa.
The route is hair-raising and the engineering amazing! Twist and turns and precipitous drops. Eric said he read that the hour ride includes 18 tunnels and 46 bridges.
Here is our last view down to Genoa in the Mediterranean
And a moment later we are looking north into Piedmont. Eric rejoiced as we leave the land of seafood and enter the land of wild boar salami.
Our bike ride was long and hard today. An unexpected archaeological site, Libarna, was a nice break. This Roman city was just discovered about 100 years ago and is still barely excavated. The very charming gatekeeper explained in excellent English that the Piedmont archaeological budget has been cut and that the regional director, located in Turin, likes to spend the funds on sites closer to Turin! But Libarna was free, very peaceful, and not too shabby a Roman ruin by our standards.
The site includes two blocks of foundations of Roman houses
Including one stunning mosaic fragment
And the usual pile of old stuff lying around waiting for grad students to come along and piece them together.
We stopped for lunch, where Arah's picnic was augmented by this interesting, but nauseatingly sweet meringue sandwich.
It was nice to be back in agricultural hill town country, although that of course means hills, of which we had plenty!
At last we made it to Acqui Terme, a town famous since Roman times for its thermal springs. More recently it has been both a health-oriented spa town and relaxation-oriented spa town. Apparently until the year 2000, Italian health insurance covered an annual trip to a place like this, including taking the waters, hotel, etc!
We checked in to our charming lodging, B&B Dei Capuccini. Unfortunately, this did not mean "B&B Ten Coffees" as Arah had assumed! Also unfortunately, we did not arrive in time for Arah to take the waters, so I have a great excuse to go back, perhaps with someone else who bikes and loves to take the waters...
We did have time to stroll around town and see the many fountains where the famous water comes out of the ground smelling like sulphur and at about 70 degrees Celsius. We saw a few of the older generation filling up bottles. Apparently some people still drink it for its curative properties.
We saw a great scene where some well-dressed kids lost their soccer ball and had to find a heat-proof tool to fish it out of the super-hot water
The town is quite lovely. I had read on someone's blog that the regional government dumped a ton of money into fixing Acqui Terme up in the 1980s, and it shows. All of the houses look restored, and the streets and town squares are all beautiful.
Acqui Terme also has about 15 spectacular churches, including San Giorgio, originally built in the 6th century and upgraded to this building in the 11th century. It was particularly evocative in the evening, when another "end of days" storm came through
Here is the Duomo, where a 16th century building has incorporated a 14th century bell tower. There is a beautiful altarpiece in this church, but it can only be viewed from 4 to 6 p.m. Another reason to come back!
We also saw the Archaeological Museum, which is located inside the town's castle. With its long history, you would think the archaeological museum of Acqui Terme would be stunning. However, it is mostly a museum of pottery shards. There are a few outstanding pieces, like this mosaic fragment that was found under the street next to the largest of the hot water fountains.
A collection of belt buckles from the Middle Ages
And this well preserved, intricately detailed oil lamp from the Roman era.
Other than that, the town is vibrant with shopping, both high-end and everyday necessities, like sardines (E5 for a kilo - Jay, think about it!)
And piles of porcinis
At last the restaurants open for the evening, and we had some cold beers and the best pizza that we had to date at Bar Pinky
We didn't expect much from Acqui Terme, given our experience with other Italian spa towns, but it was a nice surprise and we highly recommend it. I know I will be going back!
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