Ivrea.

Now that we are out of the mountains, it is harder to justify having our bags transported, so we spent a day in Ivrea to organize a parcel to send extra weight back to Canada. With the help of Google Translate, we bought a box at the post office which we duly filled with 5.25kg of stuff that we do not now or did not ever need! (Lois, who had less to send back, is a bit resistant to the idea of carrying her 30L pack again, after the luxury of hiking with a daypack – we shall see!)

In a couple of sports shops we found rubber tips for our poles (to stop the clacking on cobblestone!) and new, lighter socks for Lois

Later in the day after gelato: strawberry for Lois and lemon in a brioche(!) for Paul, we climbed up to the castle. It was built in 1358 as a symbol of the dominance of the House of Savoy in the region. Undergoing needed renovations, it is impressive from the outside, although strangely has only 3 towers. We discovered that, in 1657, one of the towers that served as a powder magazine was struck by lightning causing deaths and extensive damage. That tower was never totally rebuilt.

Cityscape and tribute to founder of Olivetti typewriters which were made in Ivrea.