Miracles of Bozzola in 15 minutes

Today we reached our final destination on the northern Italian section of the CicloVia Francigena: Aosta to Pavia. We covered 140 miles in 6 cycling days, averaging about 23 miles per day. The terrain was mostly flat, but very bumpy on gravel roads and sandy at the worst parts. The weather was dry and windy, the mornings quite cold. I’m grateful to not have had to don rainsuit and booties, but my skin and lips are dry and chapped, despite all the lotion and chapstick application.

Cycling is our preferred mode of slow travel. Walking would take such a long time, plus I’m not keen on carrying weight on my back. We cover a fair bit of territory on a bike, and pass through a lot of little towns, lingering briefly in a place for a picnic lunch or cappuccino (and a pee). More often we just catch the sights as we pedal past town — each town has a piazza, clock tower, and run of the mill church. The tiny town of Bozzola had a couple of awesome sights, we just had to stop our bikes and take it in.

The town’s church was not the usual rubber stamp architecture. The Sanctuary of the Madonna della Bozzola is a magnificent colorful structure with statues and columns. (Extra) The sun was just coming over the top, so I had to adjust the photo angle to avoid backlighting…but I think still shows the magnificence. We didn’t go inside because the church was packed with parishoners attending Sunday mass. Unfortunate, but I googled the story. In 1465, a mute shepherdess took shelter during a rainstorm in a little covered field sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The Madonna asked the dripping wet girl to have a church built here in her honor. Miraculously the girl regained her speech to request that the village do so. A miracle by the Madonna, so of course a church was immediately built on the site. The church grew over the centuries, the facade I photographed was built in 1897. This place is definitely on the pilgrim ‘must visit’ list.

We got back on our bikes, the path now followed along the canal. I heard a great splashing sound and felt water spray. Mike had already stopped and was looking back in amazement. It was an immense screw turning the water flowing down from the upper canal. Mike was in his happy place, witnessing science in action! It is a reverse screw hydroelectric power plant. Archimede’s Screw! (Featured) It is one of the earliest hydraulic machines named after the Greek mathematician who first described it in 234 BC; although such a “hydraulic screw’ was used in Ancient Egypt before his time. The miracles of science and religion in a 15 minute ‘ride-by’ visit.