Castiglione – Bosco del Vaj – Casalborgone – Castagneto Po – Sand Raffaele

Forty-eight kilometres and 1,508 metres of climbing on the trail bike, out to the far side of the hill and back along the Po, on an October day under a soft grey sky.

The first part runs over the fields and along the edge of the woods to the Bosco del Vaj, near Castagneto Po. It is mostly chestnut and oak, but it also holds beech trees, which have no business growing this low: the most accepted explanation is that they found refuge here during the last ice ages and never left. The paths under them are soft and deep in leaves, with mossy boulders among the trunks and the odd branch across the line. The highest point of the day, at about 540 metres, comes along these ridges.

From there the way goes on to Casalborgone, whose castle stands on a hilltop above the town, and back by Castagneto Po, where the castle, now Villa Ceriana, is recorded from 1019 and was burnt with the whole village in 1397. The last part runs through Sand Raffaele, the network of trails on the slopes above San Raffaele Cimena, and drops to the lowest point of the day, just under 200 metres by the Po, before the climb back over the hill: farm tracks between dry fields, a stretch of old stone paving in the woods, and lanes past the first houses.