With just a few days left in Italy, we drive over to Ivrea. We had driven through town earlier in the month and I was charmed. It seems like a good place to explore. The hardest part of exploring unknown areas in Italy is navigating parking. We try a parking lot next to the oldest part of town, but it is full. After a few attempts we drive on down the road, and find the biggest parking lot we have encountered in all of Italy.

We set out on a walking tour of Ivrea. First, a trek uphill to the castle. Perched on the hill overlooking town, the castle commands attention. Unfortunately, it is not open, so we have to admire it from the outside. A cat runs in and out of the gate as if to tease us. He can go in. We can not.

Next door, the cathedral Santa Maria Assunta is open. Its crypt holds impressive frescoes situated between white plaster archways. Soft music plays in the background. We stumble around on uneven surfaces, finding partial frescoes in darkened corners.

Back outside, we wander downhill to the central piazza. Oddly, every store is closed. At mid-morning on a Monday this seems strange so I begin looking for posted store hours. Every store in town is closed on Monday! Shopping is clearly out of the question.

So we keep walking all the way to the river. A small park includes a statue of a hand holding an orange. Once a year the entire town has an orange battle. Nets are put up to protect observers. Each neighborhood in town forms a team and pelts the other teams with oranges. Pulp and peels fill the streets. A unique and strange local custom.

The river is high. Kayak runs line one side of the channel. A sign proclaims the 2024 world canoe championships. Waterfalls and rapids make the river both challenging and beautiful. We walk across the bridge and through the park next to the paddle sport course. The rapids are visible all along the park trail. Eventually we find a footbridge to take us back across the river. Ivrea is a beautiful town and a great place to spend the morning…..even if nothing is open.

At this point we are hungry and need a bathroom. We find a restaurant called the BBQ cafe. We decide it is worth a try, mainly because it is one of the few places actually open. It sits on the pilgrimage trail (a hundred mile trail that follows the route of a monk). Decorations in the cafe honor the traditional dress of pilgrims walking the route.

It becomes clear that no one in the restaurant can speak English, so I ask for a menu because I read Italian much better than I can speak it. The waitress says “no menu”. I say “menu”. She indicates they only have three choices. I ask to read them and she shows me a notepad with three handwritten choices: chicken, hamburger steak, or pork cutlet. The cook is an Italian granny who apparently makes only a few things each day. We choose grilled chicken with seasoned potatoes. It is simple and filling.

Since nothing in Ivrea is open on Mondays, we head toward home and stop in Biella. I read that you can take a funicular up the mountain to the old town. So we park in a parking lot labeled funicular parking. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a funicular within sight. Google maps indicate that we need to head up some stairs and across a parking lot. We blindly follow directions and eventually approach a building at the side of a hill.

We reach the funicular and look for a non-existent ticket office. Confused, we watch a local woman push a button and enter the funicular car. She tells us to get in. I ask if we need a biglietto (ticket). She says “no”, pushes a button and we start up the mountain. We are in a free, self service funicular! The view is incredible, but we are in shock. We have ridden several funiculars in Italy, all with tickets and operators. It occurs to me that the funiculars at Bard Castle in the neighboring valley were also all unmanned. Maybe it as a regional thing? Here you can drive your own train.

We walk the old town. A number of beautiful villas are now hotels, apartments, and schools. An older man with a guitar on his back enters a beautiful villa with a sign indicating a music school. A small cafe entices us with gelato. Wool shops sell goods and have signs celebrating the communal wool production of Biella, past and present.

After a nice visit, we are ready to descend the mountain. We run into a couple wandering around the funicular station looking confused. We are now the pros. We confidently push the button to enter the car. Once inside, I select piano (lower) level. The car start offs down the mountain. We are now veteran funicular operators.

It is a beautiful ride home. The sun glistens off the snow on the alps. Monte Rosa rises gloriously in the background. After days of rain, it is nice to ride in sunshine. In fact, the sunshine is so delightful that we walk to the lake once we are home. The water level is very high, covering rocks that we used as seats just a few weeks before. The usually trickling Erno River is now raging. The beach is empty, except for a gaggle of geese. A white goose adopts me and follows me around. I stop to take her picture and she waddles in for a close up. I’m really going to miss the unexpected encounters that Italy constantly provides when we leave in just a few days.