The best running trails around Parco Adda Sud

The Cathedral with the Clock Tower occupies the east side of Piazza della Vittoria, and the facades of houses and palaces frame its facade. The square, as a civic and religious center, as we see it today, was formed in different periods. The construction site of the Duomo was organized according to the methods of the time, i.e. by tracing the perimeter directly on the ground and then starting with the construction of the apse area. The so-called "stepped" facade suggests the division of the internal space, in which the central nave is higher and wider than the two side aisles. In the center of the facade, in the upper part, is the aedicule containing a bronze copy of the statue of San Bassiano, the original in copper and gold patina is kept inside the main nave of the cathedral. The central part of the facade is occupied by the rose window which, besides being a typically decorative element, allows for good internal lighting.

Around the rose window and the slopes of the roof, the decoration with interwoven arches and polychrome majolica cups of Byzantine derivation is to be observed. Below the rose window, two Renaissance stone windows have been created. The "candelabra" columns and the side coats of arms refer to the motifs of humanistic culture. The most characteristic element of this facade is the protiron. In the lunette above the portal are depicted the Redeemer, the crowned Madonna, and Saint Bassiano imploring. On the pilasters of the horizontal architrave are depicted Adam and Eve and, below, two other figures that recall the vices of man. The portal is framed by spiral columns, and the decorations surrounding the portal arch consist of naturalistic decorative motifs derived from the Lombard school, with shoots, spirals, and aquatic plant leaves. Finally, the small roof that frames and shelters the portal is supported by stylophoric lions.

The Adda River is the fourth longest watercourse in Italy with its 313 kilometers and is entirely within the Lombardy region. It represents one of the main left tributaries of the Po River and has a very large hydrographic basin that covers about a third of the regional territory

Montanaso Lombardo is an Italian municipality of 2,243 inhabitants [2,244] located in Lombardy, in the province of Lodi. The village is situated a few kilometers from the provincial capital Lodi, immersed in the Po Valley and bordered by the waters of the Adda river and the Muzza canal.

The Torrione of Lodi is a 15th-century historical defensive structure, an integral part of the Castello di Lodi (Visconteo Castle), commissioned by Francesco Sforza. It represents one of the main testimonies of the Renaissance fortifications of the Lombard city, located in the historical context of the city.

The story told by Giovanni Guareschi – the literary "father" of "Don Camillo and Peppone" – ends with the sentence, "Things happen there, in that strange place... where people think more with their clubs than their brains, but where at least they respect the dead." To understand it, one must recall the political situation in Italy at that time, immediately after the end of the Second World War: The monarchy had been abolished, the royal family was in exile, and the Communists were partly in power (including in Don Camillo's village). In the story "The Old Schoolteacher," the aforementioned lady, who had taught generations of villagers the ABCs, has died. She had expressed her last wish to Mayor Peppone and Don Camillo that she be buried with her flag – the old one "with the coat of arms" from the time of the monarchy – placed over her coffin. However, all the factions of the town council had spoken out against it, to which Peppone replied: “So I tell you… that I don’t give a damn about your opinion and that Signora Cristina will go to the cemetery tomorrow with the flag she likes, because I value her more dead than you alive.” Hence the sentence quoted at the beginning, “where at least the dead are respected.”

Beautiful bridge to Napoleon Bonaparte

On April 25, 2025, the cycle path that runs alongside the Adda was interrupted by the fall of a large tree, just 50 meters before it ended, to leave the zeal good persico of the nature trail and climb the old Adda bridge. We passed but with great difficulty