I Climbed Monte Penice & Descended to a 1,400-Year-Old Town | Piacenza Apennines

Some days on the bike are just different. This is one of them.

We're deep in the Piacenza Apennines — a corner of northern Italy that most cyclists fly past on their way to Tuscany or the Dolomites. That's their loss. These hills have been carrying people on their backs for thousands of years: Romans, Irish monks, Lombard kings, pilgrims. Today it's us, on road bikes, chasing the summit of Monte Penice as the last of the spring cold clings to the valley.

Monte Penice rises to around 1,460 metres and sits on the border between the territories of Piacenza and the Oltrepò Pavese — a natural frontier between two valleys: Val Trebbia to one side and Val Staffora to the other. At the summit, the ancient Sanctuary of Santa Maria watches over the descent towards Bobbio like it has for centuries. And up there too, the RAI television transmitter has been in operation since 1953 — built under the Marshall Plan for post-war Italy's reconstruction, it once broadcast television and radio signals across a vast sweep of Northern Italy. History, faith, and technology, all crammed onto one summit.

But first — breakfast. Because no Italian ride is complete without stopping at the bar, ordering a cornetto, and spending twenty minutes putting the world to rights with whoever happens to be there. That's what this sport is really about.

Then the descent. Passo Penice, with its pristine environment and thrilling curves, is a favourite destination for motorcyclists. And on a late May morning, they're out in force — blasting uphill as we thread our way down, trading lines on a road that winds through pine forests before the valley opens up and Bobbio appears below.

Known since the Middle Ages as the "Montecassino of the North," Bobbio has been a renowned spiritual and cultural centre since the Abbey was founded in 614 by the Irish monk St. Columbanus. At its heart, the Ponte Vecchio — also called Ponte Gobbo or Devil's Bridge — is a Roman-era stone bridge stretching across the Trebbia in eleven irregular arches, each a different height and width. Historians have even speculated that Leonardo da Vinci completed the Mona Lisa in this town. We don't linger — there's another climb waiting.

Passo Caldarola from Travo is 14.3 km long with 609 metres of vertical ascent at an average gradient of 4.3%. It sounds manageable. After Monte Penice, your legs have a different opinion. Along the way: Torre di Bobbiano, the striking rock formation of Pietra Perduca, and the imposing silhouette of Pietra Parcellara — before a final steeper ramp delivers you to the pass. From the top, the descent to Travo is all fast, open road. The kind of descent where you forget you're tired.

This is the Piacenza Apennines. You should come here.

Route: https://www.strava.com/activities/18713388265

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/when_in_doubt_cycle/ 🚴 Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/86551840 ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PaoloTagliaferri

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