Lago di Viverone - Santuario di Oropa

330 km.

Today it is one day rather dismal, the time as usual in the days of party not there accompany a lot! But we don't do us us to intimidate and we depart equally!  

            We don't have the very clear ideas, we look for a flash of calm among the clouds, what it brings us in direction Turin, decides then to go up to the lake of Viverone but not  following the highway Turin-Aosta; it would be a beard! Only a along rectilinear!  

            We go out therefore from the tangential north of Turin after having crossed her all and we aim Chivasso in direction, from here we take the government one of the Valley of Aosta, the road is not the maximum one as it regards the route because the mantle is enough “lived” and it crosses many countries of the low canavese, but we don't care it, we are not in a hurry and there we enjoy a few the panorama.  

        Reached Strambino we leave the government 26 and we take in direction of Seventh Rottano crossing Caravino; we surpass the motorway suspender Ivrea Santhià and we go down in the paesino of Azeglio, in front of us it opens the immense wall of the Serra of Ivrea the last test of that that thousand of years ago were the, glacier of the Valley of Aosta, turns to the left and in few minutes we are on the shore of the lake, that with his 5,2 Kmq is entirely the second for extension on the Piedmontese ground.  

            Push   HERE   for the printable version of the map  

        A coffee is obligatory to reassure us from the air that we have taken until here, the season is as soon as beginning and we realize of it from the present people (practically anybody), we console then there eating a fast sandwich on the shore together with various Real Germans and Gallinelle of water, parties surely more to the food that to us!  

        Considering that the time seems to hold we leave again with the intention to see more from near the Serra, let's reach Cavaglià and then Salussola looking for a road that brings us to Ivrea with some curve!   

        Found an intersection that seemed us favorable us we realize that we are by now to a nothing from the Sanctuary of Oropa and then we continue, reaching and surpassing Biella rod we begin to climb I pour I prolong, the road he makes hold and very beautiful flood of curves for us enduristi! We go up again the valley and finally we cross and we arrive in front of the imposing Sanctuary.   

        The origin of the sanctuary, perhaps the most ancient among the sanctuaries mariani of west, is made to go up again from her tradition to Sant'Eusebio, bishop of Vercelli, that in 369, sheltered him among the mountains of Oropa to escape the persecutions, would have hidden in a niche of the erratic rock on which the chapel of the is set now Roc a wooden statue of the Madonna brought by Jerusalem and presumed work of St. Luca Evangelista; subsequently the statue was transferred here to the of of the stream, within a crypt perhaps built by the same Sant'Eusebio, that is still that visible, and guarded by some hermits that they built around you of the cells. Of fact however the first documents related to the sanctuary go up again to the century XIII. At the end of that century it rose close to the primitive crypt an ampler church, united to the Chapter of Saint Stephen of Connecting rod in the 1459. The veneration for the place went increasing more and more and in the century XVI already rose around her church buildings for the pilgrims.  

        During the 1599 plague the Commune of Connecting rod made vow to erect a new church and in fulfillment some vote rose, demolished the thirteenth-century church the actual basilica, that includes the crypt eusebiano. In the 1620 the road of access was completed and already in 1644 they began the jobs for the erection of the buildings that they frame the courtyards and on which were built among Six hundred and Eight hundred the actual buildings; between 1624 and the 1724 are almost all built the chapels; between 1755 and 1775 the top of the hill is flattened of St. Francis to make place to the lawn that the sanctuary precedes. Beginning from 1620, every one hundred years it comes completed the solemn rite of the crowning of the black statue of the Madonna of Oropa. Enormous it is the flow of the pilgrims, that come you with characteristics and traditional ceremonies, estates especially during the the patients' pilgrimage in the summer months. To the sanctuary they are attached an Observatory meteorosismic and  a station radio.  

        Unfortunately the time is really ugly and you goes off 3 photos it begins to rain, we immediately escape, but with intention to return with a best day because surely the place deserves!  

        We cross the hold valley to bashful and returned to Connecting rod we continue for looking for the alternative for Cerrione that we had seen before, some curve on the Greenhouse and we return to Azeglio, from which we continue for Ivrea (never to make 2 times the same road!), overcome the Turin-Aosta we cross the roads of the tall one canavese, touching Castellamonte (famous town for his/her ceramics production), Ozegna, Rivarolo and Lombardore (the country of the smanettonis!), from here we divert for the airport of Boxes and later one small standstill away immediately in tangential and accordingly in house!