Visiting Calcio’s Church

Touring Bike

Following the Fiesta of the White Knight and the wonderful hospitality of the Belotti family, I woke early but refreshed. I went to cleanup and when I returned to the lounge everyone was up. Daniela was busy in the kitchen making coffee and laying out breakfast. The coffee smelt delicious, breakfast consisted of croissants, coffee, cake and biscuits.19-September-2014-(3)The fiesta was to celebrate a new priest, I was asked about my own religion and that morning we went to church. Matteo was in the choir so set off before the rest of us on his bike so he would be on time. We walked around to the church, again it felt like I was meeting everyone in the village and discussing my journey. Entering the church blew me away, the church was incredible, the first thing that struck me was it was full. The church was highly decorated and the dome was huge. The service was emotional, I realised I had visited many churches across Europe but non so grand and never when a service was talking place. We found seats on the left hand side not on the pews but separate seats. I followed the service, stood when everyone else did and hearing the Lords prayer in Italian is an experience I’ll never forget. There were several times throughout that my eyes welled up, very emotional. Davide tapped me on the shoulder when Matteo was about to sing, Davide is a proud father and rightly so as Matteo is very talented. The whole ceremony was a huge celebration and we walked out of the church to a brass band and even more festivities. The children released balloons with messages tied to them into the clear blue sky.14-September-2014-(4)I was invited to lunch back at the house which was an Italian taste sensation. We had pasta with salmon and a friend of the family called round with a steak dish. Visitors came and went, some of them did amazing translation. I was invited to stay longer and was offered to be taken to Bergamo but due to everyone else having work in the morning I said I would return a week later once I had visited Venice. It was nearly time to continue my journey so we had a little photo shoot outside Davide’s house. It was an emotional time leaving the Belotti family, I will always treasure the memories from Calcio.14-September-2014-(14)When I set off from Calcio the main Street was blocked off and a sign gave an alternative route to Bressica, so of course I followed the diversion, only to cycle in a huge circle and back through Calcio. I found the SP11 and followed it to Bressica but as lunch was huge, I needed a siesta, I was falling asleep whilst riding. I pulled into a shopping area, which was mostly closed due to it being Sunday and tried to sleep sat up leaning on my bike. This proved to be uncomfortable and unsuccessful. I continued along some wonderful smooth roads with just the odd hill until around 18:00 I came across the Papillion hotel, I was so exhausted that I just checked in and as soon as I was in my room, I went to sleep. I did wake up at 22:00 so as the hotel had free WiFi I uploaded my videos to YouTube before going back to sleep.14-September-2014-(19)