Vignola and its cherries

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05 June 2011

Today didn’t go quite as planned but held plenty of surprises!

The sun had returned and we first went to an 18th century shrine in the hills 4k outside Bologna, Santuario di Madonna di San Luca. The sanctuary is impressive but the most interesting feature is the world’s longest portico which connects it to the city. It took us 30 minutes to walk down and 40 to get back up. Unfortunately while we were making our way Wendy tripped over a small step and fell. She now has a sore and stiff knee but we hope it is not serious.

It is currently the cherry season and a couple of times previously we had bought some from roadside stalls. Our next planned stop was to be at Moderna but there is a town on the way there called Vignola which is a centre for cherry production so we headed that way hoping to pick up fresh supplies. We soon came to a stall and bought a kilo of delicious fruit for €3. We were still 15k from Vignola but we carried on anyway. In the outskirts of the town there was a row of producers selling cherries of all sizes (we’ve never seen such large ones before), colours and tastes. But the real interest was in the centre where a market had been set up as part of a 9 day celebration of the excellence of cherries.

Vignola has a large and well preserved 15th century castle, so we went on a tour round it which became really exciting when we reached the top of the tower as another thunder storm had started to flash and crash around us. From the tower I spotted some campervans parked by the river and this proved to be an ideal spot to spend a wet night.

Moderna will have to wait for another day.

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