Cyclable rice paddies n.1 – vercelli and surroundings

Departing from the Vercelli train station, follow the bike paths of Corso Italia, Corso Palestro and Viale Rimembranza until you leave the city, heading towards Cascina Vecchia, leaving the asphalt and skirting the airport runways. After reaching Cascina Torrione, leaving the dirt road, you reach Cascina Boschine, currently used in part by students of the Ferraris Agricultural Institute of Vercelli for educational and field research activities. You then cross the small hamlet of Carengo, passing Cascina Aramino and then Cascina Castellazzo and Cascina Ferla. Skirting the “roggia del molino,” we reach the vicinity of Larizzate where, taking Via Nino Bixio, we can observe the church of Maria SS. Assunta. From here comes a document, dated August 27, 1493, which, for the first time, reports the cultivation of rice in the Vercelli area. In the surroundings of the

town is a 12th-century castle of which, to this day, a portion of the wall and 2 towers remain. After passing Cascina Varola, through a grassy road that becomes a path, you first pass Cascina Angossa, then Cascina Angossetta. A short distance away is Cascina Boraso, an important example of a 19th-century farmstead that in 1932 became the primary headquarters of the Experimental Station for Rice Growing and Irrigated Cultivation. Return to town via Strada Olcenengo, then follow Via Gran Paradiso, Via Monviso until it crosses C.so Giovanni Gastaldi and returns to the starting point, in Piazza Roma, railway station area.

Recommended period: spring and autumn

Terrain type: dirt and asphalt