Visit Date: October 12, 2019, around 11:00 am
In 2019 we are reviving our visits to Italy’s most beautiful villages after a five year hiatus. We visited many of these villages on our spring trip, and we continued our visits to these villages that fall.
The first beautiful village on this autumn trip was Cassinetta di Lugagnano, which was born from the merger of Cassinetta, which was founded in the 14th century, and Lugagnano (Lucanianus in Roman times), which has been around since Roman times.
We rented a car at Malpensa airport and headed directly from there. When we arrived at the village, the first thing we saw was a lovely canal.
This one is called “Grand Canal Naviglio” and it goes to the downtown of Milan. I visited the Naviglio Canal when I visited Milan four years ago. The following is the record of that time.
By the way, this is the stage of the canal which appears in the scene of Ghibli movie “The Red Pig”.
On the main street of the village, there was the town hall and the church (Santa Maria Nascente). We could enter the church, which was built in the 15th century, according to the official website. The soft pink interior was very comfortable. It looked like the inside was restored relatively recently.
The canal runs for a long distance. And since it was a holiday, we saw a lot of people enjoying cycling. This area is relatively flat, as a canal could be constructed, therefore cycling from Milan to the canal is not difficult. It seems to be really a lot of fun. We think there would be more cities like Milan in Europe than in Japan, where you can easily enjoy such things even in a big city.
(To be continued)
