The optimistic nature of our group of tourist guides has led us to seek, and find, something good even in the sudden cancellation of many of our guided tours, both in Pavia and in Milan, due to the Covid-19 Virus epidemic which is spreading in our areas . We suddenly have many free days to walk in our city, strangely not animated by university students and people on bicycles, finding ourselves passing in places outside the usual routes. All this has given us some ideas for new guided tours in Pavia!
We took the picturesque Corso Garibaldi and we passed the door of the church of San Luca which we usually leave behind us racing by bicycle to go to meet our groups of tourists. What impresses of San Luca, a typical church of the Counter-Reformation era, is first of all the "silence, silence", in total contrast to the voices and the noises of the animated Corso Garibaldi street outiside.
In this restful and mystical silence, the eyes move on the delicate frescoes that alternate with the stuccos and the church becomes a refuge in which to meditate and admire. So we have had the idea of a guided tour of eastern Pavia which, just beyond San Luca, has led us to turn into the cobbled street to enter a small hidden square overlooked by the splendid Romanesque facade of San Primo and Feliciano, another intimate and suggestive church. The idea of a guided tour of this part of the city also made us remember some anecdotes related to the popular character of this side of Pavia, which led out of the city, towards the ancient industrial area, the same direction from which, many centuries before, the Lombard king Alboino entered to besiege Pavia.
At this point, thinking of Alboino, we came up with the legend of the typical Easter cake, the dove, a legend that can be traced back to King Alboino himself and this rembrance made us want a coffee break in a small bar at the feet of the medieval towers, reminding us that a gastronomic stop is always the best way to finish our guided tours of Pavia!
