We leave the center of Guastalla heading west to climb the small embankment that surrounds the town, following it south along the Crostolo stream.
We are on a cycling and pedestrian path that soon crosses the provincial road (and the railway). We continue along this comfortable asphalt path for about 6 kilometers, reaching the locality of Santa Vittoria, which offers a small stop and the possibility of visiting Palazzo Greppi.
At Santa Vittoria, the Via Matildica temporarily leaves the banks of the Crostolo stream to follow the course of the Canale Tassone, a hydraulic work built in the 1500s for transporting goods by water between the city of Reggio and the Po River banks.
The path here is natural. For the first two kilometers, depending on the irregularity of the mowing, there may be stretches of tall grass, especially in the spring. We are in the open countryside, perhaps in one of the more “isolated” areas of the plain. Our next point of reference will be the small locality of Ponte Forca (3.5 kilometers from Santa Vittoria), where we will briefly descend from the embankment following the signs on the left, and then take a right turn, a few dozen meters later, onto Via Casaletto.
Via Casaletto is a quiet, traffic-free road, initially paved and then gravel, running parallel to the embankment. This route is preferable as it is less exposed to the sun and free from the risk of encountering tall grass in the spring.
We follow Via Casaletto for 4 kilometers until we reach an intersection on the left with Via Fornaci, which we take. It’s a point to pay attention to because missing the turn left onto Via Fornaci would lead us to continue on Via Casaletto, which does not allow safe access to Bagnolo in Piano.
We walk along Via Fornaci, a small asphalt road surrounded by cultivated fields of the Po Plain, for about 2 kilometers until we reach the first houses of the Pieve Rossa district and the intersection with Provincial Road 3, which we cross at the pedestrian crossing near the Da Probo restaurant.
After crossing the provincial road, we walk along the narrow sidewalk to the left, continuing until we reach the Pieve social dairy. Here, we turn right onto the road that leads to the church, where we will find a pedestrian path on the right side of the road that continues south after turning right. We are now on Strada Vecchia, a stretch of about 1 kilometer that will lead us to the first houses of Bagnolo in Piano.
In Bagnolo, we can choose to visit the center, perhaps for a well-deserved stop after crossing the Po Plain, or continue along the path marked by white and red CAI stickers and signs, which runs alongside the town on the left on the eastern side.
In either case, we leave Bagnolo by taking Via Pioppa, paying close attention to crossing the busy provincial road.
We continue along the asphalt road of Via Pioppa until we pass the locality of Pratofontana and its cemetery. Here, we continue straight, though the road, as we enter the municipality of Reggio, changes its name to Via Spagni.
Our next goal is the embankment of the small Rodano stream, which we cross on a brick bridge before turning right onto a gravel road after about 50 meters, leading us toward the Mediopadana railway station designed by Santiago Calatrava.
The contrast between the countryside and the city, between agricultural life and modernity, between slowness and speed, suddenly appears before our eyes.
Through an underpass, we cross the railway line and the highway to head towards the area of the city stadium. The city center can be reached either on foot by following the road signs or the path signs, or by taking the urban buses.
We enter the historic center of the city through the Via Roma gate, then continue towards the large Piazza dei Teatri (Martiri del 7 luglio) and from there to Piazza Camillo Prampolini, where the Cathedral and the Sala del Tricolore are located.
