The Cavour Canal cycle route through the paddy fields of the Vercelli plain

There is a Piedmont of water that almost no one cycles. While cyclists crowd the wine hills, the rice plain stays empty: flat, geometric, made of canals as straight as rulers and of fields that in May fill with water until they become mirrors. Onto those mirrors, on clear days, the Alps spill over. This is the realm of the Cavour Canal, the nineteenth-century hydraulic work built to bring water from the Po and the Dora to the paddy fields, and today one of the most hypnotic and least travelled cycle paths in the North.

Along the embankment

The guiding thread is the embankment. The canal starts at Chivasso, where it draws water from the Po, and runs for dozens of kilometres eastwards as far as Galliate, in the province of Novara, crossing other watercourses via engineering works that deserve a stop: a canal bridge over the Dora Baltea and a siphon that carries it beneath the bed of the Sesia. Along the route you touch the towns of the lower Vercelli and Novara areas, but the heart of the experience lies between Vercelli and the rice villages like Larizzate, Lignana, Borgo Vercelli, where the horizon is nothing but paddy field, isolated farmsteads and rows of poplars.

Vercelli is the natural base: it is easily reached by train on the Turin-Milan line, which lets you leave the car at home and design loops or point-to-point routes returning from another station. The city itself, with the basilica of Sant'Andrea, is worth half a day before or after the ride.

The route

On the technical side it is an itinerary within almost everyone's reach. The surface is nearly always gravel embankment, in places grassy or stony, ideal for a gravel or mountain bike, not recommended for a road bike with thin tyres. There is practically no elevation gain: you pedal on the flat, and this makes for a long but never hard day. The real difficulty is another: the embankments are not a continuously signposted cycle route, some stretches are interrupted or require short detours onto country roads, so it is best to study the track in advance and reckon on a few adjustments. Nothing to be scared of, but you need a spirit of exploration more than a desire to follow signs.

When to go

Timing is everything. The magic of the mirror paddy fields depends on the flooding: the best window is late spring, roughly from late April to May and early June, when the fields are full of water and the rice is still low. This is the moment when the Alps are reflected and the light of morning or sunset transforms the plain into something unreal. A second good window is September, at the start of autumn, with the paddy fields now golden before the harvest and the air fresher. In high summer the humid heat of the plain and the mosquitoes make the ride less pleasant, and the water in the fields diminishes. Precisely because the appeal is tied to specific moments and to a landscape considered 'minor', here you will not find lines of cycle tourists: you will cross paths with more herons than people.

A practical tip: set off early, at dawn or shortly after. It is the hour when the water is still and the reflections are perfect, the light is soft and the grey herons are hunting along the ditches. Carry enough water, because between one farmstead and the next the resupply points are sparse and the village bars close early; a sandwich bought in Vercelli before setting off can save your lunch in the middle of the green nowhere. And keep an eye on the wind: on the open plain it can become your only real adversary, so if you can, plan the outward leg into the wind and the return with it behind you. Finally, respect the work of the farmsteads and rice estates: the embankments are service roads, and the best way to keep these places welcoming towards cyclists is to ride them with discretion.