Stage 8: Viverone to Santhià and beyond. Magic woods and rice fields. (Part 2).

Then on through gentler country, with barley fields stretching away between farms, the green only broken by this splash of colour from an Acer plantation.

and my first sight of the rice fields I'll be with for the next few days. 

Acacia trees in bloom perfumed my passage, 

and, after making use of a pilgrim "oasis", 

I reached Santhià in time to watch The Simpsons in a bar, then pushed on another 7km through flat fields and irrigation channels, to San Germano Vercellese, where I caught the train back to Santhià and a weary, sore-footed trudge back to the apartment. 26km today, but a slightly shortened stage tomorrow as a result, increasing today's 16km by 10, and cutting tomorrow's 30 by 7.