We check out and reload the cars as usual when we move to the next location. We are nice and early today and on this Sunday morning we are on our bikes by a quarter past nine. It is still nice and quiet and we can keep going. Together with Richard I cycle through the flat landscape that looks a lot like the Netherlands. But the beautiful Italian towns betray the fact that we are not in the Netherlands. We photograph every town hall we come across so we can make contact, such as in Castellucchio, Casatico, Bozzolo and Piadena. While cycling on this quiet Sunday morning, the thought occurs to me that perhaps I could write an essay from my observations during this trip with the preliminary key question: How do we deal with the tension between what I see and what I know, and the powerlessness that arises partly because of it? Because I think a lot of people feel this. And maybe there is no direct answer, it still seems to me good and important to try to deepen this question. And to engage the “voices of nature” for this purpose to find answers. Also the word ‘gladdened’ came to mind because of all the people who react so happily to our tree-on-the-bike. Could that become a new movement of people who want to look at the world in a positive way and contribute to it? Or am I getting sunburned now? A few kilometers before we arrive in Piadena, and have covered forty-four kilometers, we have another tricky steep section at the edge of a sunflower field. And just at that moment, out of nowhere, a guy comes biking up and wants to help us out. Nowhere to be seen and we get help at just the right moment. To what do we owe this? We give the trees some more water from a puddle on the road and enter Piadena where Sanne takes over Richard’s bike and goes ahead to our location in Piacenza to prepare bookings for the next few days. The route remains beautiful and quiet even in the afternoon, meaning little traffic on this Sunday. But there is plenty of noise. Most of it comes from the tractors driving the pumps for the water sprinklers over the cornfields. The landscape here seems to be on a drip, an ingeniously devised system of waterways with fairly fast-flowing water so that there is water to spray everywhere. Whether this is so smart with temperatures above thirty degrees is another question entirely. It seems to be working. It is around six when we cycle into Cremona and park the tree bike in the central square between the town hall and the huge cathedral. We have cycled eighty-one kilometers today. All the way. I discuss with the passing police whether we can put the tree bike next to the square under a canopy for the night, which they are fine with. Daan, who has followed us all afternoon with the batteries, cannot get close to the square and we walk back and forth to bring the batteries and other stuff to the car. The square is too beautiful not to have another small beer and then we drive to Piacanza in half an hour. At our new place it is a bit of a struggle with the space to fit trailer and bus next to the house but it works. Meanwhile we cook with all the leftovers and are glad we don’t have to go out the door anymore. It was a beautiful Sunday and we have come a long way again, while we also distributed some trees and made people happy.