Soresina is a town of the flat Lombard plain, between Cremona and Crema, and it lives and breathes dairy. The local cooperative, Latteria Soresina, is one of the largest cheese producers in Italy, making Grana Padano, provolone and butter from the milk of the surrounding farms. The landscape around is perfectly flat, criss-crossed by irrigation canals and lines of poplars, with large farmsteads, cascine, standing like fortresses in the fields.
There is no lake or beach near here, and the canals are not for swimming: they are fast, cold and steep-sided, and drownings happen every summer. If you want water, the nearest real river is the Adda, to the west, or the Oglio, to the east. At Pizzighettone, south-west of here, the Adda flows past impressive brick walls, and it was in that fortress that the French king Francis I was held prisoner after his defeat at Pavia in 1525.
Cremona, a short ride south, is the home of violin making. Stradivari, Guarneri and Amati worked there, and the town still has workshops where luthiers carve instruments by hand. The violin museum is world-class, and the cathedral square, with its tall bell tower, the Torrazzo, is one of the finest in Italy.
The riding here is a straight-line affair, with long, flat roads between fields. In summer the heat can be oppressive, and mosquitoes swarm in the evenings. In winter, thick fog settles on the plain, sometimes for days. Watch for tractors, slow trucks and sudden junctions at farm entrances.
The town has the pumps and bars a place of eight thousand needs. Buy some provolone at the source, and if you reach Cremona, look for mostarda, fruit candied in a syrup sharp with mustard, and torrone, the nougat the city has been making for centuries.