Sergio (our host) is up early to prepare our breakfast, feed his 4 donkeys and get ready for his day as bank manager in San Quirico. He directed me to the back seat and Corrie to the front, he loves to talk and he realised Corrie understood more Italian than me - she also speaks a lot with her hands. He drove us to our starting point about 5kms away - a hug for me [...]
It was strange, but lovely to walk out of Siena with just a few people wandering about - some wheelies off to their next holiday destination; 5-10 others going somewhere; delivery trucks miraculously finding a millimetre between the shops and parked trucks; a deli opened; and 1 bar with very loud rock music - that was for us! This is peak season so the day before, we just went where we were pushed. Out through [...]
No early opening bars these days as we enter the heart of popular tourist towns, so no need to open for the locals - they all own shops, they’re open well into the night and the tourists are still sleeping, so why would you open for two old people wandering to Rome. The street lights took us out far enough so we could see our narrow track deviation up and down narrow creviced pathways, through [...]
A late start because it meant a giant breakfast and it will be another short day. Because we went on an alternate route yesterday it was impossible to follow the guide book, so we asked locals for the direction of our next sleep over and followed the camino signs. The first chill in the air as we leave the factory and look for signs. A good clue if there aren’t any, is to find a [...]
Left the feuding towers of San Gimignano in the dark, with the corridor of street lights illuminating our footings on our way past the monastery that sits proudly admiring the UNESCO town from afar. We had our own feud, because there was no food, as we had been assured the night before this bar would be open, and it was….but just for cooking and receiving supplies. Two other bars were also open but for cleaning [...]
On a back street, via San Matteo, where the sun wasn’t shining, we sat at the sort of table I love with the girl that I love and searched for a poem by the 14th century poet - San Gimignano. We liked it, so thought we’d share it as our day’s post. Not the towers your terrible fear of heights you never tried the climb - not the streets, nor the squares ringed by houses [...]
Our wonderful hosts had decorated the breakfast table with flowers and laid out breakfast beautifully for us. ‘Believe in your selfie’ and her sister had said they wouldn’t be there and to help ourself at any time. As we were leaving an Italian man came in - we said hello and goodbye, and as he was going further than us today said we may not see him again. We walked outside and our French friend [...]
Dinner with 10 others in the Convento de San Francesco, including our 2 French fellow walkers, 3 Italian men and a Dutchman. The Dutchman has walked from Holland - his partner doesn’t like to walk - I felt a bit sad for them but maybe it works. We left San Miniato in good spirits though a bit weary. Weaving our way through this fascinating hilltop village, we lowered ourselves down through twisting roadways - ‘1 [...]
It was an eclectic walk. We started on a ‘5 car a minute road’ for a short while, then off on those various ‘exit to avoid the traffic pathways’, all the way to our next destination. These varied from narrow sunny embankments, a bit like walking on a castle wall; to tree and bush lined ‘up and down small hill gully tracks’ across creeks; to gravel roads through farmland and back streets. These took us [...]
We had to walk 2-3 kilometres this morning to find a bar (if I didn’t tell you before or you didn’t know) a bar sells alcohol, coffee and croissant variations. As usual, men between 40 and 70 approx. were the main guests eating and drinking their regular morning delights as we did ours. Off through the outskirts of the famous and beautiful Lucca which we didn’t give the respect it deserves (this time). Instead we [...]
