Day 15 - Viterbo to Lake Vico

Coffees: 2, Gelati: 0, Wine: 1/4 litre

Actual Distance Walked: 14.5km, Actual Time Taken: 4h 52m

Planned Distance: 15km, Planned Time: 4h 30m

The discrepancies between actual and planned distances and times is because I didn't turn the GPS on until I had left the centre of Viterbo and because I had a good, long lunch break (approx 30m) to de-stress after the spidery path section.

Today was not at all pleasant.  At one point a large tree had fallen across the (narrow) forest path.  I wasted quite a bit of time backtracking to see if I'd missed the turnoff, then blundering through the bushes to the left to see if the faint path off in that direction really was a path or whether it petered out (it did) before finally clambering over the tree and discovering the path continuing on.  Obviously no one has walked that way in a while given how much grass and weeds had grown up around the fallen tree.  

A little way further on there was a stretch of about 800m that the notes said were overgrown and the path quite narrow.  It wasn't as it has been cleared and widened.  However, it was home to many large spiders who have built webs across the path.  There was a web every 4 or 5m.  I couldn't move quickly (as much as I wanted to) because of the risk of running face first into a spider.  Instead I scuttled along slowly ducking under webs when I could and gingerly knocking them down when I couldn't and having mild hysterics the whole time.  Thankfully I haven't seen a forest path like that before or since, otherwise I'd been packing up my boots and taking the bus all the rest of the way to Rome!  Also thankfully there is very little more of this route that goes through forest so I'm safe.

Nothing much else to report for today.  Tonight's hotel is inside the Lake Vico nature reserve.  Besides the hotel, there is nothing here but a bar (which doesn't serve gelati) and a playground.  Actually, that is not entirely true as there is the nature reserve itself.  However, that will include nature, which will include spiders so I gave it a miss.

I didn't quite dine in solitary splendour.  There were 3 occupied tables in the cavernous dining room.  I guess I am at a holiday resort out of season, in spite of the seasonally warm weather, but I still can't understand how they make a living.  As I have half board here I got to choose from a more limited menu of just primi and secondi rather than the full menu.  For primo I passed on the pappardelle with wild boar sauce and went for the tortellini with fresh porcini mushrooms and truffles.  The tortellini were mass produced, which isn't really a surprise, and really it was all quite good.  Although I shouldn't bother ordering tortellini after Il Silene.  That place has spoilt me for life.  For main I had grilled quail with a side of stuffed zucchini flowers dipped in batter and deep fried - yum.  I was expecting one quail but got two.  They had been grilled over charcoal and were crispy and delicious with a nice, big wedge of lemon to squeeze over them.  Even though I had more than enough I still nibbled all the meat off their bones.  Small, defenceless birds are just so tasty.  Forget worrying about cholesterol levels.  By the time I get home I'm going to be as big as the side of a (largish) house!

Day 14 - Puttering Around Viterbo

Coffees: 3, Gelati: 1, Wine: 1/4 litre

Spent the morning following a city walking tour outlined in my route guide.  It took me from church to church where it raved about the architecture and the frescos.  On doing it I found it also took me through the old 13th century part of town full of towers and palazzos plus a bit of ancient Etruscan wall.  Fortunately the city has put up signs outside the buildings they consider significant in English as well as Italian.  These detailed when and how they were built and who lived in them so it was a nice stroll.   In many of these buildings as elsewhere, the ground floor was typically used as a shop and the higher floors were for living in.  One feature I have not seen elsewhere is that the stairs to the higher floor are outside and lead to a landing.  Apparently this is so there is more space downstairs and only a single, easily defended point of entry to the living areas.

On the stroll I passed a shop selling sportswear and ducked in to buy some gym shoes as my feet were not happy strolling in the shoes I had.  I ended up walking out in a comfy new pair of purple leather trainers.  Only in Italy would they come in such colours.  In Oz they would be black or white, perhaps will the odd colourful swoosh.  I adore them.

For lunch I stopped at some random place and had the fixed price lunch menu.  It turned out to be used by lots of businessmen on their lunch break, so definitely for locals.  To start I had orecchiette with a speck and rucola (and cream) sauce.  Main turned out to be a hockey puck of local cheese wrapped in more speck and then baked.  Ordering the thing you don't recognise can sometimes not turn out as well as you might hope.  At least I got to dress my side salad myself this time.  I'm so not going to test my cholesterol levels for at least a year when I get home.

In the afternoon I went to the Etruscan museum.  There were many Etruscan towns in this area, including here, so there were 3 floors of things to look at.  It included large aerial photos of the various towns (many now abandoned) as well as recreations of several buildings.  Just fascinating, but only got a passing mention in my route notes as it wasn't a church and didn't have frescoes.  After all this culture I had my siesta (also a very cultured thing to do).

I had dinner at a restaurant that specialised in Sardinian dishes.  I figure I will get plenty of Lazio cooking over the next week.  Again I picked things at random because I while I speak Italian-food I don't speak Sardinian of any description.  My primo turned out to be small ears of pasta with a cheese and ragu sauce.  Main was roast pork (moist and tasty but without any kind of seasoning so not as good as last night) and a side of chicory.  The side was horrible as it had a slight fishy flavour.  They must have put something in the cooking water.  An interesting experiment.  I had no room for dessert so I just had another coffee (my 3rd for the day and then I wondered why I had trouble sleeping) and then home to bed.

I found out what the issue was about the arsenic.  Apparently it has been discovered that several of the natural water sources for the area have almost double the permissible amount of arsenic in them.  The response of the relevant government minister was to say a little arsenic never hurt anyone and then he tried to get the EU to double the safe amount so he wouldn't have to do anything about it.  As you can imagine it caused a bit of a fuss.

Day 13 - Montefiascone to Viterbo

Coffees: 2, Gelati: 1, Wine: 1/4 litre
Actual Distance Walked: 18km, Actual Time Taken: 4h 41m
Planned Distance: 18km, Planned Time: 5h

Walking was easy today.  Mostly down hill and mostly on dirt roads so no risk of getting lost.  Did get to walk one quite long stretch on some of the ancient Roman road.  This bit was almost 1.5km long.  Before walking down it I stopped to read the sign explaining how it was built, geek that I am.  It was a good thing to as a farmer decided to drive down that road on his tractor with a huge plough attachment on the back.  It took him 5 goes to turn into the road as the tractor was as wide as the road was and it had high banks on either side.  Mind you, he didn't drive much faster than I was walking but it still wouldn't have been very pleasant to have it breathing down my neck.

Passed a farmer spraying his olive trees with something nasty.  He stopped as I went by and we had a short conversation - all in Italian.  I was quite proud of myself.  He asked me where I had come from, where I was going and was I really on my own.  His seemed to think that was very amusing.  At least, I think that was what we were talking about.

I passed some natural thermal springs on the way.  The water was just bubbling up out of the ground due to all the volcanic activity in the area I guess and it was really very hot - almost scalding.  Apparently there have been baths there since Roman times.  There are currently baths there still, about 5 interconnected concrete ponds.  I had planned on taking a dip but due to the unseasonably hot weather only 2 of the pools had water in them and they were full of locals who'd had the idea before me.  I just sat on a bit of marble I chose to think of as Roman and had my lunch instead.

Got into Viterbo in plenty of time.  This place is a bit of a shock to the system.  It is huge compared to what I've gotten used to.  The population is about 55,000 compared to the 3,000 to 5,000 in most of the other towns I've been in (and the <100 in Monteriggioni).  I get tomorrow off.  I could spend all tomorrow sightseeing since it is so large but I can feel the urge to spend the afternoon snoozing creeping up on me.  Not being able to have a siesta when I get home is going to be tough to adjust to.

Had dinner at a recommended place tonight.  Got there just after 7:30pm which is when they opened.  Of course, I was the only person there and I thought here we go again.  Fortunately, other customers started coming in after about 15 minutes.  I didn't bother with antipasto this time but went straight to house made ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach with a cheese, cream and black truffle sauce.  While they lacked the ethereal lightness of the ravioli at Il  Silene they were still very good.  Main was roast pork - some bit of it rolled around a rosemary based stuffing with good crispy crackling.  I had a mixed salad as a side dish and it came to the table dressed!  I was shocked, I tell you.  Shocked!  Everywhere else, even the most basic of places, have brought the salad undressed with my own cruet with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to dress it myself.  And they put too much oil on it and not enough vinegar.

Since I'd skipped the antipasto course I felt OK to have dessert, which was (very) fresh ricotta topped with fresh fruit (peach and nectarine) and grated chocolate.  Yum.  Just like cheesecake but without the cake bit getting in the way of the cheesy goodness.

I broke new ground with my gelati today also.  I did not have pistachio even though I could have.  Instead I had lemon and blood orange and very good they were too.  I've identified the place which is supposed to have the very best gelati in town and will try there tomorrow.  I am a bit concerned though as they had signs up in there window saying (I think - it was all in Italian) that the water they use to make their gelati has no arsenic in it.  It never occurred to me to worry about arsenic in gelati before.  I can't imagine what prompted them to post those signs.

Day 12 - Bolsena to Montefiascone

Coffees: 1, Gelati: 0, Wine: 1/4 litre

Actual Distance Walked: 17km, Actual Time Taken: 5h 3m

Planned Distance: 17km, Planned Time: 5h 30m

Today went much better than yesterday.  The feet felt ok when I set out and only started to be uncomfortable by the end.  Navigation all went smoothly in spite of instructions like "initially it has very low tree cover but the path is there!".  I would have taken less time but I got stuck in a rural traffic jam.  A farmer chose to move her sheep from one paddock to another just as a I came around the corner.  I could probably have gone through the flock but wasn't sure if it would spook them.  I was sure it would spook the sheep dog and I've been having such a lovely dog free few days.  That is, I've been barked at but everything has been securely behind a fence.

I got to walk on a piece of Roman road today and there will be more tomorrow.  It was such a thrill to be walking down a road that was laid 2000 years ago and has been in use ever since and is still there!  It was only a short section - about 50m.  I was so excited to be able to walk on it I was tempted to walk up and down it a few times just because I could.

On my route out of Bolsena I also passed a water fountain that was part of the original aqueducts supplying the town with drinking water.   Also still there but unfortunately also still in use.  I had planned to photograph it (and fill up my water bottle) but a local farming couple were using it to wash out the giant buckets they use for collecting grapes.

Had dinner at one of the restaurants recommended in the route notes as they serve traditional food of the region.  The notes also said they weren't open on a Tuesday but when I went past at 7:30pm the outside door was open and a light was on so I went in.  I was the only person there but I guessed they had just opened.  However, the only other people who came to eat there were a trio who were clearly friends rather than just customers as they just sat with the staff at the back chatting and watching TV.  Very awkward.

Dinner was quite good, in spite of the awkwardness.  I started with mixed crostini again.  This time the toppings were tomato (very good), a paste made of grilled capsicum (also good) and one of mince with vinegar (too much vinegar).  My primo was house made, fresh pappardelle with the house special sauce, which turned out to be a very spicy mince - very tasty.  Main was oxtail stew with tomatoes, celery and carrot.  Tasty but too salty for me.

For the next third of my trip I will be having half board at almost all places as they are so small.  I am the only person doing this ATG walk.  I hope I won't be the only guest at the hotels.  Still, I love my kindle.  I have over 200 books on it so I don't have to worry about running out of something to read.

Day 11 - Acquapendente to Bolsena

Coffees: 2, Gelati: 2, Wine: 1/4 litre

Actual Distance Walked: 19.5km, Actual Time Taken: 5h 18m

Planned Distance: 20km, Planned Time: 6h

Didn't much enjoy today.  Navigation was easier than I expected (more on that in a moment) but my feet still hurt from yesterday's mammoth effort so it was something of a slog.  The reason I travelled a slightly shorter distance but still got to my destination, was that I was so pleased to be near the end I missed a step in my instructions once the lake and town of Bolsena came into view.  It didn't really matter in the end since I could see where I needed to go so I just followed roads until I got there.  I just ended up entering the town through suburbs from the west, rather than dropping down from the north through the old city. 

My hotel was right on the lake shore, which was lovely but meant it was a 500m walk up to the walls of the old town.  It doesn't sound like much but my feet still let me know that it was further than they liked to go.  All the same I still made them go so I could do some sightseeing.  

Bolsena seems very strange to me as it feels like it should be a seaside resort but there is no smell of sea air.  In keeping with the seaside resort theme I had dinner at a restaurant built out on a jetty over the water.  Everything about it screamed tourist trap but the view was worth it.  I dined unfashionably early (7:15pm) so I got to watch the sun setting over the lake.  I started with a caprese salad - supermarket tomatoes and fairly ordinary mozzarella but decent olive oil.  I then had gnocchi with ragu again.  This time the gnocchi was commercially made (!) but it was lighter than yesterday's and a more sensible serving size.  Main was lake perch done Etruscan style.  Given that this style means with onions, cherry tomatoes and parsley I'm  not sure an Etruscan would recognise it.  Still, this was good as the fish was obviously freshly caught.  The price was excessive for the quality but I didn't mind paying a bit extra for the view.

I skipped dessert as I'd two lots of gelati that day (making up for lost time).  The first was at the first place I stumbled across as I walked into town and was very ordinary (pistachio and strawberry).  The second was at a recommended place and was well worth the recommendation (pistachio and ricotta with cinnamon).  I wonder if it would be possible to convince the second lot to immigrate to Melbourne?

Got mistaken for a hunter again.  Memo to self, never carry your hiking pole over your shoulder.  Always use it as a pole, even when you don't need it, such as when you are walking on level tarmac.

Forgot to mention in yesterday's entry but the restaurant where I had dinner had a TV on showing a local game show.  The competitor was a balding, middle aged man.  A young, (very) well built blonde in skimpy clothes stood behind him (actually plastered up behind him) running her hands up and down his back and shoulders and across his head.  Meanwhile the host barked out rapid fire questions at the man.  Eat your heart out Eddie McGuire.  "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" just isn't in their league.

Day 10 - Piancastagnaio to Acquapendente

Coffees: 1, Gelati: 0, Wine: 0

Actual Distance Walked: 31km, Actual Time Taken: 9h

Planned Distance: 31km, Planned Time: 9h

I'm not exactly sure of how far I walked today as the battery in my GPS died before I got to my destination. However the last recorded point was smack bang on a waypoint 2km from the end of the route and I'd covered 29km by then, so I'm declaring the distance was 31km.  According to my watch I walked for exactly 9 hours give or take a minute.   All according to plan today, which was a nice change.

Part of the reason for this is that most of the route was on dirt roads rather than forest tracks.  There was one shortish (3km) stretch of forest path but as that was a single path down one side of a valley, across a stream and up the other side with no possible turn offs there was no opportunity to get lost.  The bulk of the route was along the spine of a ridge of hills.  Once up on the ridge, the walking was easy as you just tramped your way south along the top.  Fabulous views in all directions but with correspondingly few options for a discreet pit stop.

I didn't see any hunters today but I was mistaken by some farmers for one.  Part of the route was along a tarmac road so I'd wasn't using my walking pole and was carrying it on my shoulder.  From a distance I must have looked like I was carrying a rifle.  Two of them came hooning up behind me in a car, slowed down for a good look and when they realised I was just a foolish hiker, they did a U-turn in front of me and went home.  If anyone is going to hunt illegally on their land it is going to be them!

In another case of mistaken identity, as I staggered into the village just before here I encountered a priest as I was passing a Via Francigena sign.  He gave me a great beaming smile and blessed me!  

The hotel I'm staying in here was supposed to be providing me dinner in their restaurant 

but they catered for a big family do for Sunday lunch and are closed for the evening.  They gave me credit a local restaurant.  I had been looking forward to just having to stagger downstairs.  Bummer.  

I successfully managed to find my way to and from the alternate restaurant, so my map reading and navigating skills for the day are still untarnished.  It was definitely a haunt for the locals.  This included a pair of carabinieri who double-parked their police car out front with the lights on while they went in for a pizza.  They were in uniform so presumably were on duty.

To start with I had mixed crostini again.  This time the toppings were the liver paste one, the one I call mushrooms but am beginning to suspect is bits of cow you don't want to think about, a very runny brie-like cheese and a prawn cocktail mix that I could have done without given how far inland we are.  The mayonnaise was very tasty though.  For primo I showed great restraint and did not have the tagliatelle with wild boar sauce but tried their gnocchi with ragu instead.  Mum's is better.  Theirs was a bit leaden.  It was a huge serving too so I definitely did plenty of carbohydrate loading for tomorrow.  For main I wanted ox tail but they were sold out.  My second choice (ossobuco was all gone too) so I settled for beef fillet with mushroom sauce.  The mushrooms were good.

I then staggered back to the hotel, which is really a restaurant with a few rooms above it.  I had a nasty moment as the front door was shut and the key I thought was the front door key didn't seem to work.  I eventually discovered you had to turn it 3 times before the door would unlock.  Not sure what I could have done if I couldn't get in as there was no sort of front door bell.

As so onwards.  Tomorrow is a piddly little 20km.  I say it would be easy but I've been reading the route notes and it is full of comments like "track may be faint"  and "head up to the corner of the field".  I can see lots of scope for going the wrong way.

Day 9 - Pescina to Piancastagnaio

Coffees: 2, Gelati: 0, Wine: 0

Actual Distance Walked: 26km, Actual Time Taken: 8h 9m

Planned Distance: 24km, Planned Time: 7h

Today turned out to be harder than I expected.  First of all the cute little elevation map at the start of my route notes lied.  It wasn't all downhill at all.  In fact, overall I ascended 1061m but descended only 961m.  I count that as climbing myself.

Also the vast majority of the way was on forest tracks along the northern and eastern edges of Monte Amiata, which is an extinct volcano.  The forest was quite lovely, full of pine trees, chestnuts and a tree I chose to call beech.  It was pleasantly cool in the shade.  The downside is one forest track looks much like another.  Moreover, an eroded forest track looks a lot like a gully or a dry stream bed.  None of this is helped by the fact that sometimes the route was down a gully or stream bed.  The forest is a nature reserve and is criss-crossed by hiking trails.  Most of the time my route followed waymarked trails.  Unfortunately, a couple of times it took shortcuts down unmarked tracks (see previous comment on how much one track looks like another to see why this is unfortunate).  I managed to get horribly lost once and slightly lost another time.  A large reason for the extra hour on my trip time was me spent peering over the map on my GPS trying to figure out where I was and how to get to the next landmark after I went off route.  Grumble.

The morning was spent entirely back to nature.  I didn't encounter another person at all.  I did catch a glimpse of a wild boar (one not on my plate for a change) and also a deer (why is there never venison on the menu?).  I also surprised several pheasants (some sort of game bird at least) out of the scrub.  Perhaps there is a reason for all the hopeful hunters I see.

The afternoon was quite different.  Still on the slopes of the mountain but more people out walking the trails.  The most amusing was a teenage couple in one of those funny little 3 wheeled trucks headed for a picnic spot and some privacy.  When they passed me on a particularly steep piece of trail I was sure the truck was going to lose traction and roll back on me.  However, the hairdryer made it to the top - but the girl's schoolbag fell out.  I approached them when I caught up to them at the picnic spot.  They were initially very much taken aback by this but eventually with my broken Italian and their broken English I was able to explain about the bag and where it was.  She hadn't even noticed it had gone.

I didn't like the hotel for tonight at all.  It is a modern place on the outskirts of town.  I was so tired with all the mucking about I did today and worried about tomorrow (31km!) that I never got a chance to walk the extra 2km into the medieval town centre to do any sightseeing (and gelati buying).

My room was enormous.  It had quite a bit of furniture in it but felt quite stark since it was so large.  The crucifix over the doorway was an odd touch.  It felt more like a school dormitory than a hotel room.  I could see 6 grubby English schoolboys fitting right in.  On the plus side it had bath rather than just a shower.

The owners here speak *no* English, not even a little to handle lost tourists.  It might have WiFi but I wasn't up to the task of asking about it.

I did have to leave the hotel twice, even though all I wanted to do was rest.  Tomorrow is Sunday and  nothing in the village is open and I don't pass any villages on my route tomorrow until the very end so I needed to buy picnic supplies today.  It had to be something that wouldn't go stale or go off.  There was a supermarket near the hotel luckily so I ended up stocking up on crackers, cheese and fruit and plenty of mineral water since there are no taps along the way tomorrow either.  My lunch today, as supplied by last night's hotel, was a (slightly stale) roll with a omelette filling, a kiwi fruit, a nectarine and an apple.  All tasty but I could have eaten twice as much easily.  

I lugged all my picnic supplies back to the hotel and then went out in search of dinner.  There was a cheap and cheerful suburban trattoria not far away.  It is the kind of place you go to if you live locally and can't be bothered cooking.  You certainly wouldn't make a point of driving to go to it.  To start with I had mixed crostini - 1 with fresh tomato (good) and 3 with cheese and different types of salami (not so good as the cheese was tasteless).  My primo was fettuccine with a porcini mushroom sauce.  The sauce was a surprise as it wasn't the usually creamy type.  Instead, it had fresh tomato, the mushrooms, parsley and plenty of garlic.  This was very tasty.  My main was veal scaloppine with a mushroom and white wine sauce.  Dad's butcher would never had dared sell him meat as tough as that, but it all tasted ok.  I finished with a coffee as all the desserts were prepackaged, bulk purchased items.  The coffee was very strange.  It was so very rich it almost tasted like chocolate.  I didn't have any wine as they only sold house wine by the full bottle.  

Not my best day gastronomically speaking.  No gelati!

Day 8 - Montalcino to Pescina

Coffees: 1, Gelati: 1, Wine: 1/2 bottle

Actual Distance Walked: 26km, Actual Time Taken: 8h 10m

Planned Distance: 27km, Planned Time: 8h

This day was (every so) slightly shorter than planned because I had to take to the road for a short portion of it, rather than following the "official" track weaving through vineyards and forest.  As I said, they take their wine very seriously here in this part of Italy.  Many of the local vineyards are ready to harvest their grapes and they have put up electric fences around their fields to prevent theft.  It also prevents hikers tramping through.

I was very grateful for the shortened distance, even if it was only by 1km as this was the hardest day by far.  Not only was it the longest day, but it is the day with the most climbs (1126m of ascent) and descents (834m worth).  I think it might be the hardest day on the entire trip.  It certainly is for this middle section.  There is one longer day, but that is mostly over level terrain.  There are no climbs like today.  In fact, tomorrow (bless its little cotton socks) is mostly downhill.

I'm glad this wasn't my first day hiking but rather I had the first section to get into shape.  With those 6 days plus regular stretching plus the (lavender scented!) balme di tigre I was able to get through today without any pain - I was just totally knackered by the end.  When I finally made it to my hotel I didn't even bother trying out my carefully planned Italian phrases for "I have a reservation" and "I would like to buy a packed lunch for tomorrow" (this village is tiny and has no shops), I just spoke English.  I'm a little disappointed about the last phrase as I'd spent a lot of time practicing it and won't need to use it again.

Just had a delicious, but deeply self-conscious meal.  As I said, this village is tiny.  I had dinner at the restaurant hotel.  I am the only guest at the hotel (all of 4 rooms) and I was the only diner.  I kept thinking I went down to dinner early, other people will show up, but they never did.  There was the chef in the kitchen along with 2 assistants plus the front of house man and me.  I can't believe they can be covering their costs. I normally don't bother bringing anything to read with me as I just people watch between courses but there was nobody to watch!

Dinner was delicious.  It was easily the best meal I've had (please come and dine here) but it was very upmarket and beautifully presented.  When you've walked the best part of 26km you want quantity as much as quality.  My primo was tortelloni (home made pasta this time) with fresh ricotta and spinach filling.  It was so light and tasty I wanted to lick the plate.  Main was deep fried chicken pieces (very moist on the inside and crunchy on the outside) with a quarter (!) of a boiled potato and a small onion souffle.  Dessert was two spoonfuls of the most intensely flavoured strawberry gelati I've ever had.  I washed this all down with half of bottle of Rosso di Montalcino (what Brunello devolves into if they don't bother with all the aging) followed by an espresso.  They also gave me a platter of house baked bread and I stuffed as much of it into myself as possible before they tidied it away.  

I'll be the only person at breakfast tomorrow.  What on earth should I ask for?

Day 7 - Puttering in Montalcino

Coffees: 3, Gelati:1, Wine: 2 glasses

Today was my rest day.  Among other things to do is the option of walking all around the town centre, following the path of the medieval walls.  It is all of 4km around and it predicted to take 3(!) hours.  I was going to do it and show the tourist office how fast a real walker can cover ground but then I checked out the distances I have to cover over the next few days.  They are 27km, 24km, 23km and then 31km!  Instead, I settled for climbing to the top of the walls of the fortress at the northern end of town and walking around them.

The rest of the morning was spent at the museum (fascinating, there have been people in this area since prehistoric times) and diocesan art gallery (dull, how many paintings of the madonna and child are really necessary?).  There was also a very odd little display in what had once been a beautiful church.  The walls of the church had elaborate frescos, many now faded and peeling, and there were large stained glass windows.  All the pews and other moveable objects had been shoved up onto the apse and the nave was full of balsa wood relief maps of the area.  There was one of the entire town of Montalcino while about 20 others were of the area around the Fortress.  However, each showed different buildings around the Fortress.  I'm not sure if these were reconstructions of the town at different times in history or different proposed plans by different architects.  What little documentation there was was all in Italian.  The real explanation was probably quite dull so I'm glad I didn't understand what it was all about.

Lunch was bread, cheese and 4 different sorts of salami (in keeping with my lunches all this trip) all washed down with a glass of Brunello.  This time it was little older (2005) from the San Giocomo winery.  Even though it was a little older, it wasn't quite as good as last night's wine.  Perhaps 2006 was the better year or perhaps Poggione has better vintners.

I spent the afternoon having a siesta and then reading a book by the pool.  My legs are going to need all the rest they can get.

Dinner tonight was a much more restrained affair (in terms of food) since I didn't do all the crazy amounts of walking I've been doing over the past few days.  I can see coming home and get back into the habit of eating sensible amounts is going to be a struggle.  Mind you, restrained is a relative term.  I had a tomato and mozzarella salad to begin with.  The tomato was ordinary but the mozzarella was superb - very fresh - so I forgive them for the tomatoes.  Main was pizza with hot salami.  This was all washed down with yet another glass of Brunello - a 2004 this time from yet another winery whose name I forget.  Much better than the 2005 but not as good as the 2006 I had last night.  I'm going to have to swear off the Brunello after here.  It is breaking my budget.

There was an English couple at the table next to me in the restaurant who had done the same ATG trip as I had to get here, but a day behind me.  We both had our booklets with us and were sneaking peaks at each other trying to work out if they were the same.  The wife of the couple finally did the obvious and just asked me.  They were pleasant people but I had to blink when the husband as what a "can-nap" was (aka canape).

A day without pasta.  What is the world coming to?

Day 6 - Buonconvento to Montalcino

Coffees: 2, Gelati: 1, Wine: 1/2 bottle (of Brunello)
Actual Distance Walked: 18.5km, Actual Time Taken: 5h 28m
Planned Distance: 18.9km, Planned Time: 6h 30m

Not sure how my actual distance turned out less than the planned distance as I actually doubled-back on myself at one point.  No I didn't get lost.  I was returning a lost dog to its hunter/owner.  They had been hunting (illegally I suspect) in woods I was skirting around and had come out on the track at very different points.   I came across the dog several hundred metres further along the path, rolling ecstatically in a mud puddle.  I called it over to me (vieni qui!) and herded it back to its owner.  It took a while as it had to stop and roll in every puddle we came across.  It was a nice change to herd a dog rather than being herded by one.

I didn't encounter any other hikers but have seen lots of cyclists.  The rolling hills in this part of southern Tuscany seem to be a great favorite with (lunatic) cyclists.  I did see one with bandages all down one leg and arm clearly after coming off her bike and another gingerly walking her bike down a steep slope rather than hooning down it like all the rest seem to do.

The hills around here are really quite incredible.  As you go over one ridge and down into the next valley it is like you've dropped into another world.  You can't see the quite large town you know is just over the ridge any more.  I can't imagine what it must have been like for the medieval pilgrim.  Without a very good map or local guide you could easily wander lost and be within an hour of somewhere to get food and shelter but just have no clue.  Especially as I expect it was more forested then than now.

The last section into Montalcino wasn't so much hilly as just plan steep.  I'm not sure how clearly it shows in the photo below but this is taken 3km from the end of the route.  I'm at the bottom of the valley and the odd blob at the top of the hill on the right is the tower of the Duomo in Montalcino's main square at 564m above sea level.

I had my first taste of Brunello wine today.  The restaurant I tried was as unlike last night's as possible.  It was wall to wall tourists with employees working the floor and in the kitchen.  Last night Mama was the waitress, her sons were in the kitchen and Papa was watching the TV at one end of the restaurant.

Still the food at tonight's restaurant was good as was the wine.  Below is a photo of the bottle I chose (at random).  It was decanted into the carafe to help it breathe and I was served a small portion at a time in a huge glass, also for the same reason I suppose.  It was very good but reminded me irresistibly of a good, peppery Heathcote shiraz.  Don't tell them I said so as they take their wine very seriously here.

The wine list at this restaurant was easily three times the length of the menu.  At least the first half was all Brunello wines, arranged by year.  It started with 2006 - the youngest the wine can be and still be authentic - just babies torn from their mothers' arms.  It then worked its way back through the years until it reached 1991 and prices well into the three figures.  My baby 1/2 bottle set me back 22 euro - more than I've spent on all my dinner at many other places.

The food was good also.  I had crostini with a variety of toppings to start with - 2 with liver paste, 2 with pecorino and honey (an acquired taste), one with pesto and one with porcini mushrooms.  For primo I had tagliolini (thin, flat ribbon pasta) with a mushroom and truffle cream sauce.  I'm getting spoilt as it wasn't fresh pasta and I was a bit sniffy about that at first.  Main was wild boar stew with polenta and a side of spinach dressed with olive oil, garlic and lemon juice.  All very yum.  I had to admit defeat at that point and skip dessert, instead tottering back to the hotel.  Tottering being the relevant word given the amount of wine I had drunk and the precipitous nature of the town streets.

Day 5 - Lucignano to Buonconvento

Coffees: 2, Gelati: 1, Wine: 1/4 litre

Actual Distance Travelled: 14.7km, Actual Time Taken: 3h 36m

Planned Distance: 12.8km, Planned Time: 4h

I wish I could blame the extra distance I walked on a poor map or poor route notes or somebody else's poor map reading skills but it was all me.  It is useful to follow all the instructions and not skip a step.  It also helps to check the map once in a while.

Still, on the bright side I made good time in spite of the unscheduled detour.  Today's trip was short because the original pilgrims would have gone on to the abbey at Monte Oliveto Maggiore.  However, as this is a modern pilgrimage today only goes as far as here, with tomorrow's stop being Montalcino rather than San Quirico d'Orcia.  

Montalcino is a much better fitting waypoint on my pilgrimage as it is the home of Brunello wine.  To be labelled a true Brunello the wine must be aged for at least 5 years in Slavonian oak (other oak is inferior apparently).  The very best (apparently) take 25 years to reach their peak.  They are corresponding eye wateringly expensive but are supposedly worth it.  I might not lash out on one of the gran riservas but I will definitely be trying the real deal.  On a side note, the bottle of house wine last night turned out to cost me the princely sum of 9 euro.

I have three choices for my walk tomorrow.  The first, for true via Francigena purists is to walk to the abbey and then on to Montalcino - a distance of 35km.  The second option, for the less pure (slightly grubby?) is to take a taxi to Monte Oliveto Maggiore and walk from there to Montalcino (after suitably admiring the abbey) - a distance of 23km.  The third option is to say to hell with abbeys, this is a secular pilgrimage, and head straight to Montalcino - a mere 19km.  No prizes for guessing which choice I'll be making.

Didn't meet any other hikers today either but did encounter an amusing dog.  It was a German Shepard and clearly knew its duty - growl, bark and generally frighten the life out of passersby. However, it just as clearly couldn't be arsed.  It made a noise that was as much a yawn as a growl and then made a single, very half-hearted bark.  Its duty done it closed its eyes and went back to sleep.

For some reason this whole town seemed full of cyclists when I got here.  This is obviously some common stopping point on well known cycling tours as there were at least 4 different groups - all in lycra with super muscular legs and wimpy upper bodies.   

I had lunch here in a trattoria that held a party of 6 cyclists.  I didn't realise when I sat down that one of the 6 was an American woman but soon learnt better.  I also learnt she is from New York City, is lactose intolerant, doesn't drink wine or coffee, sometimes wonders why she came to Italy for a holiday  given all this, that she is worried about the length of the journey scheduled for tomorrow, that some friends of hers played a practical joke on her last time they stayed at her place so they are now ex-friends although she did go to their wedding, and …  

At least when I drone on about the minutae of my day and I have the decency to do it on this blog so people who aren't interested the trivial details of my life can just ignore me.  She was a living example of why it is a gamble to go on a group tour.

My lunch was tagliatelle with hare sauce (they were out of wild boar) - very tasty - followed by panna cotta - bit rubbery - with forest berries (aka red currants and blackberries) and then a decent espresso which almost made up for the truly dreadful one I had at breakfast.  That one came out of a push button machine!  They should be ashamed of themselves serving such muck here.

There is some festival on in Buonconvento at the moment.  It runs for about 2 weeks. Today's entertainment was a school play by the local primary school students and a talk by an archeologist about the latest excavations in the area.  Tonight there is to be a concert by a Dire Straits cover band.  I was planning to give that a miss but unfortunately they are clearly audible from my hotel room.

Had dinner at a trattoria that is owned by the same family that owns this hotel.  I think they are better restauranteurs than hoteliers.  This is the first modern hotel I've stayed at and everything is getting a little tatty and is showing its age.  The buildings that are several hundreds of years old are holding up much better. One other annoying thing is that while the WiFi access is free, the walls are of such thick concrete you can only get a signal if you are sitting in the lobby.

As I said, better at food than hotels as dinner was (mostly) very good.  It was very much a local trattoria.  I was the only non-Italian speaker in the place and many people there were friends of the owners.  I started with an antipasto platter which had the usual 3 meats - salami, proscuitto and capocollo.  It also had 7 tiny pieces of bruschetta, each about a single mouthful. One was topped with fresh tomatoes, another with ragu, the third with pesto, the fourth with a paste of fresh porcini mushrooms, the 5th and 6th with liver paste and the 7th with some other sort of offal paste.  All very tasty.  The trick is not to ask what the ingredients are.

Unfortunately the didn't have a wild boar pasta sauce or any sort of game based sauce at all, so I finally tried true Tuscan ribollita.  Mine is better.

For main I had veal fillets with a fresh truffle sauce.  As usual the meat was overcooked and dry but it was really just a vehicle for the truffle sauce, which was divine, so it was very good.  I also had a fresh tomato salad with this. The tomatoes actually had taste! I'm getting so spoilt.  Dessert was a cake made out of fresh ground almonds bound together with egg white and sugar.  I could tell they were freshly ground as there was also a few pieces of shell in the mix.

This all cost me a total of 30 euro, including a quarter litre of house red.  I'm definitely getting spoilt.  I don't have to do any work or any housework and my all meals are cooked for me and are mostly good as well as cheap.  Coming home is going to be a nasty shock to the system.

  

Day 4 - Siena to Lucignano

Coffees: 1, Gelati: 1 (does a Cornetto count?), Wine: 1/2 bottle (more or less)
Actual Distance Walked: 21km, Actual Time Taken: 5h 38m
Planned Distance: 20.5km, Planned Time: 6h 30m

Had a "proper" Italian breakfast this morning, as the hotel did not provide one.  That is, I drank a coffee and ate a pastry standing at a bar.  After this I was still hungry (and a little queasy) so I had a piece of pizza from one of many bakeries in Siena.  You can pizza by the slice any time here.  Italy is so civilised.

The walk out of Siena wasn't as gruesome as I had feared, just rather boring.  The first 6km or so were all along roads.  Fortunately, these were all residential streets while still in the outskirts of Siena and then country roads connecting villages.  Since I didn't leave Siena until well after 9am I encountered very little traffic, except for the occasional bus.  Always a joy to meet one of those on a narrow road.  The very boring photo below is of a bus stop on the crest of a hill, at the apex of a hairpin bend.  Where else would you put one?

There were two short stretches where I had to walk along the original via Francigena - that is along the via Cassia which is the ancient Roman road leading from the north down to Rome.  Naturally it is now a major highway.  This was distinctly not nice.  However, I've discovered it is possible to sprint in hiking boots.  When you are walking along a narrow bridge with a truck alongside you and another barrelling towards you, you can put on quite a respectable turn of speed in order to get off that bridge now!

A little later I was cleaning mud off my boots on a patch of grass only to have a (very small) snake slither out between them.  I'm not sure which one of us was more startled, however I've also discovered it is possible to do quite an impressive standing jump in hiking boots.  Boots - they're for more than just walking.

The weather today was mostly good for walking.  Cool (low 20s) and with a brisk wind.  There was one short rain shower which of course stopped as soon as I found shelter.  Didn't meet anyone on the way, but towards the end of the day I did see a pair muddy footprints crossing a road.  I felt rather like Robinson Crusoe must have felt when he spotted Man Friday's footprints.

I would post some photos of the sites around in Lucignano if there were any.  However, aside from my hotel (with its own restaurant), there are two towers from the old fortifications and, of course, a church and that's it aside from some houses.  I was forced to spend the afternoon sitting in the hotel bar, drinking Campari and soda and reading a book.  The life of the tourist can be hard sometimes.

My package included half board (i.e. dinner) at the hotel restaurant.  It styles itself as a ristorante but is really more of a trattoria.  Since I was on a package I didn't get to choose from the a la carte menu but from a more limited range of options.  These were just told to me by the waiter, whose English is as good as my Italian.  Fortunately, I'm fluent in food-based Italian.  For primi I got to choose from ribollita or tagliatelle
with wild boar sauce.  I keep meaning to try the ribollita as it is a Tuscan speciality and I want to see how it compares to mine.  However, I couldn't pass up yet another chance to have wild boar (cinghiale) so that is what I had and very tasty it was too.

For secondi the choice was roast chicken or cannellini beans with sausage.  Given that, in my experience, Italians don't do roast meat well (dry and bland) I opted for the beans&sausage - aka baked beans Italian style.  They came flavoured with rosemary and sage and with three fat garlicky sausages.  All very good indeed.

This was all washed down with copious quantities of the house red - a soft, cabernet merlot style wine thought the grape varieties were not stated.  I had attempted to order a half bottle but ended up with a full one.  I wasn't shown a wine menu.  It was all done by discussions with the waiter.  Replaying the conversation in my mind, I believe he was trying to tell me that half bottles were only possible for name-brand wine.  In any case, I did my best with the full bottle but had to leave a lot behind as I had two slippery sets of marble stairs to climb to my room (no lift in this old building).

For dessert I had tiramisu.  It had more chocolate and less booze than mine.  Equally good but different.

I'll be curious to see how much this all cost me as the wine and dessert were not included in the half board arrangement.  Checking out tomorrow could include a nasty shock.

Day 3 - Monteriggioni to Siena

Coffees: 2, Gelati: 1, Wine: 1/4 litre
Actual Distance Walked: 18.2km, Actual Time Taken: 5h 34m
Planned Distance: 18.2km, Planned Time: 6h 30m (I'm getting the hang of things now!)

Weather much better for walking today, mid-twenties and overcast plus a glorious, blessed breeze.  Met up with another (English) pair walking this route today - a father and daughter.  Tried to avoid walking with them but couldn't do so without being rude.  Turned out it wasn't a problem as father was one of those rare males who is willing to read instructions so we didn't go astray once.

Today was Sunday so the locals where either going to church or, if male, heading out with dogs and a shotgun to shoot at things.  Saw and heard many attempts to kill the local wildlife but didn't see any evidence of success.  I assume they enjoyed themselves anyway.  Can't imagine what use it is to shoot pigeons and the like with a shotgun.  Surely all that would be left, assuming they managed to hit something, would be a mess of bloody feathers.

Have started taking photos of all the different Via Francigena signs I've seen along the way.  I've seen at least 6 types so far, many pointing in contradictory directions.  Not too surprising really.  Sigeric's original "route" was mainly a list of the towns he stopped in along the way.  Most of the roads/paths/tracks he would have followed would have been ancient Roman roads.  Since the Romans knew a thing or two about building roads, many of them are now major highways.  This means there are many different modern day walking routes linking the towns on Sigeric's path.  Today's route was not too bad, except for the last 3-4km into Siena which were along roads - some of which were busy.  Glad it was a Sunday and not a weekday.  Not looking forward to the exit from Siena tomorrow.

I've been religiously stretching my calves, hamstrings, quads, glutes and hip flexors so aside from some mild stiffness in these muscles first thing in the morning, they are all OK.  That means the only one I haven't been stretching, the muscles in my shins, are killing me.  Trying to buy the Italian equivalent of Tiger Balm from a pharmacy was an educational experience for both the non-English speaking pharmacist as well as myself.  I succeeded (I think).  I'm pretty sure what I purchased is for external application.

I had dinner at the Grotta del Gallo Nero, which serves medieval-style cuisine, as well as standard Tuscan fare, using recipes researched by students at the University of Siena.  I had originally planned to have the medieval degustation menu but wimped out at the last minute - just too spicy (nutmeg, cinnamon and the like), too sweet and just too much food for me.  Instead, I ordered the "traditional" Sienese peasant menu - assuming that peasant was fat and rich.  It was based on goose, and had goose in every course (except dessert).  I had assumed you got a choice from the dishes listed for each course but instead you got the lot!  I'm feeling just a tad full right now.

To start with I had an antipasto platter which contained 2 pieces of bruschetta (tomato on one, liver paste on the other), 2 slices stuffed goose neck with pesto (didn't think pesto was Tuscan) and a spelt salad with pear and pecorino.  This was followed by chickpea soup made from goose stock with more pecorino. The pasta dish was pici with a minced goose meat sauce.  Main was roast goose with roast potatoes (someone needs to teach them about other vegetables).  The goose meat was dark and rich but a little dry.  Dessert was lemon cake stuffed with ricotta and pinenuts.

Burp.

Day 2 - Colle Val d'Elsa to Monteriggioni

Coffees: 1, Gelati: 1, Wine: 1 glass
Actual Distance Walked: 18.8km, Actual Time Taken: 6h 9m
Planned Distance: 18.4km, Planned Time: 6h

Breakfast was amusing - to me at least.  There are two rooms for breakfast, a large and a small.  The large had two families with a small, ravening horde of children ranging in age from about 8 to one in a high chair.  The small breakfast room had everybody else crammed into it.  The parents in the main room did not look amused.

I successfully got out of Colle without meeting up with the couple from yesterday.  In fact, the only people I saw were several packs of MAMILs on mountain bikes.  I also encountered more than a few dogs.  The nicest (loosely speaking) would follow you along silently, just making the odd threatening growl if you looked like you might stop or otherwise invade their territory.  The majority were behind fences and would hurl themselves at the fence, barking and growling and making it perfectly plain they would like nothing more than to tear your throat out, if only this pesky fence wasn't in the way.

The extra 0.4km is due to me having to make a detour to avoid one particularly obnoxious dog.  It was one of those little yappy things that are smaller than most cats.  Since there was little damage it could actually do its owners didn't bother with fences or tying it up.  There was no way it was going to let me walk past "its" property so I had to cut across a farmer's field.  I expect he wasn't too impressed with me but he would have been even less impressed if I had skewered his mutt with my walking pole and I would definitely have been unimpressed at having the stupid thing attempt to nibble my ankles.

The route passed along the site of an old Roman bath.  The roof was gone and the walls were only waist high.  If there had been mosaics on the floor they were long gone.  Still, you could see the basic structure of the baths still with the main tepidarium pool and the several smaller pools off to the side.  Best of all, it still held water.  The main pool also contained a large collection of tadpoles and the odd goldfish, while the side pools just held slime.  The were several people in bathing suits standing around looking questioningly at the water.  I cheerfully pulled my boots off and cooled my feet.

Got to a tiny village called Strove around lunchtime.  There is a restaurant and a COOP food shop there. I ate at the restaurant years ago and had one of the best meals of my life there.  It wasn't open for lunch today, which is probably for the best.  This way I didn't run the risk of having my memories tarnished.  I ended up having a sandwich and the Italian equivalent of a cornetto from the COOP (not included in the gelati count as it doesn't count).  The only thing I can say about lunch is that it was worthy of being sold at a railway station.

Finally got to Monteriggioni, which is a tiny walled city at the top of a hill - of course.  It had been around 30C all day and not a cloud in the sky.  The picture below at a point about 4km away on the plain below the city.  I don't want to imagine what I looked like when I got to the hotel - an elegant 4 star place.  They quickly whisked me up to my room and out of sight.  The only drawback with the place was no Internet access, hence this delayed post.

Had a disappointing dinner to finish off a slightly disappointing day.  The food wasn't bad, just not as tasty as I have come to expect.  I started off with a eggplant and parmesan timbale, which managed to be bland.  This was followed by pici (spaghetti-like pasta) with ricotta, spinach and fresh tomato sauce which had all the flavour the first course lacked.  Main was roast pork ribs with roasted potatoes.  All I can say about this was it would have been better with some gooey, American barbecue-style sauce.  Dessert was creme brulee with hazelnuts.  If I'd made it I would have made the custard richer and perhaps added a dash of hazelnut liqueur to it.  I would definitely not have just put plain hazelnut pieces on top, but instead would have tossed them in sugar so they candied too.  Not bad, just could have been better.

And so to bed.

Day 1 - San Gimignano to Colle Val d'Elsa

Coffees: 2, Gelati: 1, Wine: 1/4 litre
Actual Distance Walked: 17.4km, Actual Time Taken: 5h 40m
Planned Distance: 13.5km, Planned Time: 4h 30m

I set off in good spirits, all dressed up in my proper hiking gear - dorky hat with dorky map case hanging around my neck, all exposed flesh liberally slathered with sunblock.  It was stinking hot but I made good time up until I meet up with an English couple in their 50s.  They'd done this walk with ATG about 10 years back and were doing it again by themselves, attempting to follow their old ATG route notes.  We combined forces and with the aid of my new route notes, their old route notes and his innate, masculine sense of direction it wasn't long before we got thoroughly lost.

We eventually came to a village that wasn't on either of our maps.  The wife insisted they stop at a small cafe/pizzeria.  I'd already eaten my lunch (a bread roll with good salami and stinky cheese that I'd bought in San Gimignano) so I took the opportunity to ditch them.  I back tracked to the last point where I know we were on the right path and then navigated from there using just my route notes and my compass to find north.  I managed to stay on track after that and got to my hotel here in Colle only 1 hour later and 4km longer than planned.

I adore this hotel.  It is the most upmarket on one the entire route - 4 stars.  When I staggered all sweating and dripping into their pristine marble lobby I was greeted with a friendly smile.  I used my best Italian (not as dire as it was but still pretty poor) to say I had a reservation.   At one point the woman on the desk lapsed into English but then apologised and returned to Italian.  She clearly though I wanted to practice - or at least thought (correctly) that I definitely needed to!  But best of all, and what makes me love her forever, was she gave me free access to the hotel spa.

This is in the basement and put me in mind of a modern set of Roman baths.  I'm not sure what everything did at the spa because the woman on the desk there didn't speak any English and none of my Italian courses cover the the esoterica of spa treatments.  However, there was sauna, Turkish bath and warm heated pool.  There were also about half a dozen special showers with a variety of nozzles that did stuff.  The pool also had several buttons around the sides that, when pressed, turned on various different sorts of jets for a set period with did other stuff.  I tried everything.

After getting thoroughly prune-like I went back to my room, showered again to get rid of the chlorine and dressed.  I think in one afternoon I managed to have more showers and use more water than I would in a week at home.  It felt very decadent to be so profligate with water.

The town here is in two parts - the older, Alto, part perched on the top of a ridge and is all of three (medieval) streets wide.  The new(er), Basso, part is at the foot of the hill.  After wandering around the old town (took 15 minutes) I went down to the new town.  There is a free public lift that goes down a shaft drilled through the peak of the outcrop the old town is perched on.  The bottom of the lift is in a cave at the base and there is a 50m tunnel to outside.  I can image it is rather creepy to use on your own at night but felt lovely and cool to me.

Once in the new town, I only went as far as the main square and then settled myself in a cafe to watch the world go by as it was now about 6pm - prime passeggiata time.  There were clearly demarcated clientele for each cafe.  One was for the old men of the town and another for the bright young things.  I settled on one that was willing to cater to tourists.  I had a divine pistachio and strawberry gelati before settling back with a campari & soda.  My first for this trip.  I'm slipping.

Once my muscles had thoroughly locked up, I levered myself to my feet and tottered back to my hotel.  I had decided to have dinner at the hotel restaurant.  It wasn't one of the ones recommended in my guide book but as it required the least possible number of steps to reach it, that was recommendation enough for me. I met up with the English couple again at the restaurant and we dined together which was a mistake again.  They were very nice people and it was pleasant to chat to them but it meant I only had 3 courses when I'd planned on having all 4.  This was a real shame as it turned out that the hotel food was delicious.

It was a very upmarket restaurant in keeping with the rest of the hotel vibe - think big white plates with artfully presented food.  However, the food was full of flavour as it a requirement here.  My antipasto was a zucchini and parmesan timbale with bechamel sauce, which came with a surprise side of prosciutto.  I think it doesn't count as a meal here unless you have some pork products in it.  I was then planning on having gnocchi with fresh porcini but the couple didn't want a pasta course (philistines!).  I then had wild boar stew with roast potatoes.  We washed this all down with a randomly chosen chianti classico as none of us knew what was a good winery and what was not.  I finished up with a strawberry mouse with mint and basil.  This was the only disappointment as it was a frozen mousse and hadn't been allowed to melt enough before serving so the tastes were a bit muted.

After all this I took my leave of the couple with the firm decision not to walk with them on the morrow.  I think they felt the same way as the husband kept flipping through my route notes and saying their path was different even though we are headed for the same destination.  I'm going to have to make sure I leave before them so I can be confident of not running into them again.

Day 0 - Puttering Around San Gimignano

Coffees: 4, Gelati: 1, Wine: 1/2 litre

Today was spent puttering around San Gimignano while getting over the jet lag.  Today was market day.  I had been warned to get there early but I could think of better things to do than get up at the crack of dawn while I'm on holiday.  However, turns out "early" in the Tuscan countryside means around 9am, unlike the 7am definition for the Preston Markets back home.  This is such a civilised country.

I was all set to shop.  Unfortunately, just because the weather is forecast to be in the low 30s all week it is still officially autumn.  All the clothing stalls were stocked with winter wear.  Moreover, if the stuff they were showing is a good indication of the colours that will be "in" next winter, then it is going to be a very bland season.

To cheer myself up I had my first gelati for the day.  It was at the Gelateria di Piazza which sells "world famous home-made gelato".  I know it is world famous because it says so in the ad on my free city map, in the guide books, by the tour guides and signs saying so are plastered all over the shop windows.  As a fairly obvious consequence the gelato was fairly ordinary.  I had the saffron cream with pine nuts and raspberry flavoured with rosemary.  In summary, saffron (when used in such sparing quantities) is a very subtle flavour while rosemary is anything but.  Serves me right.

Puttered around the town, marvelling at the other tourists marvelling at the sights.  One American was just so amazed at the sight of a very modern ATM embedded in the wall of a very medieval building they had to take a photo.  In a way it is a shame that I don't find the juxtaposition of the very old with the very new so startling.  They certainly were getting a real kick out of it. 

I climbed to the top of the Torro Grossa ("Great Tower") to look out over the countryside I'll be tramping over tomorrow.  The last section up to the top of the tower was an almost vertical ladder.  A slightly tricky climb when wearing an ankle length skirt and sandals with an elegant hint of heel.  Still, I managed it safely if not decorously.  What does it matter since no-one here knows me.

Lunched at a highly recommended but tiny trattoria (Trattoria Chiribiri).  This recommendation was from a trusted source and was well deserved.  It is tucked into the cellar of some larger building.  It seats a grand total of 22 people, provided you aren't too fussed about having strangers in your personal space.  Life sized photos of the street outside were on two of the walls in an attempt to make it slightly less claustrophobic.  I'm not sure it succeeded.    

On the plus side, here the food was worth the hype.  I started with a plate of "typical Tuscan" antipasto which here meant slices of 3 sorts of meats (proscuitto, salami and capocollo) , 3 small pieces of bruschetta topped with olive oil & garlic, tomato and basil, and liver.  There was also a small dish of finely chopped something that tasted rich and faintly meaty.  Could have been fresh porcini mushrooms or possibly some sort of offal.  I chose not to ask but just enjoyed the taste.  I followed this with lasagnette (broad flat ribbons of pasta) with a wild boar sauce.  The pasta was homemade as it had the odd funny strip from the edge of the sheet, just like mine.  Unlike mine, it had been made by someone who knew what they were doing so it was very light.  Still, I tottered out of there comfortably full (it had nothing to do with the 1/4 litre of house red that I drank I'll have you know).

For dinner I had booked a table at the Ristorante Dorando, a member of the Slow Food Movement.  I had meant to have the 6 course tasting menu but I just couldn't find the room, so I settled for a mere 3 courses (with wine).  The restaurant was definitely upmarket but the waiters were not at all snooty.  Instead, they were pleasantly flirtatious which seems to be a requirement for Italian waiters.  Did I mention I find this country very civilised?

For background music they had an Italian tenor singing light classics.  That is, they were songs that even I recognised such as Nessun Dorma.  I even recognised a couple that I'm sure I had heard Dean Martin sing.  Philistine that I am, I think Dean Martin did them better.

In proper style, I was given a small tasting plate as an amuse bouche.  It contained a tiny pyramid of super fresh ricotta, a single perfect super tasty cherry tomato, an (elegant) splodge of a roasted capsicum dip and a leaf of some sort of herb.  I was taking surreptitious notes about what I was eating.  However, when the couple at the table next to me got their tasting plate the woman just whipped out a camera and took a photo.  Must remember my camera for next time.

My official starter was pappa al pomodoro, which the English version of the menu translated as tomato soup.  This is a loose translation as it turns out it is chopped up tomatoes with chopped up bread all moistened with "good olive oil".  It was served in a "bowl" made out of a crisp basil-flecked pastry case.    Trendy low-carb diets are never catching on here.

Main was pork fillet (a local speciality as befits the Slow Food movement) with a nicely tart apple sauce with a spoonful of what in France would be called ratatouille and a spoonful of white beans in a tomato and rosemary sauce.  Rosemary is also big here.  All very tasty, except sadly the main event as the pork was a bit dry and bit bland.

Dessert was a wonderfully light, fluffy and tangy lemon mousse with candied fruits (lemon, lime, orange and pear).  See Mum, no need to worry, I am eating plenty of fruit and veg.  Thank goodness the dessert stomach is separate to the main one so I could fit it all in.  There was no way I could have managed the tasting menu as all the serves in that were full sized!  Perhaps if I had fasted for a day or two beforehand.  The couple next to me (with the camera) were making a game attempt but were visibly slowing by the 4th course.

Finally, back to the hotel and to bed.  One thing about jet lag, is that it makes the simple act of lying down and closing your eyes and going to sleep just feel so sinfully good.

Below is a photo of the view outside my bedroom window as the sun is rising.  Don't you wish you were in Tuscany too?

Arrival - Eventually

Coffees: 3, Gelati: 1

Well, I've made it to Italy - finally.  Got to Melbourne Airport bright and early.  Marched through check-in, security and customs and on to the airport branch of Cafe Vue for lunch.  (I figured I start eating as I mean to go on.  No meal is too insignificant to be fussy about where and what I eat.)  I was still in work mode, moving briskly from one task to then next, ticking them off.  The waiter at Cafe Vue was insufficiently brisk and I was quite unnecessarily (and uncharacteristically) rude to him.  He was deeply apologetic and made so much of a fuss over me that I felt like a complete bitch.

However, long-haul travel is very good at teaching you lessons in patience and humility given you are stuck in a closely packed metal tube, with little ability to influence the outcome of your journey.  I was soon taken down a peg and made to move into holiday/slow mode.  Bad weather/congestion meant while we boarded the aircraft promptly in Singapore, we sat in a queue for an hour before we could take off and consequently got to Milan late.  A combination of Italian-style peak hour traffic (gridlocked in all directions - north, south, east and west) coupled with a mad plan to (apparently) dig up the entirety of downtown Milan meant the airport shuttle bus trip took almost 3 hours rather than the scheduled 50 minutes. The very fast train from Milan to Florence was, on several occasions, the rather slow train and on one occasion the totally stationary train.  When I finally made it to San Gimignano I was 3 hours later than expected and the entire trip took 36 hours door to door.

On the plus side, I got here safely as did my luggage and the weather is, in the words of Google's translate function "sunny and delightful".  I also got to practice my Italian as I had to reschedule my taxi for the last leg to San Gimignano twice.  I've discovered that while, in spite of my painfully slow speech and undoubtedly dreadful accent, I can be understood when I speak Italian.  I've also discovered I can rarely understand the replies.  A small flaw in my plan.

I know this blog is meant to be focused on food and wine but I've consumed no wine so far and the less said about the food available on planes and in railway stations the better.  The most I can bring myself to say is that it is edible.  However, the coffee here, even in railway stations, has been excellent.   Strong, but not burnt, and with very little in the way of adulterants such as water.  It is the only reason I am still (mostly) conscious at this late hour (around 8pm local time).  Dinner was a gelati (melon and pistachio) and a slice of margherita pizza at the first place I came too.  I would rate both quite edible but can't say much more.  My standards are slipping already.  Sorry.  I'm promise to do better tomorrow.

What and Why

The Via Francigena ("Frankish Road") was a main road starting in Canterbury in England, then down through Frankish territory and across St Bernard Pass in the Alps and finally down to Rome.  The first known description of the route was by Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury in 990AD.  It is pretty much his only known claim to fame.  Thousands of pilgrams, merchants and others have walked this way before and since but Sigeric was the first to bore his friends and relations with his travel diaries.   I am following in his footsteps both figuratively and literally as this will be my account of following this way.

However, as this pilgrim is an atheist my purpose in making the trip is to marvel at the gorgeous countryside and feast on some of the best food and wines Italy has to offer.  As this pilgrim also only has a little under 4 weeks to spend on her journey, I will only be walking the last 200 miles from San Gimignano to Rome. (Yes I know Siena is mispelt on the map.   Don't blame me.  I pinched the map from somewhere else.)

As this little pilgrim also likes her creature comforts she is doing this trek in comfortable, flashpacking style. That is, I've booked pleasant hotels along the route and hired the agreeable folk from ATG Oxford to transport my suitcase from hotel to hotel.  All I have to do is get myself and my camera from point A to point B.  I will, however, walk the whole way (or at least, that's the plan).

Stay tuned.  Departure day is Tuesday, 13 September 2011.