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.