Our hotel was comfortable, though we had to share a bath towel as only one set of towels had been provided! Breakfast included scrambled eggs and bacon, cooked by a very nice half-Italian woman from Newcastle, setting us up for today’s long walk. We retraced our steps back through the centre of San Miniato, now buzzing with a Sunday market selling local produce and bric-a-brac. Rare white truffles are the speciality here, and they cost a lot more even than brown truffles, apparently. We didn’t try any.
As we saw from the tower yesterday, San Miniato is strung out along the hilltop and our path took us almost to the eastern end before descending southwards into the surrounding countryside.
Today’s route mostly followed a long ridge which winds its way generally southwards through a landscape which looks a bit like green rounded sand dunes with occasional spikey outcrops of yellow sandstone. For the first hour we were on tarmac roads, but thereafter it was mostly on well made tracks.
As well as resting places and water sources for pilgrims, there were several plaques along the route celebrating 500 years since the Swiss Guards were formed in 1506. We wondered whether it is common for the young Swiss men serving at the Vatican to walk to or from their posting, like the young man we met near Passo della Cisa back in November. We have yet to meet another Swiss Guard walking in either direction, although there aren’t many pilgrims around yet.
Rather oddly, there was also a wooden sculpture celebrating a mere 20 years of the Via Francigena – that ancient pilgrim route in use since the sixth century! We assume this is intended to celebrate reinstatement of a walking route through this part of Tuscany, or was it some EU sponsored political event? With the amount of road walking we’ve had to do in Italy so far, this lovely track across country certainly is good cause for celebration and we appreciated the strategically placed rest areas.
By lunchtime we had arrived at Coiano, a windy pass with a couple of houses, a barred and gated castello, and a derelict church surrounded by Heras fencing. It seemed a rather sad place. Sandwiches hurriedly eaten in the bitingly cold wind, we pressed on down into a sheltered valley, passing through vineyards and olive orchards.
After warming up by walking through several small sheltered valleys, we emerged again onto the top of the main ridge we had been following southwards, with huge spectacular views over the Tuscan hills opening up in front of us.
As we approached Gambassi Terme, we passed through more frequent and more extensive vineyards, some offering direct sales. Several were based in large villas with strong security. Perhaps the signs alongside one area of vineyards exemplify the approach to security around here…
The late afternoon became colder, as the warming effect of the sun was overtaken by the wind. The photographer gave up, gritting teeth and marching on to get to our billet before it got dark. So, no photos as we approached Gambassi Terme, perched on the top of a hill, just focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Fortunately our room was comfortingly warm, and our landlady booked us into a very good restaurant nearby for supper.
We enjoyed being out into more open countryside today, with wonderful views interspersed by intimate small valleys, and getting off tarmac roads at last. But, today was surprisingly difficult for all that, with a lot of undulating terrain and some uncomfortable gritty tracks. We’re looking forward to a shorter and easier day tomorrow.