This morning were woken by the chortling of house-martins building their nests under the eaves outside our room. This is a sound of spring that particularly delights us. We used to have house martins nest outside our bedroom window in Chew Magna, but sadly all attempts to encourage them at our present house have failed. Almost every roof sprocket above our window was occupied by a nest. It was a wonderful sight to see them wheeling and swooping around us!
Despite an excellent meal in the restaurant opposite we were hungry for breakfast with a long day’s walk ahead of us. The downer was that not one of several cafes in the village was open for breakfast…….until April apparently! Rather irritatingly the owners of our room had been evasive in response to a direct question about the availability of breakfast. So, we sat down outside a closed cafe and ate dry muesli that we’ve been carrying for emergencies, washed down with cold water.
Below the castle is a huge carpark, mostly empty today, but it gave a measure of the hordes of visitors expected here during the season. From there we trudged up a steep hill, with good views back towards Montereggioni, it’s impressive defensive position even more clear from a distance.
Although our path took us from hamlet to hamlet, and according to our guides some were supposed to offer accommodation and/or food, we found nowhere open to get a coffee or anything to eat. One place looked promising with lots of makeshift tables and water fountain outside, but even it was closed.
Each hamlet had its own castello, though all now seem to be in private ownership with the usual signs warning off trespassers. This whole area was fought over, back and forth, between the historic city states of Siena and Florence for hundreds of years. Rather like the border reivers of Northumberland and Scotland, the locals had to build substantial defensible houses to survive the repeated raids.
Today’s walk was dominated by huge dramatic skies and intermittent short squalls of rain driven by the strongest winds we’ve had so far. Despite a forecast of rain, we actually saw very little and by the early afternoon glimpses of bright sunshine felt very welcome. More signs of advancing spring included clusters of wild purple crocuses and the first snowdrops we’ve seen Italy – a bit late we thought, according to our English timeframes. We spotted a pair of large raptors with eagle-like wing tips, but weren’t able to identify what they were. We passed a broken porcupine quill, the second one we’ve seen since we’ve been in Italy. Apparently the crested porcupine is endemic here, though more common in north and sub-Saharan Africa. For the first time there were signs of extensive rooting around by wild boar in the oak woods, so perhaps this is where the ubiquitous restaurant offerings of wild boar stews originated.
At our lunch stop – for more muesli and half a kiwi fruit each, the only food we had left – anything not pinned down flew off in the wind. An orange we’d picked up in the hotel in Colle turned out to be bad, which was disappointing as by this stage we were feeling pretty hungry.
A little later we came to a stele (obelisque) in a field commemorating those who built an underground canal in a vain attempt to drain a nearby lake in the 1770s. The canal now serves to drain or irrigate the surrounding area.
Not long after this there was a sign stating that Siena was 2kms away – not true! It was still about 6kms ahead, but the walking was quite pleasant through small fields bounded by trees and hedges sheltering us from the ferocious wind. We knew we were getting close as we passed the premises of the Siena Riding Club, which had a sign outside warning walking pilgrims to look out for traffic.
We had thought this amusing, only to be almost run down a few yards later. Tom was crossing at a three-way junction when a speeding car came out of nowhere, screeched to a halt and began gesticulating at him – as if he should either not be crossing the road or should have leapt out of her way, heavy rucksack and all. Meanwhile another car came whizzing around the corner from the other direction, forcing the first driver to pull across from her original plan to cut the corner. Had she indicated which way she was turning or not cut the corner all would have been well. Despite all the gesticulating the driver didn’t want a conversation about this and declined to wind down her window! We continue to be unimpressed by some of the very aggressive driving here, while other drivers seem to be extremely respectful of walkers.
As Siena drew closer we had the usual experience of lengthy suburban walking, past vast areas of four-storey modern flats and GSK’s Siena offices in a huge villa. This time we had some very steep hills included. At the first cafe we came to we sat down for much-needed sustenance, as our tummies had been rumbling for several hours. Only then did the group of Germans who had left Monteriggioni at the same time as us catch us up.
We entered the walled city of Siena by the very grand Porta Camollia. Even then it was a further 20 minutes walk to the Piazza del Campo in the centre, close to our accommodation, along narrow stone-paved streets with tall palazzos either side.
We found our overnight accommodation quite easily, tucked away behind the Palazzo Publico and the Torre del Mangia, overlooking the Piazza del Mercato.
Highlights of the day? Well, first the house martins at Monteriggioni, and a close second, the late breakfast on arriving in Siena!