From one hill town with a tower to another.
That steep climb up yesterday is now a bit of a painful descent back to the trail. The first three kms back on the trail are downhill through woods. Views back to the castle and tower, lots of autumn leaves and a few deer to be seen. One of the most beautiful stretches we have had.
We then climb back up to a ridge which we follow for the next hour surrounded by ploughed fields with occasional farmhouses. It is really peaceful, except for when the jet fighters roar just overhead. That certainly caught our attention.
DC makes friends with a number of dogs here. First, three small dogs emerge almost silently from a field; just a jingle from their tags. They escort us for the next couple of kms along the ridge before abandoning us to chase a couple of deer. He is then befriended by another dog, a scruffy little brown dog. This dog then proceeds to lead, follow, walk alongside us for the next hour. It was undeterred. There isn’t a tag so we don’t know if it has a home but it ends up a long way from where it joined us when it disappears off into an agriturismo.
We descend again to the river and the via Cassia. This is the main road that has a lot of traffic, going fast. We will see a lot of it in the coming days. This section though has a path alongside the river. Several dry creek crossings and an easy crossing of the river itself, then the real climb begins. 8-9 kms of almost constant up towards Radicofani at 814 ms.
Overall, compared to home, we have seen very few sheep. Until today. There are lots in this region, including these guys:
This whole stage from San Quirico to Radicofani is more than 32 kms due to hostel location. We are glad we broke it up. We passed quite a few agriturismo today, although they generally looked closed up at the moment.
The temperature today was cool, forecast to 10-11 deg, but with the sun shining and very little/no shade for most of the day, it often felt a lot warmer. This must be hard if hot. We did pass a few water fountains and found picnic tables set up in four spots. Two of them with perfect timing for a morning break and lunch stop. Overall this is a long but extraordinarily scenic day.
We arrive in Radicofani 7.5 hours after rejoining the trail. Around 25 kms.
Stepz says I climbed the equivalent of 20 floors. Totally and completely ripped off!
The tower is perched further up the hill, above the town. It will have to wait.
Tonight we have an apartment, a cosy little studio.
Radicofani looks to have a very old setup, but appears so neat and almost new. I assume with this strategic position it would have been heavily bombarded and then rebuilt after the war?
Stay: Bianca House
Eat: La Grotta. Dinner of tuscan soup (lots of beans) and lasagna, and steak for DC.
9 more days to Roma.
Richo and DC 