Photos of our Fabulous Adventure
9.5km 270M ascent
Buongourno!
The routine continues 7am alarm and off to breakfast. Today’s journey takes the group by bus to the gorgeous hilltop town of Pienza (my personal favourite!).
Pienza was once a small village named Corsignana, where Pope Plus II was born. When he became Pope in 1459 he commissioned the most famous architect of his day, Bernardo Rossellini, to create a city fit for a Pope on the site of his birthplace. Plus died within three years of the completion of the city, which was largely ignored by future Popes, leaving us with a beautifully preserved renaissance city not much bigger than a village.
The city was designed with architectural ‘tricks’ to give the appearance of being larger than it really is. The Main Street is arched slightly to give an appearance of being longer. In the main piazza the cathedral was built further back to allow for a larger area. Unfortunately by doing this the back of the cathedral is on somewhat unstable ground and is slowly sinking. It has been shored up, however it is still slowly sinking.
Rod has joined ‘the sisters’ on the easier walk today and it’s so nice to walk along with him. As soon as we have our free time to wander the village, Rod spots a Piccolo (Mini) Cafe that is the picture of quaintness. Smells of freshly baked croissants fill the air and we succumb to the temptation. It was absolutely heavenly, and likely will be impossible to find an equal taste, although I know we will try!
The harder walk leaves from Pienza, and those of us on the easier walk get back on the bus with Walter and drive the 7km to Monticcchiello, which is a very small, old hilltop village contained in ancient walls. The residents here write and produce a play each year and this has been going on for years. The director is getting on in years and apparently a documentary titled El spectaculo was written about his work.
We have a few minutes to enjoy the town, sit down for a cappuccino and then we start our walk. The walk is beautiful through rolling picturesque countryside, every turn and other spectacular view! The first half of the walk is a long steady, relentless incline, and with the hot sun bearing down on us we scramble from shade spot to shade spot. At last we have reached our lunch spot, a line of beautiful Cypress trees on a long driveway. We plop ourselves down and the clouds cover the sun for a nice reprieve. We are about 2/3 of the way which makes everyone happy.
With more incline (although) not as steep we arrive at the pilgrimage church of San Bagio just a km under Montepulciano. Resting here for a few minutes and filling our bottles with fresh cold water we are ready to tackle what Bill refers to the last km of purgatory 😂. A short time later we are in the hilltop town of Montepulciano and most of us reach the first cafe/bar and get a cold beverage. Some wander and return with bottles of wine after participating in a wine tasting – Rod & Charlene met with the vinter who was an absolute delight. Darn, I missed the ball on that one.
At 4:30ish we gather and wind our way through the myriad of streets down to where Walter is able to park our large bus. Through here are all the wonderful cafes and shops and many of us are disappointed we didn’t find these earlier. A trip back may be on the agenda for the free day tomorrow!
Our drive back to San Quirico is so beautiful over hills, and through gorgeous valleys on narrow winding roads – exactly what I pictured Tuscany to be like. Upon reaching San Quirico however we meet a very large disposal truck and neither of us has room to pass. Traffic is building up behind us and the truck. Finally we feel our bus backing up past some of the traffic behind in a space so tight I would be nervous with my Ford Expedition and driving forward! We back up far enough to drive down a very steep narrow driveway into a parking lot and squeeze around tightly parked cars, and another large bus, head back up the steep driveway and carry on our way. WOW, everyone was very impressed and a round of applause erupted from the bus – what an amazing driver.
It’s almost 6pm so we gather in the ‘happy hour room’ and have a quick glass of wine and a FaceTime chat with Fero in Vancouver.
We join the others on the terrace and organize ourselves as to plans for tomorrow’s free day.
Dinner is served and is a wee bit slower tonight as the master server, Andreas, has a night off. The food was again very good and all is well. Following dinner some of us stay to watch a short film on the Palio horse race from Siena. Strange and interesting all at the same time.
I am beat, so head off to bed and crashed by 11:00pm. Buona notte!