Pescina (back to normal now the wind has gone)

On Wednesday we had a circular walk around the woods and fields where we are staying and foraged for sweet chestnuts on the way.  The winds of the previous two days had brought down a lot of the fruit before it was ready, so we had to make sure we were picking the burrs that were brown and half open. 

The winds had also brought down some trees and when Karen went for her morning run the road was closed while the trees were cleared by firemen with chainsaws – reminded us of contractors doing the same thing back in the UK when trees fall across the cut.

Now the wind has gone, the sun is back to its intensity of the last few weeks, so we just spent the rest of the day at home.

Thursday was our weekly supermarket shop day but with such gorgeous weather we didn’t venture out until later in the afternoon.  We decided to go to a new town for us, Arcidosso, to try a different supermarket as it was a couple of miles beyond Castel del Piano where we did our weekly shop last week.

I mentioned the bells the other day and it does seem that we have only heard them on Sunday (unlike every day and every hour in France!) and we think we found the culprits on our way:

The bells

After driving through Castel del Piano, we could see Arcidosso at the top of the next hill with a tower right at the highest point.  We decided to have a walk around the town and investigate the tower before braving the supermarket.

The tower at the top of Arcidosso

We were glad we decided to have a look around as the hill part of the town was medieval and the streets so narrow and steep that they were car-free.

  

    

  

The tower at the top was closed so we will need to find out when it opens and return another day.  We were impressed how clean and tidy the streets were and Buddy was impressed with the number of cats; it seemed every time we turned a corner a cat would scuttle off up an alleyway.

   

After walking around for a while, we fancied finding a bar so we could put the supermarket trip off even longer 😉

We were approaching a bar when an Italian stopped us and asked me if I had ever seen the Grateful Dead.  I was a bit taken aback as it was a really strange opening line.  I replied that I had, back in the early 1970s and he explained that they were his favourite band.  I asked him what had made him ask the question and he just pointed at my tee-shirt – I hadn’t clicked which one I was wearing at the time 😊