Pescina (a porcupine at last)

A different sort of town square at Bagno Vignoni

Karen has changed her running course so she can utilise a path we have found in the woods and avoid running so much on the steep road.  She leaves the house, uses our ½ km long drive as a walking warm-up and then runs 2 km uphill to the path which seems to follow a contour around the mountain.  At the same time, Buddy and I take the car up the road and park at the start of the path and then go for our own walk in the woods.  We then time it so that that we all meet up ½ km from the car, so Karen can do her warm down walk and we all drive back home for a cooked breakfast. 

The leaves on the trees are changing colour but we still have the stunning blue Tuscan skies 😊

After the run/walk in the woods we spent the rest of Saturday at home enjoying the late summer sun.  In the evening we went out for a pizza at the restaurant we failed to get one at last week.  On that visit we found they only fired up the pizza oven in the evening, but we still enjoyed a full lunchtime meal.

One thing we have noticed is that food shopping is more expensive here compared with when we travelled through France, which in turn seemed more expensive than in the UK.  We were pleasantly surprised how cheap the meal was, even a bottle of good local wine was only 8 euros, and we did enjoy the pizzas.

Don’t usually put up pictures of food but these were really special for us

Sunday was a ‘do day’ and we decided to make it a touristy day and visit Montepulciano, Pienza and Bagno Vignoni.  This meant a circular drive of about 60 miles, further east into the beautiful Val d’Orcia and away from ‘our’ mountain, Monte Amiata.

It was Montepulciano first and to get there we had to drive through Vivo d’Orcia which you may remember is a village where we bought some antihistamine tabs when we first arrived. I mention this because when we were at the pharmacy we couldn’t believe how busy it was considering how small the place was. Anyway this time, as we drove down the hill to the village we passed six or seven coaches parked in a viewpoint lay-by and then came across cars parked all over the place at the side of the road. It turned out that the village was hosting a chestnut and mushroom festival. We ummed and aahed about changing our plans but decided to carry on.

Not far from Montepulciano we found ourselves on an unmade road for about 6km and it was a real bone-shaker as it was heavily rutted.  It was odd as all other main roads we have been on have now been tarmacked but for some reason this one had been left.

The dust had turned all the vegetation grey

Approaching Montepulciano

As with other hill towns we have visited, the streets are thankfully car-free except for the residents.  I expect this is down to the whole region being declared a UNESCO World Heritage site which must help boost tourism and hence the local income.

   

Apart from Siena, where we expected it, we could hear English being spoken everywhere; it seemed the place was full of Americans of all ages. One group of youngsters (probably in their early 30s 😜) made a big fuss of Buddy whilst we were having lunch outside the  town hall.

The town hall in Montepulciano

Looking north across the valley (Val d’Orcia)

Walking to one of the squares

After lunch we walked back down the hill to the car and headed off for Pienza.  We heard thunder in the distance and noticed that the clouds were rolling in from Monte Amiata.

Random picture of me and Buddy with rain clouds approaching

Even though the clouds threatened, the rain never came, and they soon cleared away.  Driving to Pienza we noticed there was a lot more traffic on the roads and especially motor homes.  We realised that we were on the main route, other than the autostrada, between Rome and Florence.

We arrived at Pienza to find it just as packed as Montepulciano so decided to give it a miss and head off for Bagno Vignoni.  Again, it was busy, but we decided to stop and look around as it was quite different to other places in that the main piazza was a thermal pool that dates back to Roman times.

The thermal baths in the centre of Bagno Vignoni

As we were finishing our wander round, the clouds started rolling in again, but we had a look around the site of some old mills before heading back to the car.  I cannot find out what the mills were used for but they were driven by the water from the thermal springs.  There were several mills dotted down the hillside, some of which are being restored.

Not much more than foundations left – Rocca d’Orcia is the hill town in the distance

As we got back to the car there were a few large drops of rain, more thunder and that was it, but it certainly feels like we are going to get some rain in the next day or two.

Although we were glad we had the day trip it made us appreciate how fortunate we are staying away from the tourist traps and have our local hill towns of Seggiano, Arcidosso and Castel del Piano.  Although they don’t have the grand palaces and town halls etc. of the well-known towns, they are still inspiring in their own way and very peaceful to walk around.

Having been here a few weeks we now have our own routine and it’s a bit like living on the boat where most of the time we’re completely on our own and happy with our own company.

Oh, and the porcupine?  Unfortunately, it was fast asleep at the side of the road, so I’ve still only ever seen one live one in the wild.