In late September and early October, we undertook two self-guided walks in Italy. The first was called Southern Tuscany, Renaissance Hilltop Towns and Classic Wines, and the second was Liguria, Across the Apennines to the Sea. A UK-based company called On Foot Holidays designed the routes, and arranged for our accommodations, luggage transfers, and, in certain locations, taxi transfers and evening dinners. I’ll write more about On Foot at the end of this trip report.

Tuscany

It’s all there: cypress, pine, and oak; olive groves and vineyards; rolling countryside and hilltop villages; delicious food and delightful wines; and days of walking under hot sun.

On September 17th, we took a bus from Florence to Siena, where we stayed two nights at a hotel called Al Mercato. It is a stone’s throw from the Campo; our room overlooked the city market. We dined at Osteria il Carroccio (as it happened, this was our best meal in Tuscany) and at Antica Osteria da Divo.







Our visit coincided with the uncovering of the images in the floors of the Duomo:



Jeane lights candles whenever we visit a church:

September 19th

Our long-distance walk started with a 45-minute taxi ride from Siena to the abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore. We spent an hour or so exploring the abbey, a place that we have since learned rents rooms to travellers.



We then set off on our 11 km introduction to the Tuscan countryside. Our destination was Pieve a Salti, just east of Buonconvento.

The first day on the trail is always a bit unsettling. How clear are our walking instructions? How reliable is the mapping software? Are we still in good shape? As it turned out, the answers to the first two were extremely positive. As for our conditioning, we were fit for Tuscany. Liguria was a different kettle of fish.

Our route was a mixture of white roads, farmers’ fields, forest paths, and the occasional paved road. We soon saw our first olive trees and then orderly rows of grape. Fall plowing was well underway, so our expectation of rolling green fields was adjusted to the reality of grey-brown Tuscan clay. The land was arid.

The white roads of Tuscany:



Looking back at the abbey:











We occasionally saw an English couple who were on the same itinerary. Mid-afternoon, we noticed them walking back towards us. There was a boar sitting on the path just around the next corner, they said. Perhaps we could walk as a group of four, making a bit of noise? So we did, and rounded the corner to discover that the boar had moved on. We might have been overcautious, as they are not usually a threat to walkers, but as we learned in the next few days, there are boars everywhere. Their footprints are easily recognizable and they dig up great furrows along the trail.

Our accommodation that night was at the Borgo di Pieve a Salti. It is a comfortable rural retreat, but quite isolated, so our dinner was at Podere Caprili, their partner restaurant, one kilometre up the road. The staff drove us over and then later picked us up to take us back to the hotel.

Interesting! I am tagging along.

Your walking journey through Tuscany and Liguria sounds incredible! It's fascinating to see the images on the Duomo floors too.

Cherthor, enjoy the ride! Well, the walk, actually.

Looking forward to reading more.

Great pictures. What a wonderful way to explore and experience Italy.

September 20th

Our destination was Montalcino, 15.5 kilometres away. Our walking notes described the day as a generally easy walk, but with “a sting in its tail.” Truer words were never written.

We spent the day on more white roads, fields, forests, and paved laneways. It was all good going until we arrived at the foot of Montalcino, which was perched 300 metres overhead. The ascent was difficult, frequently steep enough to require repetitive switchbacks. It was late afternoon, we were hot and sweaty under unrelenting sun, and we didn’t enjoy one second of it. Yes, the day had a sting in its tail.

Riding lessons:





Montalcino in the distance. First we have to get there, and then we have to climb.





Olives and grapes:



Monte Amiata appears on the horizon. It seemed to be a constant presence for the rest of our time in Tuscany.



Lunch break



The contours



Our accommodation was at Hotel Il Giglio, a small family-run establishment with a lovely dining room. An elderly couple presided over it all; the family son and the family grandson arrived later and took their dinner in the dining room. Everyone smiled benevolently at the behaviour of a three-year old. Italians do hold young children in special regard.

margaretjones, our walking notes described those images as being in "Sgraffito" technique. The lines were cut into the marble and then filled with pitch. I gather that they are covered in canvas for most of the year, and only occasionally uncovered. The price of entry is slightly higher when they are visible.

Fra_Diavolo and Paqngo, I'm writing less and letting the photos tell the story.

September 21st

Today was a side trip out to another abbey, this one called Sant’ Antimo, near the tiny village of Castelnuovo. Our walking instructions recommended that we take a local bus back to Montalcino, but cautioned us that we should not rely on any timetable posted at the bus stop. Instead, our local contact, a man named Daniele, would send us a text with the latest information on bus times. And so he did. The only two buses would be at 13:56 or 14:36. We were to remember, though, that we had to buy our tickets before we left Montalcino, and that the bus might be early.

With all that uncertainty, we set off on a short 11 km walk, a part of it through very dark forest. This path was particularly torn up by boars, and we passed a couple of houses with great barking dogs, but the latter were behind fences, so we were only mildly disturbed.

The trail was gentle, and mostly downhill. Outside the forest, the views were lovely, with the distinctive Monte Amiata visible on the skyline. We toured the abbey, and then walked another kilometre up into Castelnuovo, where we had lunch in a bar. We ran into our English walking acquaintances, who had stopped for a drink. We all then stood for the bus, which was late. The ride back to Montalcino took 12 minutes.



The abbey of Sant' Antimo, with Castelnuovo up on top of the hill:







Montalcino is a charming town, highly photogenic, and easy to explore. We dropped into a wine merchant to taste some Brunello. It truly is nectar.







We stayed a second night at Il Giglio and dined at the cosy Re de Macchia.

September 22nd

This was Jeane’s 71st birthday. We set off in cool early morning sun, the valley below Montalcino cloaked in thin mist.




Our destination was Bagno Vignoni, 19 km away. The landscape changed; it was more open, with longer vistas, and it somehow seemed greener, although here, too, most of the fields were plowed.






Our path dropped down into the Asso Valley, crossing a ford that is sometimes deeply flooded. Our walking notes told us that there would be stepping stones and a hand rope to make the crossing a little easier, and we were reassured when Daniele texted to tell us that the water should be low. (Daniele, it turns out, had gotten a local farmer to place those stepping stones in the water in return for a wheel of cheese!) We arrived to find the water to be very low, and the hand rope still in place. (It can apparently be washed away when the river is in torrent.)

We had a long gentle climb back up out of the valley, finally arriving at an agriturismo that had three loose dogs. Our walking notes told us these three were completely harmless, and that the big challenge would be to discourage them from following us. We were indeed greeted in a friendly tail-wagging way, and we were able to shake them off quite easily.

Soon after, we were descending into the Orcia valley.

Towards the end of the afternoon, as we approached our destination, Jeane was walking some 20 metres ahead of me on a path through some scrubby woods. She rounded a corner and a second later came back into sight. “There’s a loose dog and a man with a gun, but he says it’s ok.” So it was. He was carrying a shotgun, had a belt full of shells, and was trying simultaneously to get the attention of his dog and to assure us that he himself was harmless. Try as I might, I could not shake the image of Elmer Fudd hunting wabbits.

Bagno Vignoni is, of course, on a hill top. The climb, again at the end of a hot day, was up a series of very uneven steps that run past ancient thermal pools. We pressed on, reaching the town square, where we found our B&B.

A glass of white wine improved our outlook. Our accommodation was at Locanda del Loggiato; we celebrated Jeane's birthday at Bistro Languorino.

Our path occasionally coincided with the Via Francigena. Walking from Canterbury to Rome would be an undertaking.

Love this! I could see us enjoying a trip like this. So far, it looks like your weather has been good. We were a bit further north (Bologna area) about a week earlier than this, and there was a lot of rain. That's always given me pause for taking on a walking or biking trip.

Looking forward to more!

ms_go, this walk was one of our all-time favourites. The scenery is gorgeous, and notwithstanding my grumbling about climbing to a hilltop village every afternoon, it's within reach of anyone who is reasonably fit. On Foot Holidays also offer shortening options, so you can reduce you daily kilometres by riding part way with your luggage or getting picked up part way along the trail.

I think we were lucky with the weather, as we walked mostly in sun, with daytime highs in the the mid-20º C range. But things sure changed around the 1st of October, which had a big impact on our walk in Liguria, as you will see in the next few posts.

By the way, I noticed you recently posted about a canal walk, which I want to go back and read. Jeane and I have wondered whether we should try one of those.

I made the mistake of opening the On Foot Holidays website - and the planning wheels may have started turning Looking forward to your photos from the Ligurian Hills walk, as this is an area that has long been of interest and would pair well with Genoa.

Our Regent's Canal walk was just a one-day thing, but we really enjoyed it.

AA, this is our kinda TR. Great imagery (not a duff shot in the entire collection) and endlessly interesting.
Happy Birthday to Jeane! And a salute to you both for doing this trip on foot.
Regents Canal is a great walk. The Beeb used it as a doc backdrop just yesterday.
We just returned from the Pyrenees and can recommend it to avid hikers.
*Fave foto: the arcos/blue sky one above those Brunello bottles.

I am done. the AATR

wow, I've cycled over most of this (on self organised tours) and the only thing I can attest to is it really is beautiful and your photos are great. My Ligurian cycling was along the coastal bike route so going to be interested to see where you went there.

ms_go, we were very happy dealing with On Foot, and their various offerings are tempting indeed. I'll be writing more about them after I describe our Ligurian walk.

zebec, thanks for that. Given your photographic skills, your compliment means a great deal.

bilbo, I hadn't realized there was a bike route along the Ligurian coast. It must be carved into the hillside in places, given the proximity of the mountains to the sea.

Into old railway tunnels in places

September 23rd

This was an easy day, 14 km to Pienza, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. En route, the landscape echoed that of the previous day, making it a glorious outing. During the afternoon we heard thunder, which seemed to stay very far away. After we ascended (of course it was a hilltop town), we ran into our English friends and chatted over a glass of wine (ok, it may have been two). That night it rained heavily as we walked back to our hotel. We hadn’t brought our rain jackets, so we arrived back soaking wet.

Our accommodation: the very hospitable Piccolo Hotel La Valle, and dinner at Il Chiostro.

September 24th

This was our sixth and final day of walking in Tuscany. It was another short 14 km, with lovely walking until we had to slog our way up the ramp into Montepulciano. I wouldn’t describe our entry as triumphant (you need horses, heralds, and trumpets for that kind of thing) but it felt wonderful to have it under our belt. We had walked a total of 85 km, all through spectacular countryside, and we had enjoyed every meal and every drop of wine.

There is something profound about the solitude of the trail; we often walked for hours without seeing another person, and yet we did have time to exchange walking talk with those we did meet. We also became friends with the couple from England, whom we would see at breakfast or occasionally on the trail. After a couple of days we were sharing pre-dinner drinks. Luckily for us, save for the evening soaking in Pienza, we enjoyed dry and mostly sunny weather every day. I will say that I cannot imagine walking this route in the summer; the heat would be intense and there are very long stretches without any shade whatsoever.

Our accommodation in Montepulciano: Meuble il Riccio, a very nice hotel. We had treated ourselves to an upgraded room, which included a beautiful view of parts of the town and of the deep valley below. After drinks with our English friends, we dined at Ai Quattro Venti.

Another Tuscan morning on the trail:



Looking back at Pienza:





The climb to Montepulciano:





The next day we woke to a striking view from our window:




We took a bus from Montepulciano to Chiusi, and then a train onwards to Florence.