The next leg of Provincial Path no. 2 would have taken me to Montalcino. But I realised it would be more logical to do that as the first leg of my next section, leading on to the monastery of Sant'Antimo, Val d'Orcia and on towards Monte Amiata, on which I plan to take all my overnight gear and stay out on the trail for several days rather than coming back home each night. And so I spent the day hiking to Buonconvento and from there to Chiusure, with the intention of taking a shortcut on path no. 515 - which may or may not actually exist, in view of the previous day's experience - back onto the gravel road that leads to Pieve a Salti, and from there to cut across to Resta without going all the way into Buonconvento. This sounded like a fine plan, and a ring of reasonable length, but I missed the turnoff to trail no. 515 (if it did actually exist) and ended up in San Giovanni d'Asso. And so the hike ended up being a little longer than planned!
It started out on a positive note, heading into Buonconvento in the opposite direction to the pilgrims walking the Via Francigena towards Rome - I crossed paths with ten of them in my brief 2 kilometres on the Via Francigena! The last one I passed was a Dutchman breakfasting in his underwear in a tent next to the trail, just outside Buonconvento. "Hey, you're going the wrong way!" he hailed me. "Rome is that direction!" When I told him I'd already been there (true) and was on my way back (not really true) he figured I must be an expert on hiking trails in Italy and asked me which ones I recommended. I only know the Via Francigena, I told him, but I've heard of some others - and listed several of the trails I would like to walk in the future. He wrote some of them down on a notepad, and I asked him to write down the address of his blog, where he said I could find detailed information on long-distance hiking trails all over Europe. Apparently he is a sort of Dutch hiking guru, and wherever he goes he takes his tent with him, plus sleeping pad, sleeping bag, campstove and fuel, pots and pans and something to cook in them - a total of about 25 kilos, he told me, which meant he could only walk about half as far per day as "the people who stay in some kind of hotel", as he described them somewhat scornfully.
After my encounter with the Dutch walking guru I continued on into Buonconvento, where I had a couple of errands to do before continuing towards Chiusure. I ran across a friend in town who claims to be an expert on all the trails in the area, and seeing that I was walking through town with sticks, he asked where I was headed, and confirmed that it was a beautiful trail when I told him. The route exits Buonconvento along the road to the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, leaving the paved road and taking the gravel road marked Armena, then leaving that and taking a dirt track running past several farmhouses and through a patch of scrub to a spot with the most marvellous view over the eroded clay hills to the Abbey and the village of Chiusure.
Having been to both of these places many times before, I didn't walk out onto the ridge that led to them but turned the opposite way, towards San Giovanni d'Asso. I missed my planned shortcut somewhere along here, and ended up in the town itself - where there were no buses for the next two hours.
I sat down to have my lunch on a park bench and decide what to do next. Plan B was to get onto the gravel road leading to Buonconvento, which, though unpaved, is actually a provincial highway, and stop the first friendly-looking farmer that came by in a car and ask for a ride back into Buonconvento, from which it would be only 4 more kilometres to Resta. Well, a grand total of four cars passed by in the whole afternoon, and none of them stopped - perhaps they thought I was just a friendly walker waving hello! But in a way I was glad, as it was a very enjoyable walk, with fantastic views over the countryside I will be crossing when I pick up the trail again in June.
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| Next stops: Montalcino, Monte Amiata and Radicofani (from right to left, in this picture) |
The sun was quite hot, however, and there was no shade at all on the gravel road, so I was quite relieved to note the presence of some landmarks indicating I was in familiar territory.
By the time I got to Pieve a Salti, I felt I might as well just go and lie down here:
However the presence of tourists getting in and out of cars at the agriturismo made me feel I ought to hold my head high and proceed on with the air of a serious and accomplished walker (which is what people in cars assume you are, when you walk with sticks). I managed to do so until I came to the turn-off to Podere Salicotto, the agriturismo run by my friends Silvia and Paolo. I sat in the kitchen cooling off and chatting with Silvia for about an hour, after which I was able to summon up the energy for the final forty-minute walk down into the valley and up the hill over the other side to Resta.
And this is where I leave off my adventures on the Provincial Paths of the Province of Siena for the time being, due to personal commitments in Liguria - pleasant ones, such as hosting guests and a birthday party on the beach!
I hope to be back on the trail in June!!!
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