Walking in circles 3

Day three on the Grande Anello di Siena: San Rocco a Pilli - Badesse, 25 km!

Woken up by the song of the swallows darting about outside the window, I heard the church bells toll 6 times and decided to get up and take the 7:00 bus back to San Rocco a Pilli to resume my walk in the cool morning air. 

And the wet morning grass! After getting off the bus right by the villa where I did yoga last night, I followed the road - closed to traffic due to a landslide, so I could walk right in the middle - until my route veered off along a gravel road which soon became a dirt track through tall grass wet with morning dew. Thus I discovered that it is possible to wash your trousers while hiking! My trousers dried quickly, but my boots and wool socks stayed soggy for the rest of the day. 

100% natural trouser washing machine

After this wash-as-you-go experience, I took a short detour to Linari: a site already inhabited by the Etruscans 2500 years ago, which became a fortress in the eleventh century, then a convent, a stopping-place on the road to Rome (Pope Alexander III stayed there in the 12th century), before being transformed into a private country home in 1735 and, finally, into its present condition as San Lorenzo a Linari Resort, which looks like a beautiful place for a holiday, or to hold a family celebration, wedding etc.

Detail of Linari

From here I passed through a cluster of houses called La Corte and descended into the woods, coming out in an expanse of wheat fields. 

A shady path along the bank of a stream took me to Ponte allo Spino, the first possible point of return to Siena by bus. But it was only 9:30 am so of course I continued on my way, past the hamlet of Toiano, where I got a little confused by the rather vague description of the trail at this point and worried that if my phone battery went dead, I would not have the gpx track to refer to and would get hopelessly lost! However I found a shorter route to Santa Colomba, staying on the CAI trail 113 instead of turning off it and walking the route described in the directions, and it was a perfectly pleasant trail through the woods, though of course I don't know what marvels I may have missed by not following E. Desi's instructions!     

In Santa Colomba I was hoping to find a coffee bar where I could take a break and recharge my phone. There was no such thing, but there was something even better: a beautiful medieval church, with an electrical outlet in the corner of the transept! So I could admire 13th century frescoes while waiting for my phone to charge! 

I spent a lot of time looking at this view, from the pew by the electrical outlet!

 

Luckily I had some pretty nice frescoes to look at!

Villa Petrucci, also known as Palazzo di Santa Colomba

What I really wanted to do while waiting for my phone to charge was kick off my shoes, hang up my socks to dry, and eat the slices of leftover pizza I had in my backpack, but as none of these were compatible with decorous behaviour in a church, I had to content myself with studying the frescoes on the walls while listening to someone practicing the guitar in the house next door.  A note of variety was added when a crazy cyclist came into the church, insisted on speaking to me in English and launched on a tirade about coronovirus conspiracy theories (I think that's what he was talking about, it was kind of hard to understand his Italianate English echoing around the empty church). When this amusement was over and the deranged cyclist had resumed his ride, I decided to content myself with a 75% charge and continue on my way, hoping to find a nice place to stop to eat lunch and dry out my shoes soon!

Refreshed by my long rest in the cool, dark church, I didn't end up stopping until an hour or so later,  when I came to Punto Sosta la Villa, a pilgrim rest stop on the Via Francigena. Marcello from the house next door maintains this rest stop for tired pilgrims with benches, a water tap, a first aid kit, a stamp for the credenziale, a mirror (not sure why pilgrims would want that) and even some cutlery in case you want to eat your picnic but are at a loss how to slice your cheese. All has been made sanitary this year, with hand sanitiser and netting around the water tap to make sure you fill your bottle without touching the spout. The signs says that Marcello will also make you coffee or tea, and I think he may also serve sandwiches in regular times, but at the moment, with few or no pilgrims going by, I doubt he is offering that service. In any case, I merely asked if he minded if I sit under the big oak tree on his property to eat my picnic. There, I could relax knowing I was in a pilgrim-friendly and guard dog-free place, so I ate my cold pizza, drank my thermos of water flavoured with elderflower syrup and mint (a highly recommended refreshment on hot, sunny days) and even took a little nap while waiting for my shoes and socks to dry out in the sun.

Arriving at Punto Sosta La Villa on the Via Francigena

       

After this break I was ready for the last stretch of today's walk, heading north along a familiar stretch of the Via Franicigena, past the Castello de La Chiocciola, so named for the spiral staircase in the tower, where you expect to see Rapunzel gazing out the window at the top. 

Castello de La Chiocciola

 

The castle is built on a site that has been inhabited not only since Etruscan times but since the stone age - apparently there is a paleolithic cave in the cellar, but it is impossible to say for sure, since it's privately owned and not open to visitors. The castle itself was built in medieval times and became one of a series of outposts defending the city of Siena from its arch-enemy, Florence. 

North of the castle, the Via Francigena skirts a field of red soil dotted with white stones - very different from the clayey soil of the Crete Senesi where I was yesterday and the day before. I wish I knew more about geology to explain why! 

At the far end of this field I turned right to cross the field, then left the Via Francigena and crossed its modern equivalent, the Via Cassia (named after the Roman road that predated the Francigena, but now a national highway), and climbed up the hill to Poggiolo, then down the other side to Badesse, the end point of today's walk. Badesse was originally the site of a convent which possessed all the land around it (hence the name), but is now one of the industrial districts of Siena. I walked only as far as the nearest bus stop, where I was extremely lucky to find that the last bus of the day was coming along in ten minutes! Schedules are reduced on Saturdays, and most rural buses don't run at all on Sundays, which was one of the reasons for walking all the way to Badesse today: I will be able to get back to start walking from the same point tomorrow morning, with a 7-minute train ride from Siena. 

Hopefully, tomorrow I will close the circle!

   

San Rocco a Pilli - Badesse, 25 km