Tag Archives: Countryside

Day 13 – Acquapendente to Bolsena – long walk, varied conditions

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Monday 26 May 2025 – Well-organised as our B&B was, the breakfast fare that had been left in the kitchen area was not the sort of thing that we thought we could make into a decent breakfast – I mean, cornflakes? So we hatched a plan to get going early and have breakfast at a local bar. So we were out of the B&B before 0730 without even having had tea and on our way to Bolsena, today’s destination, with just a croissant and a cappuccino by way of fuel, by 0750. We were confident that there would be sustenance at a coffee stop half way along our 24km walk; we hoped that confidence would sustain us that far.

Passing one more piece of street art,

we bade farewell to Acquapendente

and set out in cool, sunny conditions. On the road, we passed a cereal factory

with, just behind it, episode two of the same cereal.

We then headed off the road on the dreaded strada biancha

but at least there were some shady patches along it. Looking back, we could still make out the tower that sits above Radicofani.

The landscape was markedly different from what we’d seen in Tuscany – entirely arable farming with some woodland, and none of the hilliness that we’d seen north of the border with Lazio.

As well as the various cereal and vegetable crops we noted as we walked along, it was clear that in Lazio they were also farming sunlight,

and hazel nuts.

Well, that Nutella doesn’t make itself, you know. Other crops included potatoes, which at one point stretched as far as the eye could see.

We were walking in the “Altopiano Vulsini”, a geologically and historically significant volcanic plateau in northern Lazio. This encompasses several volcanic complexes, including calderas at Montefiascone (which we visit tomorrow) and Bolsena (today), and is clearly a very good basis for arable farming.

We did see a single cypress which had somehow snuck over the border from Tuscany, though.

Where fields and meadows were not actively being farmed, there were lots of wild flowers

with poppies being delightfully ubiquitous.

The landscape was also sprinkled with artworks by Lorenzo Gallo, a Rome-born sculptor (who goes by the moniker Renzogallo),

“The Departure”
“The Meeting”
“The Direction”
“The Testimony”

accompanied by info boards with descriptions of unbearable pretentiousness. The first of these was on the ourtskirts of San Lorenzo Nuovo (I wonder about the synchrony between the names of the artist and the town). The town, though, was important, as it was the one and only place we would find somewhere to stop and have coffee. We stopped at the first available bar, apart from anything else because it said it offered a Timbro stamp for our credenziali. Inside the bar were a couple with three really cute long-haired chihuahuas, of which I totally failed to get a photo; but obligingly they came outside and actually encouraged a photo by handing Jane a couple of them.

Having consumed the coffee, we came across the town square shortly afterwards

with several bars around it, all offering timbri, so clearly the pilgrim market is something the town recognises. So we stopped for a second coffee and a sandwich

and then popped into the church on the town square.

There was some lovely artwork to be seen,

and we lit a candle for our recently-departed friend Martin, the late and sadly-missed husband of Caroline, who had been with us until Siena.

The most prominent feature of the Vulsini Volcanic District is the Bolsena Caldera, a 16-kilometer-wide depression formed approximately 300,000 years ago. This caldera is now occupied by Lake Bolsena, the largest volcanic lake in Europe. It is vast;

the eruption that caused that crater must have been a helluva bang!

I had fondly imagined that we would stroll along beside the lake to get to the town of Bolsena, but, as is so often the case, I was wrong; we headed off into woodland, on what looked like a nice shady path,

and, it has to be said, much of it was. There were occasional rocky bits

and some steep bits

but by and large it was a pleasant stroll which led downwards, overall and in tortuous manner.

On one of the Renzogallo “artworks” – a lump of basalt, actually – there was a lizard basking in the sunshine, so I did a bit of a photographic wossname, and took a photo first with my Sony and then using the portrait mode on my phone. Here are the two results.

Phone, background blur courtesy of software manipulation

Sony RX100-VII, background blur courtesy of the laws of physics

We passed an oak tree

planted in 2006 to mark 500 years since Pope Julius II. The info board was in Italian but this is no match for Google.  Here’s the story behind the tree. The Papal Bull stated

“…that he had given Canon Peter von Sertenstein the task of leading 200 Swiss soldiers to Rome with their captain Kaspar von Silenen “pro custodia palatii nostri”. After crossing the Alps, through Lombardy and Tuscany, von Silenen and the 150 recruits entered Rome from Porta del Popolo Blessed by the Pope in St. Peter’s Square, the guards began their service in the Apostolic Palace that same day. Thus was born the Pontifical Swiss Guard.”

We actually saw a few more cypresses which were clearly huddled together for security in this foreign environment,

and a single, lonely, wind turbine, making a defiant statement about sustainable energy production, which The Powers That Be are clearly ignoring.

I was amused by the crest of a hill in the distance.

We passed a quarry, though we know not what was being quarried.

and the road turned back into a dreaded strada biancha.

I don’t know which I dislike more – the white ones, which reflect the heat, or the dark ones, which radiate it back to you. Today wasn’t too bad, as there were some shady patches; I’m dreading tomorrow (see later).

We caught our first sight of the town of Bolsena through the trees,

and were soon into the old town, which has a castle

the church of San Salvatore (not open, unfortunately)

and several attractive corners around the streets.

There were signs to lots of appealing-looking eateries.

What was less appealing was that, having arrived at 3pm, we’d missed the lunchtime window. The nice, attractive bars along the main street in the old town were no longer serving, but Google came to our rescue and identified one which was still open, called Romeros.

It describes itself as a “Ristopub Birreria” and has pictures of food outside it – normally red flags – but its USP for us was that it was open and would serve us lunch.  We actually had a decent meal there, including lots of pasta (against the morrow, see later) so my sniffiness is entirely unjustified. In this case, anyway.

Walking off lunch en route to our accommodation, an Agriturismo establishment called “Le Vigne“, we took the opportunity to look a little around the town. There are some nice viewpoints, over the castle area,

the town’s rooftops, old and new,

and the city gate.

There is a Basilica

with some ceramic work (by Della Robbia?) over the door,

and a lovely calm interior,

but we didn’t go in to explore, since we were still in our hiking gear, and shorts are considered disrespectful. So we carried on to our accommodation, which was not far away but still managed to be considerably uphill.  It’s a handsome place

which offers a nice viewpoint over the town

and had a good large room for us to settle into so we could finally make ourselves a Nice Cup Of Tea.

I’ve made several references to tomorrow; our destination will be Montefiascone, where we will enjoy a rest day; but we have to get there first. Doing this involves getting out of the caldera; and since our journey today was basically downhill, tomorrow’s will be fundamentally uphill.

We’re not quite sure what the weather will be, but we’re hoping it will not be too hot and sunny, as 16 uphill kilometres without the benefit of a coffee stop is somewhat daunting. We will, of course, survive, but to find out in what condition, you’ll have to return to these pages to find out.

 

 

Day 7 – Siena to Lucignano d’Arbia – more like the Camino

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Tuesday 20 May 2025 – And off we go again!  We set the alarm for 0530 in order to get a prompt breakfast at 0700, which was a bit of a shame, as the hotel breakfast service didn’t start until 0730. Never mind; we could usefully catch up with the woes of the world while we waited.

We walked through the streets of Siena, with their amusingly-modified tables on the steep bits,

to the Campo, where the swallows were feasting exuberantly.


It was clear that today was Bin Day in Siena.

We exited the city through the Roman Gate

and carried on along a tarmac road for some 6km, past scenery that was, as before, pleasant and rural but otherwise unremarkable.

Eventually, we left the tarmac for the “white road” (i.e. a dirt road) that would be the underfoot surface for much of the rest of the walk.

It took us through an industrial estate

and on to a section of sheltered path which led beside the road

to another industrial estate, though one of a different sort.

In the distance, we could see a Mystery Object

which the track would take us nearer, to give us a chance to understand what it was. We also passed evidence that a major road once passed overhead.

The second industrial estate was just outside a village called Isola d’Arbia, which offered two items of keen interest, given that we had by this stage walked over 10km – a “sosta del pellegrino” and a bar. The “sosta del pellegrino” looked uncannily like a coffee bar, so we stopped to intrude on the privacy of the barman for a swift coffee. We debated stopping at the second bar for another coffee but decided to soldier on. Generally speaking, the going was a lot less arduous than we had been used to in the first week – much less up and down. The temperature was fine – around 20°C – but it was quite humid, and indeed we had a small sprinkling of rain occasionally as we walked. The day felt more similar to those that we had experienced when we walked the Camino de Francés in Spain, only with fewer convenient bars and cafés.

We got really quite close to the Mystery Object

but close examination gave scant clues as to what it was beyond a bleedin’ great tower. We could make out the letters IDIT at the base, and the S-cape map, being on this occasion more useful than Google Maps, told us that it was a “Torre di Essicazione”, which only helped a little, but when I plugged that nugget and the letters IDIT into ChatGPT, we got not just some kind of general information, but a specific run-down of exactly what it was. I quote:

Constructed between 1959 and 1961, the tower was part of the IDIT (Industria di Disidratazione Isola Tressa) facility, designed to dehydrate fruits and vegetables—primarily tomatoes—using a German-engineered process. The method involved drying produce at 33°C within a 70-meter-high silo, aiming to transform fresh produce into shelf-stable powders. Despite the initial enthusiasm, the facility faced operational challenges and ceased production by 1966, having never reached full-scale operation.

Today, the tower stands as a prominent, albeit decaying, landmark in the Tuscan landscape. While the concrete structure remains intact, other parts of the facility have deteriorated significantly, leading to its designation as an “ecomostro” (eco-monster) by environmental and heritage organizations.

While the structure is not open to the public due to safety concerns, it remains a poignant symbol of a bygone industrial era amidst the rolling Tuscan hills.

It certainly dominated the landscape as we walked on.

The white road carried on rolling

In the distance, two Czech pellegrinos who were considerably younger and fitter than us

and we were a little worried that the few drops of rain we’d had might develop into something more sustained – the sky looked quite strange at times.

but any showers that were around didn’t affect us.

We saw a couple more Mystery Objects.

We guessed that the first one was some kind of water storage facility. From the number of man-made and natural ponds, we reckon that water supply for irrigation must be an issue at some times of the year, although right now the countryside was very green. And (I’ll be honest here) the second one wasn’t a mystery at all; it was the Grancia di Cuna, one of the best preserved medieval fortified farms in the Siena area, and clearly a construction of significant size.

The S-cape app suggested a path that deviated slightly from the official Via to take us close by it.

It’s very chunky indeed; of course, once you get really close you can no longer see it properly.

So I took the opportunity to whizz the drone up to see if an aerial shot looked good.

It was built in the 14th century as a collection centre for the grain and other agricultural production necessary for the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena. It developed into a small independent village surrounded by walls, gates and towers, with the farm-fortress at the centre. Like the tower, the Grancia dominates the landscape around it.

There was some lovely scenery, really typical of Tuscany, to be appreciated.

Our route took us up into the hills overlooking Monteroni d’Arbia

and past some curious artworks – these turn out to be part of the “Museum of Widespread Art” whose works adorn this Siena stretch of the Via Francigena.

We caught our first sight of our destination

but the app led us to it via a very winding route, through a tiny but tidy hamlet called Greppo

with what we guessed was a disused well of some sort outside it,

and then via quite a significant diversion through another industrial area, to the road leading to Lucignano d’Arbia. The Powers That Be of Monteroni (who run the commune of which Lucignano forms a part) had obviously tried to ease the path round a roundabout, to help pilgrims on their way, so we walked along it until

it rather suddenly ended.

With no escape route, we had to retrace our footsteps, which, after 22km, was a little irritating. But soon we arrived in Lucignano, which is a small fortified village;

like Monteriggioni, you can see quite easily pretty much from one end to the other. Unlike Monteriggion, though, it doesn’t have coffee or gelato bars; just the one hotel, the Borgo Antico, whose entrance we found after stumbling around a little bit.

A friendly receptionist checked us in to our room which was on the ground floor (hurrah!) and so we refreshed ourselves and, given there was a forecast for rain, went out for a look round Lucignano. This doesn’t take long. It’s pretty, and small.

Pieve (monastery) di San Giovanni Battista, from 11th or 12 century, used now just for masses

Fortifications at each end

There being just the one restaurant there (in the hotel), I was glad we were on half board. Dinner was taken in the vaulted dining room

and was very good. It was a little bit of a shame that they ran out of gin before I could have a second glass, but never mind. By the time we’d had dinner, the threatened thunderstorm had arrived, and so we retired for the night and to prepare for the morrow.

Tomorrow is a light day; we have to walk just 14km to Buonconvento and there’s a coffee stop on offer at Ponte d’Arbia, so we can both get a rest and take a look at the river which gives its name to so many places. Like today, I’m expecting the going to be relatively easy, but you’ll have to check back on these pages to see how things really went, won’t you?

 

 

Day 6 – Monteriggioni to Siena – Long but not too hard

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Saturday 17 May 2025 – We were up not with the lark but with the blackbird, which started singing shortly before our alarm was due to go off at 05:30. We took a prompt breakfast in order to get out quickly, since the official distance of 20km made this one of the longer days since we started out from Altopascio. (I’ve noted before that I feel this route has been tougher than the Camino Francés that we did 18 months ago. Actually, on the Camino, we typically covered longer distances then; but the Via (so far) has been much more hilly, which has made the days tougher.)

The hotel is definitely posh. You can tell because it actually offered hot food at breakfast, so I was able to construct a passable imitation of a bacon butty to go with my cup of Twining’s finest Earl Grey.

Then it was time to head off across the fields to rejoin the Via. The lowering mass of Monteriggioni squats atop a hill; once we got to the foot of the hill we started up really quite a steep path.

At its steepest, just before the gate into the fortress,

I measured the slope as 14.5°

which a short conversation with ChatGPT established is actually slightly steeper than 1 in 4. Bloody steep, in short. Although we had only covered around 4km by the time we passed through the gate, we felt we’d earned a coffee stop. While Jane and Caroline relaxed, I popped over the road and whizzed the drone up for a quick photo of the whole place.

You can see how tiny it is.

After our coffee, we bade farewell to Monteriggioni

and moved on

working our way steadily towards our goal – Siena, the end of this section of the Via. The S-cape app described today’s walk as short, easy and unencumbered by any “road houses”, i.e. coffee stops. It was wrong on two of the three counts: our total distance for the day was 24.5km (only Day 1 was longer) and there were actually a couple of rest stops along the way, one of which was delightful (see later).

As before, the going was varied – some tarmac, some dirt road and some tracks.

There were stretches where balletic leaps across muddy patches were required, or where the going underfoot was pretty rocky.

Muddiness and rocks were, however, no barrier for some of the lunatic fringe who came past us.

The Powers That Be clearly wanted to make sure that we stayed on track;

there are no fewer than five waymarks in this picture.

We passed a reference to the Camino de Santiago

a helpful household’s support for passing pilgrims

Just a tap through the wall, and a notice that the water is OK for drinking

and some nice roadside shrines.

For much of the route, the countryside, while pleasant and rural, was otherwise unremarkable

though there were patches where poppies had taken over; at one point they almost seemed to form a river.

We took a rest in order to eat our hotel-provided sandwiches on a convenient bench overlooking a monument

which, its info board told us, was erected after the area, which had originally been a swamp, had been drained; the monument was a tribute to man’s ability to shape nature. The swamp might have been cleared, but the mosquitoes hadn’t noticed.

One falls to meditating on the long stretches of road when not much else is happening. I saw this sign

which had flashing lights and warned that there were pedestrians in the road, and wondered how the hell did they know we were there?

We passed another sign, this one telling us that there was a “punta ristoro” in a couple of kilometres, which, given the S-cape info, was unexpected. Between us and it were a couple of castles:

Castello della Chiocciola, the origins of which are possibly from the 14th century, but which certainly was mentioned in despatches in 1555 when it played a part in the battle which ended in the fall of Siena; and Castello di Villa, a medieval building which was apparently historically important for pilgrims on the Via Francigena. This takes its name from (or possibly gives it to) the local area, which has a few houses which look to have been recently spiffed up, a sort of village green to give you an idea of its personality

and – eventually – the “punto ristoro”, which describes itself as a punto sosta – a place of sustenance.

“Extension” round the back

It’s a delightful place, offering all kinds of goodies – various foods including cakes, pastries, eggs and fruit – coffee or tea, and a place to sit and rest. No money is demanded; the place runs off donations, and has a very genial atmosphere.  There are many nice touches

and a lovely vegetable garden round the back.

Informal as it seemed, it did appear that the place also operated as a B&B; all slightly eccentric and utterly charming. Of course we took a break there.

Slightly further along, there was an Agriturismo place, Casalino 18, offering lunch-time wine-tasting, sandwiches and juices – another rest stop that had escaped the notice of S-cape.

Shortly after that, we apparently reached SIena!

Ah. No. Bugger. Still a few kilometres to go. We ploughed on. At least we only had a few kilometres to go; other destinations were much further away.

The pleasantly unvarying rural scenery gave way to a vista worth a photo

and… had we really reached Siena?

Sadly, not quite – still a couple of kilometres to go. That lovely view was basically the hill we then had to climb to get to the city proper.  But we did get there, walking through increasingly urban surroundings until we reached a very obvious entry point to the historic city.

This is the gate through which pilgrims traditionally enter the city. We were a bit tired and frazzled by this stage, so couldn’t quite be arsed to do this; but we did go through another walled archway

which, eagle-eyed readers will notice, sports the Medici coat of arms, and into the old city proper.

and eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, to our hotel,

the very elegant and slightly eccentric Hotel Chiusarelli. It’s a nice place, and we were courteously welcomed, but the way they’ve set the rooms out is odd, to say the least. Our room was no. 24, which was on the top floor (up 50 steps!). Caroline’s, no.35, was along a corridor and down some stairs. Our bags had arrived and (praise be!) been put in our rooms, and Lorenzo and Barbara on reception made sure that we could find our way through their mini labyrinth to our rooms.

Although the walk hadn’t been as arduous as those on some of the other days, we were still in need of a rest, and so it was a couple of hours later that we ventured out for a look at Siena – my first, as I’ve never been here before. We had hoped to get into the cathedral, the Duomo, but, sadly, had left it too late. By telling us that its closing time was 7pm, Google had traduced us – it closed at 5.30, so we had to make do with seeing it in its magnificant, city-dominating, setting

before taking a look at the baptistry

and the facade.

Opposite the Duomo is the church of Santa Maria della Scala, which has a breathtaking interior, with a stunning fresco behind the altar.

We also visited the main square of the city, the Campo di Siena

before heading back to the hotel for an evening meal in their restaurant. The food was excellent, but we discovered another eccentricity, in that they don’t serve spirits, so a G&T with the meal was not an option. However, it was a lovely meal and a chance for final conversation with Caroline before we bade her farewell; she has to travel home tomorrow, and even a friendship as deep as ours doesn’t extend to getting up at sparrow fart simply to say goodbye at 6.30am. (Stop Press: we have learned that she made it home in good order.)

We now have two whole days at leisure in Siena before we head off on the next segment of the Via. Our time includes a guided tour and we hope to get inside the Duomo, so, with good luck and a following tide I should be able to bring you more information about and photos of this splendid city. Stay tuned!