Day 36 - Buonconvento to San Quirico d’Orcia- Monday July 20, 2015

The poor air conditioner last night was one step from giving up the ghost. When we got up the room was 27 degrees. From now on, when the air conditioner is flaky and can’t handle the temperature differential, we are going to turn it off and open the windows. It was 22 degrees outside at 6am.

Lying awake in the heat last night I decided we should get a ride with the baggage transfer taxi part way today. All the weather forecasts/announcements in Italy here are telling people not to do any strenuous activity in this heat. We can book our pilgrimage but we can’t select the weather!

With such a major climb over 24km and 40 degrees, I knew it would take us 7 to 8 hours, and with no stores along the way that I could see to get cold water, it would be dangerous to our health (we obviously have different authors of the route notes – some point out where there are bars/restaurants/stores or water taps and some don’t). We also had no way of getting a breakfast prearranged so we could start early, and I'm not walking without breakfast or buying breakfast when I’ve already paid for one. The other thing is that we paid the big bucks and booked through Macs so we would have our accommodation arranged and not have to leave at the crack of dawn to get to our destination early and find a room for the night.

I was busy sending a message off to Macs about them booking a place in Rome for us for our extra 4 nights so we got down to breakfast at 7:45. On the way we stopped to talk to receptionist about getting a ride with the taxi.

Our dinner was included yesterday but our hotel didn’t do dinner, and we were given a voucher at Restaurant Roma. There were three gentleman there, one took our order and served us, one took away the dirty dishes, and one was the cook. We did our thing of ordering one primo, one secondo, one vegetable, and (this time) one salad, and shared everything. The meal was excellent. We ordered Penne with spicy arrabbiata sauce as a primo and a veal chop as the secondo. All very delicious, but I think the veal chop was a steak.

Anyway, the gentleman doing the serving at Restaurant Roma last night was sitting at the reception desk at our hotel Ghibellino this morning. He couldn’t speak any English so we went down to breakfast and tried to call Beppe. That was an epic fail. I don’t know why our SIM card works sometimes and not others – very annoying. But I studied the route notes carefully.  There was a massive climb when we left Buonconvento, and a massive climb going into San Quirico d’Orcia. I hate doing a massive climb right off the bat because you get soaked in sweat and stay that way the whole walk, so the option of getting a ride part way to start was the most attractive. We went up after another lovely breakfast and Russell entered what we wanted to ask into the google translator and we showed the receptionist the Italian translation. He asked if we had called Beppe, and we said no. He asked when we wanted to go, and we said as soon as possible for the taxi driver. He called the taxi driver and said he would be there in 10 minutes.

The taxi driver was the fellow who had picked up the dirty dishes last night! All in the family. There was some confusion over where the bags were going. I showed them on the route notes the address and phone number. They seemed to be confused that the bags were going one place and us another. I asked Russell to get out his phone so we could explain that because of the heat we wanted to shorten the days walk by getting a ride only part way, and also to request we be dropped off on the via Francigena. I didn’t want to have to go through a big hassle trying to find our route on the GPS from God knows where. Russell got all excited about having to take out his phone and do this, feeling pressured, I guess, because everyone was standing around ready to go. Nobody was too concerned about being in a big hurry, and the three of us were all trying to calm him down. Gads.

We got the point across, and then everyone understood what was going on.

At least this fellow didn’t drive 140km an hour all the way.

The route notes today described a fair number of wineries we were passing, where would go in for a tasting. I found that interesting. You can get wine but not water on the VF! Our rule has always been not to drink anything alcoholic while walking. This is hard enough sober. Plus alcohol is dehydrating. Of course, other pilgrims may not take the same approach. That was certainly the case on the Camino. Anyway, as mentioned there was a terrific climb during the first several km out of Buonconvento, with a winery called Brunello at the top of the mountain. The driver, in Italian of course, was telling us that Brunello wine was the finest in Italy.

The most convenient place for him to drop us off was in Torrenieri, because the VF crossed the major highway he would be taking to get our bags to San Quirico d’Orcia. It didn’t look like the VF actually went through the town from the route notes, but it did (ie, we could have gotten cold water today after 13km). Coming in to the town we were stopped by the cabinieri (police). One came and talked to us, the other younger officer just stood there with his semi-automatic machine gun. We don’t know what was going on, but I don’t think they were checking for seat belts.  

As soon as we were at the top of the major hill we were driving up and we saw the VF signs, we told the taxi driver he could let us off. He obviously had a good drop off point in mind, because he just ignored us until he got there. There was a convenient place to pull off the road, in front of the church, where he stopped. Russell gave him 10 euros and I gave him a big hug, and we set off.

It was about 9am when he dropped us off, and already very warm. But we had a lovely walk from there, past wineries, farms, under overpasses, and over bridges. 

We were aiming for getting dropped off at the 13km point, but I think it was more like the 15.5 km mark.

While descending into the gorge to walk under a major overpass,

a military plane flew over, very low. Perhaps looking for whatever the police were looking for?

We walked 7.8 km today, and climbed 339 meters. We got to San Quirico d’Orcia at about 11am. Our B&B is out of the town, and down a steep hill past the VF where we go tomorrow, so we did a lot of sightseeing in the town as we passed through.

This town has grown up on the site of the medieval village of Osenna. In 1256 it became part of Siena’s territory. It is located in a strategic position along the via Cassia (and the old via Francigena). The town centre is encircled by fortified walls. It was another Siena fortress in the wars against Florence.

We visited the Collegiata dei Santi Quirico e Giulitta (church), with its Romanesque – Gothic doorways with symbolic sculptures (lions). 

The church was full of tourists. We figure a tour bus must have dropped them off and given them time to wander about on their own. We circled the grounds of the church, and then went to the information office and got a stamp and a map of the city showing where our B&B was. Yes!

We next visited the Romanesque Santa Maria Assunta church, and then the Horti Leonini public gardens. These gardens are an example of ‘giardini all’italiana. They were designed in 1540 by Diomede Leoni and periodically host exhibits of contemporary sculpture.  There was a splendid mix of modern and ancient sculptures today. 

There is a formal geometric pattern garden below, and a transition to a more natural garden above. We made a final stop at the Oratorio, which had a sign outside saying no photographs, but I encouraged Russell to take a picture of a stone lectern. With or without flash, photography   is not going to damage stone!    

We also went into a wine store that was turned upside down because they were installing new wine coolers that preserved the wine for sampling. We bought a 31 euro bottle of the highly recommended Brunello red wine, and a bottle of sauvignon from the region. The fine bottle of Brunello wine will need to be saved for a special occasion (poor luggage transfer people).

We then made the great descent to our B&B. The route notes said to go into a specific bar, and if the lady was not available, to call her. The lady at the restaurant called her a few times, but she wasn’t picking up, so we bought a beer and shared it. The lady appeared the moment we poured the beer into glasses, and we brought the glasses of beer in to the B&B.        

She wanted to do breakfast at 8am, and we asked if we could just have our breakfast set up the night before, so we could leave early, because it was so hot. It turned all sorts of cakes/croissants/ cookies/ cereal/yogurt/milk/tea etc was in the kitchen/fridge already, and her not having to come make tea/coffee and supervise us having breakfast seemed to suit her very well. She said she would leave us some cheese, prosciutto and bread in the fridge later and we told her not to bother.

We had booked for two twin beds through Macs, because these hotel beds are often small and soft and no one can get any sleep because you both sink into the middle of the bed, so she gave us two separate rooms, each with king size beds. We told her one room was enough, but she gave us two keys!

We are only going to mess up one of the rooms, but we did string our clothesline across the other room, and point the fan at it. There is no air conditioner, but we have two fans in our selected room, and I prefer this arrangement anyway.

Oh, I should mention that as we walked through the town, with all its lovely shops, I bought a shift. It was only 25euros, it is very cool, and now I will feel like I fit in.

Here is a lovely poem one of the shop owners had posted outside their shop

   I dream in silence, awaken in another

   era in the tranquil shade of ancient olive

   trees amongst fragrances and flavours

   of the past, home for the heart,

   refuge for the soul.

Anomynous