Tuscany Trip Report - walk day two and Siena

Hello! The weekend's here! Very happy about that! I thought I should finish writing about our Easter holiday. We'd just spent the night in Colle di Val d'Elsa, and the next day we had 16km to walk to get to Siena. We actually started with a short taxi ride to the medieval walled town of Monteriggioni.

It's amazingly well preserved - the walls are completely intact, with very impressive views of the surrounding countryside.

The walking from there was quite easy and very scenic. It was very peaceful, hardly anyone else about.

We arrived on the outskirts of Siena by mid afternoon, after quite a steep climb up, and were rewarded with a view of the city.





Our hotel was on this side of the city, so we headed straight there, before going into the city centre for the evening. It's very atmospheric, you really feel that it hasn't changed much for the last 500 years.  

We had the whole of the next day to explore Siena as well, so we went inside the Palazzo Pubblico, the 'town hall' on the main square, to admire the incredible frescoes. We decided against the 400 steps of the tower, but found very good views inside the Museo dell'opera del duomo instead - the snow-capped mountains in the distance were very impressive.

All in all, a really lovely city, and a great final destination for our walk in Tuscany.

Tomorrow I'm starting on my pyjamas for the Pyjama Party. My fabric is all washed and ready to go - I just hope it's as easy as the pattern claims to be!





Tuscany Trip Report - walk day one

Walking boots - check. Packed lunch - check. Waterproofs - check. Map - check. Off we go! Goodbye San Gimignano. The views as we walked away and looked back were great. It is a really stunning skyline.

Very soon we were in olive groves - that sky looks a bit threatening!

The views of San Gimignano continued...

And then we were in open countryside - and with the weather looking up a bit!

The walking wasn't too difficult, and the excellent notes provided by Inntravel meant that we were never in danger of getting lost. By mid afternoon we were arriving in Colle di Val d'Elsa, our next stop.

This is another hill town, built along the ridge of the hill. The town is split in two, with an upper and lower section - the upper section being the more historic of the two.

Time to get a good night's sleep before the next day's walking - Siena awaits!

Tuscany Trip Report - San Gimignano

For the Easter weekend we booked a walking holiday in Tuscany through Inntravel. They arrange walking and cycling holidays and provide excellent directions to make sure you won't get lost! We flew to Pisa on Thursday morning and were collected by taxi for the drive to San Gimignano. The first thing that struck us was that Tuscany is a lot hillier - mountainous even - than we had expected - a bit daunting when we knew we had to strap on the walking boots the next day! First though, we had the afternoon to explore beautiful San Gimignano.

We stayed at the Hotel Bel Soggiorno - you can just see it in that photo above. The restaurant (very good food) had amazing views over the surrounding countryside.

It's a charming town just to stroll around, marvelling at the fourteen towers, eating ice-cream in the main square, enjoying the views over the rolling hills, vineyards and olive groves.

After a glass of the local Vernaccia wine on the terrace above, it was time to head back to the hotel to ready ourselves for the start of the walking the next day: 13 km from San Gimignano to Colle di Val d'Elsa.