Day 4 - Colle di Val d’Esla to Monteriggioni, about 21 km.
The first 3 km of our walk today should have taken us along a busy road. Instead we left the path and walked through a riverside park. It was beautiful, wild flowers, waterfalls and stepping stones!
Then we were back to back roads with fields stretching around us. Of course we began to climb - it had to happen sooner rather than later!
Once we reached Monteriggioni we knew our accommodation for the night was about a km on the other side - probably the longest km of the day!
We had walked in sunshine all day, in tee shirts, but as we arrived at our destination it started to rain, how lucky was that?
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We continued on our way from the orange dot to
join up with the main route. |
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In Colle di Val d’Esla a very modern elevator
takes you down from the city walls |
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| Leaving Colle di Val d’Esla behind |
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| Heading down to the riverside walk |
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| Tranquility |
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| Ah, we thought yesterday’s fords and stepping stones were a one off. How wrong we were! |
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| The smells and sounds were amazing. |
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| A canopy of green. |
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| More stepping stones. |
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| We saw this man fly fishing. He caught a small trout |
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| Back on the white roads. |
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| On and on and on!! |
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| What a surprise, it’s lunch time and there’s a cafe! Very exciting |
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| And then the path goes on... |
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| After the nice white roads we weren't expecting this. |
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Maybe this is an original path used by
pilgrims for hundreds of years. |
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| Hiking through olive groves. |
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A tiny old chapel - built by a family to worship
Mary of the snow, it is shaped like a hexagon. |
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| Monteriggioni suddenly appears in the distance |
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| Who doesn't love pigs? |
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| What an amazing place! |
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| The climb up to the walled town was crazily steep. |
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The square inside the town walls. Very pretty and
not nearly as big as it looks from outside the walls. |
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| Mmmmmm! Ice cream! |
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| I miss our cats, this one was shy but chatty! |
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And then off again, see the white road winding into the distance?
That’s the route to our accommodation. |
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| Bye Bye Monteriggioni |
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| Our accommodation. Built in about 1400, it had a long drive up to it taking us away from the Via Francigena but it is lovely and peaceful. |
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