via francigena: buonconvento to san quirico d’orcia to gallina

Buonconvento to San Quirico d’Orcia

Saturday, July 15: On Saturday morning, we left Buonconvento at 4:50 am, our earliest start so far, since we had 21.7 km ahead to San Quirico d’Orcia. Little did I know how awful the next two days would be.

We hiked on a miserable path overgrown with grasses & weeds that scratched our legs. It took forever but we finally got on a wide gravel path leading up to the vineyards of Montalcino. Sadly it was foggy and we didn’t have any views to speak of.

We passed through vineyards of the prized Brunello di Montalcino grapes; the wines produced from these are considered some of Italy’s best and most expensive. They were first mentioned in the 14th century. The vintages benefit from the hot and dry sub-climate of the region. Strict requirements must be met to earn the Brunello DOCG appellation, according to Walking the Via Francigena Pilgrim Route Part 3: Lucca to Rome.

We walked past the buildings of the Tricherchi Winery complex at the summit.

We walked among cypresses all uphill in the fog past the Altesino Winery to the Caparzo Winery. It supposedly had a pilgrim wine tasting but of course it wasn’t open at that hour. It did have a picnic table and a fountain so we rested there a while.

We continued on the uphill road forever and as the fog burned off, we had majestic views of the Tuscan countryside. We walked along the ridges with almost no shade for what seemed an eternity.

We could see the town of Montalcino on a hilltop across the valley but the path didn’t pass through that town. No matter, Mike and I had visited it by car in 2019: tuscany: montalcino.

Finally we reached the small town of Torrenieri, where we stopped at a cafe. We basked in the cool interior and had honey pastries; I enjoyed a cappuccino. It was a much needed break from the hot sun. A castle is believed to have stood in this town as early as the 9th-10th centuries. Its existence was documented in 990 as Sigeric’s Stage XIII Turreiner. In the Middle Ages it was important in the region for being on the Via Francigena, between the Orcia and Arbia valleys. Because it had few natural defenses, the town was often sacked by passing armies, including a 1235 pillage and conflagration by the army of Orvieto. In the 14th & 15th centuries, Siena fortified its walls and used it as one of its territorial defenses, but with the fall of Siena and the rise of Florence, the town drifted into obscurity. Documents record a pilgrim hostel dedicated to Sant’Antonio here in 1601.

Downhill past the church, we aimed for the bottom of the valley. A quiet asphalt road, SP137, carried us the next hour, making a long and gradual climb to a summit.

As we descended on the road we could see San Quirico d’Orcia on the ridge between two hills ahead. Darina was so far ahead of me I’d lost sight of her. I thought I’d just walk alongside the road into San Quirico, which would certainly be a lot flatter and shorter (albeit more dangerous) than the path. But when I got to where the path branched off, there was Darina waiting for me in case I missed the turn off.  We took a gravel path and went under the highway overpass and made a steep and sustained climb in the hot sun, passing through olive orchards, alongside a farmhouse. After a very long time, we stopped to rest in the shade on some logs that someone had cut and left helter skelter on the ground. Two Italian women came and joined us, Graciela Maria and Julia. They were from Sicily but were on a quest to do several days each year on the Via Francigena. Graciela Maria was a middle school English teacher like Darina was, so they arranged to have their students work together on some projects. She was part Italian and part Irish.

Graciela Maria changed into flip flops and planned to walk in them the rest of the way to San Quirico. I honestly didn’t know how she’d do it as the path was still a long distance and very rough.

Then we traipsed through a sparse forest for a long while. We eventually walked up steps to San Quirico d’Orcia and turned toward the Collegiate Church of Saints Quirico & Giulitta, starting the pretty pedestrian walk through the charming town.

We had to walk all the way through town to our accommodation, an apartment called Cesaroni House. The woman who rented it out was someone who really didn’t care about her guests, and especially not about pilgrims. I had sent my backpack ahead through Bags Free, for the steep sum of 20 euros (on the Camino de Santiago it was 5 euros per stage), but the bag had not arrived. It was about 1:30 by this time, and the woman called the Hotel Ghibellino in Buonconvento  to find it was still sitting in the hotel lobby. They said it would be there in an hour and half. I was so annoyed because I couldn’t shower, change out of my hiking boots, or change out of my sweaty clothes. I had sent it ahead because today was a 7 hour stage and I wasn’t doing well carrying it in the extreme heat. This was the 2nd time Bags Free had been late delivering my bag and I’d only used them several times. This is one of the main problems in Italy. Between taxi services which have a complete monopoly (there is no Uber in Italy) and a service like Bags Free (It only has one competitor which has more strict rules about which accommodations they can deliver to), you’re totally at their mercy.

Darina and I went to a nearby restaurant for lunch as the woman at Cesaroni house said she’d contact me about 10 minutes before Bags Free was to arrive. (She had to go somewhere, or so she said). Finally the bag arrived around 3:00, and I was finally able to shower and do laundry, etc. By this time I was extremely irritable.

Darina had gone into town to check out all the churches, so I walked up on my own. I needed some space between being annoyed about the air-conditioning situation in Buonconvento, the general lack of air conditioning in today’s accommodation and everywhere,  and general frustration with the heat and the difficulty of the walk. I stopped at a wine bar, Intralci, and talked for a long time with the waiter there as I enjoyed two glasses of cool white wine. He asked why on earth I would subject myself to such misery on this path in summer. I hate the summer at all times, but the only reason I’d come in summer was because I wanted to do it with Darina and she is on a teacher’s schedule. I told the guy I was tempted to change my ticket, go directly to Rome by bus, and fly home. It was a good time to vent and have someone who understood my suffering. He was totally sympathetic and said sometimes we make bad decisions, which I definitely felt I had done. He also said it was a shame because Italians along the Via Francigena don’t care about the pilgrims, the stages are long, difficult and without services and the heat is unbearable.

Finally Darina joined me after she’d gone to mass. By then I had mellowed out and we wandered around  looking for a place to eat.

We found a nice restaurant, Bar Pane Pizza Pasticceria, where I had a yummy spelt, chestnut and porcini mushroom soup and Darina had a meat that is famous in the area.

Steps: 38,755; Miles: 16.44. Day 8 Stage Walk: 14.76 miles, or 23.75km.

Weather: San Quirico d’Orcia: Hi 96°, Lo 67°. Sunny.

San Quirico d’Orcia to Gallina

Sunday, July 16: We started walking at 5:15 Sunday morning, and we immediately started climbing. Luckily for once we had stayed on the far end of town, so we didn’t have to walk through town. We walked through a neighborhood of suburban homes and then into fields framed by pine & cypress trees. The road turned to gravel and climbed, sometimes steeply. I think somehow the Via Francigena manages to take pilgrims to the top of every hill in Tuscany. Ugh.

We saw a vista of Roca d’Orcia with its rectangular castle. We reached the summit of the climb. On a hilltop far across the valley, we could see the tall tower of the fortress at Radicofani, our goal for the next day.

The road turned to concrete as we descended and then we took a gravel trail to Vignoni Alto, a picturesque castle/hamlet that was a sentry point for Bagno Vignoni below. From there we had an iconic view of the Tuscan countryside.

A steep gravel trail took us down to the Piazza delle Sorgenti (“Square of Springs”) in Bagno Vignoni, surrounded by small hotels, a bar and the Church of San Giovanni Batista.

Springs in the small town of Bagno Vignoni (pop. 30), largely unchanged since the Middle Ages, have been enjoyed since Etruscan times. Medieval notables such as St. Catherine of Siena, Pope Pius II, and Lorenzo the Magnificent frequented the springs. Picturesque buildings surround a pool of spring-fed hot water, making it the only aquatic piazza in Italy. The spring waters flow out toward the Orcia River.

We were too early for the bar, so we wandered for a while around the Estruscan ruins (Mike and I had visited them in 2019: montepulciano > bagno vignoni > san quirico d’orcia (again)). Then we returned to the town to finally find the bar open. The servers were extremely rude. I said to the waitress, “What is your problem?” She responded with great frustration, “We have hotel guests to serve!” Heaven forbid they should be remotely accommodating to tired and hungry pilgrims. These were the only services we would encounter for the entire stage, so we really wanted to have some food.

Just outside of town, I ditched a bunch of my belongings in a trash can in hopes of reducing my backpack weight. Some of the things I threw in the trash were my “nighttime outfit,” two disposable rain jackets, and my headlamp (it was rarely dark when we were walking). Getting rid of that stuff really didn’t make much difference in my pack weight because the thing that weighed most was water. That could not be reduced in the extreme heat.

After our break, we took a detour because the pedestrian bridge was broken. It was a good thing the woman from today’s accommodation, Ostello La Vecchia Posta, had warned us because there were no signposts at all.

We had to go uphill then down a steep rough trail to return to the path. It was a rough and hot walk after that. The path circled up and around a hill past a farm where a bunch of dogs were barking up a storm. I took out my Birdie alarm and clutched it in my hand in case I needed to use it to scare the dogs. Luckily they were all caged.

We passed a vineyard and an orchard and traversed a hillside and through fields with Castiglione d’Orcia to the right. A road led us then to the bottom of a wide valley.

We crossed a bridge over Torrente Onzola and then a second bridge. Another climb and then we were out in the open with fields all around.

We found a lovely picnic table and fountain where we sat awhile and relaxed, even taking off our shoes. It was a good thing this place appeared, as it was barely mentioned in the guidebook and I had almost run out of water. Then we were out in the open with no shade anywhere for the last 4 km into Gallina, which was 2.8km off the track. Luckily we were told we wouldn’t have to backtrack the next day to return to the Via Francigena. It was a long miserable slog with no relief anywhere. This stretch almost did me in and I honestly worried I would die of heat exhaustion.

We arrived in Gallina around 1:30 but we couldn’t check in to Ostello La Vecchia Posta until 2:30. We hauled our bags into Il Parallelo, a pretty fancy restaurant. We definitely looked like what the cat dragged in. I had a glass of cool white wine and Darina had a beer. I enjoyed tagliatelle with mushrooms and truffles and Darina had risotto with truffles. It felt so good to be out of the sun in a cool place.

We ordered a legume soup for take out for dinner; we could pick it up at 7:00. This only restaurant in town closed at 5:00 but prepared dinner for take out.

We finally checked in to the Ostello where we met a French couple, Gaetano and Sylvie. They had been biking all over Europe for a couple of months and planned to continue another 1 1/2 months. They were in their early 60s and very fit. I am so impressed by the stamina of some people.

Today had been such a miserable day of walking for me in the heat that I went to work trying to book a taxi for Acquapendente, two stages ahead. There was only one bus from Gallina to Acquapendente on Monday and it was 5:00 in the evening, meaning I’d have to hang out all day with nothing to do in Gallina. There was no way I could endure the 18.7km walk including a 12km climb to Radicofani the next day. Also, Radicofani is a very small town, so I had no idea how I could get down from there the day after. Thus I wanted a taxi to take me the two stages. Darina of course would walk, as she is 20 years younger than me, and fit and strong. I was not about to put my health or life at risk in the face of the Italian government’s extreme heat warnings. Also, the walks were always longer than what the guidebook said.

I found an air-conditioned B&B in Acquapendente and, after many dead-end phone calls, found an expensive taxi for 60€ to take me Monday morning on the 30-minute drive. I couldn’t wait to spend an entire day in air-conditioning all by myself. Of course I had committed to walk with Darina so I also paid her my half of the accommodation in Radicofani. All of this cost me a pretty penny but it was worth every cent.

We went to the only bar in town, where we had beers on tap and Darina ordered sandwiches to take with her on her walk to Radicofani, where the guidebook said there were no services.

After hanging in the bar, we picked up our legume soup and ate in the Ostello kitchen with the French couple. We had a fun time communicating as they didn’t speak English and I couldn’t think of any French words and kept speaking Spanish, with Darina translating my elementary Spanish to French. Oh, I am so bad with languages despite all my studies!

Steps: 33,808; Miles 14.34. Day 9 Stage Walk: 9.57 miles, or 15.4km.

Weather: San Quirico d’Orcia: Hi 103°, Lo 67°. *Red Warning for Extreme High Temperature.

The Via Francigena is an ancient road and pilgrimage route that runs from Canterbury, England, through France and Switzerland, to Rome and then to Apulia, Italy, where there were ports of embarkation for the Holy Land. In around 990, Archbishop Sigeric journeyed from Canterbury to Rome and back, but only documented his itinerary on the return journey, taken in 80 stages averaging about 12 miles (20 km) a day, for a total of some 1,100 miles (1,700 km).

This is the continuing saga of our attempt to walk the stages from Lucca to Rome, which are, in total, about 255.07 miles (410.5 km). Since we had to cut out stages due to time constraints, our actual goal was to walk 211.77 miles ( 340.8 km).

Running tally (Day 8 & 9): 91.94 /211.77 miles (147.95/340.8 km).

Linking this post to Jo’s Monday Walk: it’s New Year’s Day!