Monday, July 10: On Monday morning, I sent my pack ahead today for the first time because this stage would be a very long one. I used Rino Personal Bag, a one-man company that Marzia in San Gimignano had recommended. He charged only 15€ compared to the 20€ charged by Bags-Free. It was still a steep price to pay compared to what I paid on the Camino de Santiago at 5€/day. In this heat, it would be a relief to walk without my pack, although I still had to carry a lot of water in a smaller daypack.
We left Colle di Val d’Elsa at 6:00 a.m. and walked down a steep grassy switchback ramp to the lower more modern town where we found the Pinocchio Fountain. Sadly the fountain wasn’t turned on.
Then we followed a convoluted route that led us down to the River Park of Upper Val d’Elsa. This was quite a surprise because it was a beautiful walk, sign-marked, but not mentioned in our guidebooks at all. The river was a beautiful aquamarine color much like the Rio Celeste in Cost Rica.
Situated in the urban section of Colle Val d’Elsa, the park is one of the protected areas and nature reserves of this region. In the shade of its trees, the river Elsa flows from the Vene (a water spring), creating turquoise pools and glowing springs that have a travertine look to them.
The Sentierelsa (path along the Elsa) took us along the river banks, a route of about 4 km. Apparently not far is the Caldane, hot water ponds that have been known since Etruscan times. The path was lovely but I think it may have added a mile or two to our walk because it seemed to go on forever.
The magical blue water was so intense that we were mesmerized. We walked past many small waterfalls and had to cross numerous times on huge slippery rocks, helped along by rope “handrails.” We crossed with trepidation, fearing we’d fall in and soak all our belongings.
After we climbed to the road from the river walk, we crossed a pedestrian bridge and saw signs for the Via Francigena leading into a town with some bars. We were surprised because there were no services supposedly available on this stretch. We found a bar and enjoyed cappuccino and croissants from a nearby bakery and then realized we were not properly following the guidebook. It seems there are many alternate routes that aren’t shown in the guidebook, plus there is the Via Francigena for cyclists which often intersects us. Thus we had to backtrack to the pedestrian bridge over the River Elsa and the parish church that hosts the San Marziale pilgrim hostel. From there, we climbed up a road toward the small village of Ponelle, another 1.9 km under hot sun, much of the time on asphalt, to the village of Scarna, where we found a picnic table in the shade and a fountain and sat to rest and hide for a while from the relentless sun.
We descended on a gravel trail through the woods and then through the hamlet of Acquaviva. There an older local man joined us, chatting away in Italian as if we could understand any of what he was saying. It was a long hot slog from that picnic table, passing rapeseed fields and other farmland.
The road turned to asphalt again to the town of Strove/San Martino; the whole town seemed to be under construction, with streets and buildings being torn apart by bulldozers. We found a very nice bar and relaxed for a while. We were even able to get a stamp for our credenciale here; these are not as easy to come by as they were on the Camino. Here the woman at the bar told us it was a half-hour walk to the Abbadia d’Isola (it was longer than that in very hot sun), and then another hour to Monteriggioni (boy was she ever wrong!). We would soon encounter one of the most difficult stretches of our journey.
After descending and ascending into a forest, we spilled out into an olive orchard, where we walked along an exposed gravel trail between stone walls. The stone walls made the path seem like an oven and there was not a bit of shade. When we finally stumbled into Abbadia d’Isola, we were grateful for the cold bottle of water given to us by the woman running the attached hostel. We went into the abbey church where we bought a pilgrim tag to put on our backpacks. We hadn’t before seen much pilgrim paraphernalia. There we admired the Romanesque chapel and the 15th century polyptych altarpiece painted by Sano di Pietro of Siena and meditated on our pilgrimages.
In the year 1001, Countess Ava of Staggiò founded the monastery here and dedicated it to San Salvatore. Sigeric listed this as stage XVI. A pilgrim hospital cared for Via Francigena pilgrims here as early as 1050. The current church was consecrated in 1173 to honor San Cirino, and its increasing importance and strategic position between Florence, Siena and other Tuscan towns led in the 14th century to the building of protective walls. Many of the buildings surrounding the austere and tranquil Romanesque chapel became farm buildings over the centuries, but have recently been restored for events and pilgrim hospitality.
We descended just through the Abbey’s’ main gate, following a path that made a slow circuit to the right around a very wide field. This was a tough part of our stage. We were immediately in the hot sun and we had a huge field to cross. Sometimes I thought if we just walked along the road, our way would be a lot easier and faster, if maybe not as scenic. The road cut diagonally across to Monteriggioni while the path traversed the edges of the fields, taking us in a square around it.
Darina stopped under one of the few trees and I kept plodding along in the harsh sun, figuring she would catch up after drinking some water and bypass me as she always did. In the distance I could see a huge tree and some shade, and I tried not to think about the sun but just to keep focused on reaching that tree. It was a long way, about a third of the way across the field edge. As I got to the tree, Darina telephoned and I turned around to see she was nowhere in sight. She said the sun was burning her skin and she had to go back to the Abbey. By that time, I was not going to backtrack uphill to the Abbey and I told her I was going to keep going. I would call her when I reached a restaurant in Monteriggioni and she could take a taxi there, or if she wanted to take a taxi before I called, she could let me know where she was, and I’d meet her. I passed a pretty sunflower 🌻 field and I could see Monteriggioni at what seemed like a great distance ahead.
I trudged along to the corner of the field, then made a hard left on a long sparsely forested path alongside a hill. At least there was a bit of shade, but it wasn’t a lot. After what seemed an eternity, I rounded a corner and there before me was a very lively restaurant in the lower town. I stopped and went to the patio, looking very bedraggled and sweaty. I got a table for two and asked the waitress if she could call a taxi to go pick up my friend at the Abbey, actually about 3-5 minutes away by car. She told me it was impossible to get taxis, that the taxis only run between Monteriggioni and Siena. That was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard but this scenario would play out many times in Italy as there was no Uber here. Taxi drivers had a total monopoly and often couldn’t or wouldn’t meet the needs of the people. Luckily a young American guy from New York named Declin overheard my conversation with the waitress. He was sitting with family and friends and he said he had a car and would be happy to go pick up my friend. I called Darina and told her and gave Declin Darina’s number and told him where she was. He immediately took off and was back with Darina in about 10-15 minutes. Declin had saved the day! Darina was relieved as she had been trying to get someone from the Abbey to arrange a ride and was getting nowhere.
We enjoyed a nice lunch with Aperol spritzes and pici with eggplant and cheese and sat for a while. We expressed our gratitude to Declin as much as we could and treated him to an extra beer. We were too tired to climb uphill into Monteriggioni. We wondered how on earth we would make it 6km past Monteriggioni to our place for tonight, Agricola Fratelli Marchi, since there were no taxis available. We didn’t have it in us to walk any more in the heat.
We texted Ilara, our host at the Agricola, and asked if it was possible for her to arrange a ride for us. She said she was working and couldn’t come until 7 pm but maybe her brother Alessandro come come at 4:00. It was 2:30 and we said we’d wait. At 4:00, he hadn’t arrived. We kept running out to the parking lot and asking people who drove up, “Are you Alessandro?” We must have asked about 10 people. Finally he arrived and drove us what seemed a very long distance to the Agricola, probably the worst place we stayed on our journey.
Alessandro showed us into the room which was decorated with a bunch of junk someone decided they no longer wanted. There was nothing to drink and no restaurant on site. Ilara brought us a pizza we ordered from a menu she had sent us (probably picked up from the town where she worked). She brought a pair of child’s scissors to cut it with. There was nowhere to sit outside and no place to hang our washed clothes outside and we felt like prisoners stuck in that room eating our pizza sliced with the scissors. Luckily she had brought us beers at our request, allowing us to find some humor in the situation. What a place. We would be happy to leave here in the morning! We never did get to see Monteriggioni but it was no big deal to me as I’d seen it in 2019 (a short stroll thorugh damp monteriggioni) and I couldn’t remember a thing about it. Darina was too exhausted to care. Thank goodness we would have two nights following in Sienna, rest day included.
Steps: 29,212; Miles: 12.39. Day 4 Stage Walk: 9.32 mi, or 15 km.
Weather: Monteriggioni: Hi 98°, Low 66°. Sunny.
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 4): 35.36/211.77 miles (56.9/340.8 km).
This post is inspired by Jo’s Monday Medley.
~ wander.essence ~ 
You must be logged in to post a comment.