“Just a few minutes to write. We absolutely loved our Agriturismo stay at Poggio Allora, which is a fabulous farm stay with pool overlooking Tuscan hills towards San Gimignano. At night they served a meal - 90% of their own produce- on a terrace with all the guests in long tables overlooking their magnificent vineyard and farm — lots of interesting chat and animation as we tried to understand each other.
Poggio Alloro
We visited the beautiful town of San Gimignano nearby — famous for beautiful frescos and towers which you can climb to catch spectacular views of the area and birds’ eye glimpses of the town. This morning we walked through there again and there were markets, which slowed our progress somewhat.
San Gimignano
Torre Grossi
The view from the top of the tower
A busker finds a shady corner
Frescoes in The Church of Sant’Agostino
The weekly markets
It has become very hot 30C so it is essential to walk early which we didn t today because of breakfast at the farmstay. We walked for about 5 hours along wooded tracks and past solubrious villas and the acres of sunflowers.
Leaving Poggio Allora
We stopped at a small unremarkable town Campiglia for respite from the heat and then decided to catch a bus to our destination — Monteriggioni. Wow! A small walled town - just a scene out of Renaissance Italy. There are 42 permanent residents of the town in summer.
A bird’s eye view of Monteriggioni with its one main piazza.
We are staying at a hostel especially for pilgrims — E15 for bed and meal tonight. Our room overlooking the main plaza. The hostel attached to the 12th century Romanesque church, Santa Maria Assunta, and was perfect for our needs. An older lady cooked a simple meal for us. She volunteers her services every July, bringing her handicapped son with her. The host was an American woman who had walked the full walk from Canterbury in the middle of winter, snow-shoeing up St Bernard’s Pass being shadowed by a wolf. A bit of a nutter!”
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