Vía degli Dei 6 : Grind with a view

So if you’re paying attention, yesterday involved giving up over 1000m of elevation. Today we had to get almost all of it all back again.

But the day started with Jennifer having a 6am board meeting via Zoom. It was still going when our hosts delivered a great breakfast complete with coffee and omelette.

We walked out of San Piera a Sieve at 8:45 past old Medici villas. Immediately we had to go up 200m and then back down, before setting off up another 800m. The 800 was a bit of a killer because not only was it steep it was through forest so there wasn’t a lot to see, That’s been my major criticism of this walk – I like walking in forest, but forest by itself doesn’t feel very Italian.

It took us three and half hours of grind to get to the top (which was good going, but driven by a wish to get it over with). The ‘top’ was a monastery – Convento de Montesenario – which was a great place to stop for lunch. Interestingly, Italian and Spanish don’t deal with the words convent and monastery in the way English does, they are not tied to monks and nuns. Our convento had monks and makes its own grappa, which we were thoroughly disappointed not to be able to try.

We were not, however, disappointed with the next 8km of downhill walk with fabulous views. We were excited to get our first view of Florence in the distance.

We’re staying tonight in Olmo where our hotel has a terrace with a view down the valley we’ll walk tomorrow to Florence.