San Quirico
D’Orcia
We had a decision to make before
the start of the day in Buonconvento.
It would be a 22 km walk OR we could catch a bus part way and cut the
day to 7 km. It was an easy vote
and the bus tickets were purchased.
We bussed to Torrenieri and began our trek.
I finally clued in yesturday that
we are walking a small portion of the Via Francigena Trail. The trail was established in 940 when
the Archbishop of Canterbury made a pilgrimage from England to Rome. He had his scribes note the villages
and the pathways taken on the 2000 km journey. For a few days we are pilgrims.
We met three men today on the
trail that had walked from Frankfurt.
Yesturday we met a man that was on a day 30-day walk (850) km from
Basel, Switzerland. He had given
himself 8 more days to cover the 200 km to Rome. We met an Australian couple that were averaging 30 km a
day. Makes us look like turtles.
Today seemed like it would be a
shorter walk. We could see San
Quirico across the valley and it seemed so close. The walk down into the valley and then up to the hilltop for
the 7 km hop.
San Quirico is a neat little old
town but unlike the others we are now in the grape region and the town is full
of wineries, many offering tours and tastings.
Our hotel, Lamora del Poeta was
not the best so far. The room and
bed were great but the breakfast was left on the table and we went out. The real disappointing part was that we
arrived at 3 pm and the website said check in was 2 pm. No one was there. The sign said to go the grocery store
next door but it was closed. We
sat in the street. An older
Italian man walked by and while he spoke only Italian, he made himself
understood when he invited the women to come and stay at his place. His invitation was declined with much
nervous laughter. The shopkeeper
across the street came over and told us in broken English that the hotelier
couldn’t speak English and would not likely be there until 4:30. He arrived at 4:45.
We had a fabulous dinner in a
courtyard restaurant. Dinners have
been expectantly good and surprisingly inexpensive. We don’t usually go the full three courses. Salads are large and usually around 7
Euros (about $9 Canadian). Pasta
dishes with meat between 6 and 9 Euros, depending on the meat. We share a salad, each have pasta, and
table share bottles of wine. Last
night was the most expensive one to date and it was $32 Euros per couple.
Not the hotel’s fault but Deborah and I had an interesting experience walking home after dinner. After this length of time, the narrow
ally roads/walkways begin to look remarkably the same. We were behind the group after getting
post meal gelatos. It was dark when we arrived at what we thought was the door
to the hotel. It was open a crack
and we thought Warren and Dianne had left it open for us. We walked in and secured the outside
door behind us. I reached for the
light switch but it was dark and couldn’t find it. We thought we knew our way so we climbed the stairs. We couldn’t find our room or the light
switch at the top of the series of switch back stairs. We started to panic about not finding our room when it
struck us both…. We were in the wrong building. We were in someone’s private home. We retraced our steps to the downstairs exterior door but it
would not open. The door didn’t
have an inside handle. We huddled
in the dark in an ever-increasing state of panic. We decided one of us had to knock on every door until we
found someone to let us out. As
you can imagine, this idea was unappealing for both and I tried again. This was all done in the pitch black …
no lights. Finally I reached up
high and found a chain. I didn’t
know what it was but I just pulled with everything I had and magically the door
opened. Much relieved. Makes for a good story now but at the
time, not so good.
Tomorrow we will have about 12 km
to the next stop.
