Twelfth day of travel, fourth day of the walking tour

Two shots I took from the rampart of the Fortress in San Gimignano:

(I just couldn’t get enough of that Tuscan atmosphere)

Wednesday, the fourth of June

Sometimes, my journal misses the mark. For this day, it starts out, “After breakfast, we did a short city walk, highlighted by a trip to the main church in town, with a bunch of well-restored frescoes.” The journal does not even mention that we preceded that visit with a walk to San Gimignano’s fortress, and a stroll along its rampart, where I took the pictures above, which I realize now are among the best I took during this trip. I took a bunch of other shots while we were up there, and these show up as thumbnails in the block immediately below and to the left.

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Of course we couldn’t take pictures in the church, so I have no record whatever of that part of the walk. Be that as it may, we went from there down to the San Giovanni Gate to pick up our bus, which took us to our trailhead, and a varying walk on which I took lots of pictures, many of wildflowers this time.

I notice that so far I’ve put up on this page practically none of my pictures that show our fellow walkers, though Mark has a couple. Partly this is because I’m almost always at the rear of the walking column, and any pictures I have are of people’s backs, like the one herebelow (big image, small).

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We walked a way, and came to an abbey called Abbadia a Isola, a name that seems strange, since it’s not on an island. But it originally was surrounded by a swamp, long ago drained and gone now.

As to the pictures to the left, the nice high building was something we passed by on the way to the Abbadia; the framed saint and the fine altarpiece were in the church itself. I wish that I had thought to stand in a different position to photograph the altarpiece: in all my shots, the brightness of the gold background overwhelms the rest of the painting.

Sulla (Trifolium incarnatum) (Big image, small)	Juan takes a picture (Big image, small)
Rose (Big image, small)	Malva sp. (Big image, small)
A wild orchid, Anacamptis pyramidalis (Big image, small)	“Girl with messy hair”, Nigella damascena (Big image, small)

We walked a while, and then picked up the bus again, which left us off at the base of a hill, which we walked up to the hill-town of Monteriggione. I have a couple of pictures of the town from a distance, but they look more like thumbprints than photographs, so I won’t put them up here. And I left my camera on the bus down below, so I have no shots from in the town. We had lunch in Monteriggione, very pleasant and simple. A plain tossed salad followed by a choice of primi piatti: I had Penne Rigati with a sausage sauce. Wine, of course. Then just coffee.

After a bus ride to the environs of Radda in Chianti, where we walked first along a road, then along a lane or wide path with plenty of ups and downs, mostly ups. No problems with weather, so I got a number of nice shots, especially of flowers. The Sulla to the right is a legume grown for fodder. Next to it, another picture of people from the rear, but it does show how the poppies grow so plentifully.

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I think it was here on this dirt road that Mark delivered one of his signature sneezes. But he was answered by a dog barking in almost exactly the same key.

It was Angelica who pointed out that the flower with the nice head of blossoms, in the bottom row on the left in the block to the right, was an orchid. You probably have to look at the big image to see the orchidiness, since the individual flowers are so small. As to the Girl with Messy Hair, I wish I knew more about it: all I recall is Gianni’s explanation of the common Italian name.

We eventually made our way to Radda in Chianti, a nice little town on whose main street our hotel, the Relais Vignale, was located. The town is not at all overwhelmed with tourists. The top two pictures on the left, as well as the one on the right, are snaps I grabbed about a quarter hour before we pulled into town; at the bottom left, Gianni is in the Vignale, checking out one of the many books that were lying about in the common rooms.

Supper this evening was at a very fancy restaurant. I had a little Zucchini soufflé for starter, can’t recall the primo, but my secondo was four nice lamb chops. Wine throughout. As always, it was a fairly boisterous time. Dessert was three little balls of sorbet: lemon, melon, and blood orange. And the melon was so melony that it tasted more like fruit than sorbet.