Day 2 Tuscany Trip

Well what a mixed bag today turned out to be. By the time I finished my breakfast and stuffed the last few things into my bags, Alan and Linda were pulling up outside and it was absolutely bucketing down. I was feeling rather disappointed by this time, as I really wasn't prepared for such wet weather. I thought I might encounter the odd light shower and brought a light jacket, but nothing to withstand this kind of weather. Anyway in they come, and Alan asks if I would accept some advice. I said, most certainly – and he suggested that I ride in the van with them while they do the luggage transfers and they would drop me off at San Quirico d'Orica mid to late morning. He thought that the cycle ride would be too dangerous for me with my hand the way it was and apart from that it would be downright unpleasant. He suggested that I rest today, and perhaps if the weather lifted walk into San Quirico and then tomorrow catch the bus into Siena and have a look around there, and that would give my hand another two full days of no cycling and by then it should have settled well. I must say that it is feeling a good bit better today and the swelling was subsiding and I now have two knuckles visible, although it is still very tender to the touch and moving my thumb is still extremely painful. The Diclofenac and Panadol obviously doing the trick.

Anyway I agreed with his suggestion and although disappointed, I felt that it was a very sensible option, and then, when driving the route, I was actually dammed pleased that I had taken that option. The ride looked quite horrendous actually, and on reading the comments by other Headwater clients in the book at San Quirico, a good number of them suggsted that this ride should in fact be re-categorised to a 3-bike tour, rather than the 2-bike that it is listed at.
We made it to Hotel Palazzuolo by late morning, and surprisingly my room was all ready for me, obviously another hotel not going to be fully booked out. Alan helped me with my bag to my room, and then I was on my own again, with his phone number carefully logged in my phone in case I am needing him for anything. Here's hoping not, because I really want to do this cycle ride.
The weather remained awful until just after lunch time, and I had my picnic of banana, peach and yoghurt with a little plum cake in my room and then decided to venture upstairs, firstly to scan the Headwater books for ideas, and then I braved the weather and walked up to San Quirico. What a beautiful old place it is. All stone, and little lanes and cobbled streets, buildings with tiny little doorways, heavy carved wooden doors or wrought iron gates. I went into all three churches in this wee village, one of them dating back to the 8th century. Wow, that is old. It was beautiful inside and I lit a candle

in there, and sat for quite some time, just contemplating life, and trying to find some answers. These were just little tea light candles which you lit and placed on a wrought iron tree-shaped stand. Maybe to get all the anwers I need I perhaps should have lit one of the big candles at the cathedral in Firenze!!! But I did enjoy sitting in there, it was warm and peaceful and inviting. Wooden carved ceiling, painted frescos on the walls and magnificent statues all around, and again the sign on the door reminding us that it was a place of worship and asking us to respect that and not take photos. Such a shame, because these churches are just absolutely magnificent and it is hard to do them justice with a description in words alone. Beautiful, awesome, magnificent, peaceful, calming, don't just seem strong enough adjectives to use to describe them. Breathtakingly beautiful perhaps. Serene. Awe inspiring.
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my wander round this lovely old village. It is Sunday so most of the shops are closed, and only the ristorante are open. There are only a handful of tourists about, and the locals are heading into the restaurants for their late Sunday lunch and I liked the words on that sign that I have posted here. It was on the door outside an hotel / ristorante.

The rain, which has thankfully stopped now, has freshened everything up and the grass is green and the potplants are looking very clean and bright and fresh. Some of the windows are sporting the traditional window boxes of brightly coloured geranium plants, but in most of the doorways there are terracotta pots of green plants, well small trees actually. There are flags flying throughout the village, and I was excited to learn this morning when Alan and Linda came to pick me up that there was a very historical pagaent taking place today, and Alan explained that there were four groups of people here who would challenge each other at various tasks, the red, the green, the blue and the black teams.

But how disappointing to learn when we checked me in at the hotel that the festival is in fact

next weekend and not today. Just my luck, thunder storms, pouring rain and one of the biggests festivals of the year, and I am a week too early for it. Aint that just the story of my life. Too early, too late, never in the right place at the right time!!!!
I got some awesome photos of the village, and the surrounding area and then headed back to the

hotel, taking photos of typical Tuscan gardens along the way. Looking out across the valley, the fields are a mixture of colours – brown, golden and various shades of green. The maize is a gorgeous shade of gold, ready for harvesting I guess as soon as the weather settles.

Time then for my traditional nana nap, and then I used the time before dinner to transfer my photos on the lap top from my camera, and label them, before all the places become a jumble in my brain and I forget which is where. What a job, already some of the names are getting muddled, so I am glad I did the job today rather than waiting until I get home and I will try to do them each day from here on in. It will be so much easier.
Next it was time for my shower and to start thinking about going upstairs for dinner. There is a large group who have now checked in the hotel, travelling with HF. I actually talked to one of the tour leaders after dinner and he asked me if I had heard of HF and I told him I had only really learnt about them on arriving in Tuscany on seeing there brochures at the hotel. In actual fact, looking more closely at their catalogue now, it would seem that Bevan sent me a copy of their booklet, but I actually liked the look of Headwater much better, and HF are all guided tours. The people on the tour look like a mixture of ages and abilities, although mostly much older than me, and the leader told me that they have two walking groups – the hard lot and the softer lot, as well as a group of people who only came to paint the scenery.
Once again I walk into the dining room to find a table for one set in the corner for me. I would have liked to have sat out on the terrace but the receptionist told me it gets very cold out there when the sun goes down. But I was wanting to capture the “fantastic sunset” on camera and here I was sitting in a corner with my back to the view. Oh well, here's to the food. Now this hotel is a four star hotel, so I am expecting great things here. Alan told me that everything is so much better than in the Veneto, so here goes. There are no options on the menu which is printed and sitting on my table, and the waiter just brings each dish out in rather quick succession and plonks in front of me, no questions, no comments, just puts it down and walks away. The only question I got asked was whether I wanted water, and I replied yes and ordered a ¼ litre of vino rosso as well. He looked rather surprised and repeated ¼ litre and I said si. Don't women drink here or what? Anyway he brings my wine out in a little glass jug, and it is good. The wine list was extensive, but as is often the case at home, the house wine was un-named.
The first course was beef cappacio and rocket, which was okay. Presentaton wasn't a big issue here, just put on a plate and that's it, but it tasted okay. Nothing to rave about, but okay. Then I was brought a bowl of creamed vegetable soup, again, tasty but just a bowl of soup. The next course was gnocchi something or other 'ragu Toscana' which means meat sauce Tuscany style. This was nice, I have decided I really like gnocchi and will have to learn to make it. I am starting to get full by this time, and I notice that the elderly Italian gentleman at the table across from me has left some of his gnocchi, and so at the risk of offending the chef, I too leave some, as I know by the look of the menu that I still have two more courses to go. So the main course, pork slices flavoured with curry and served with oven roasted vegetables. Again, okay, quite tasty, and again just plonked on a plate and this time swimming in an oily but quite tasty sauce. One comment I have to make is that none of the food has been hot, and I am not sure if that is because they are catering for the large table of HF tourists and the food has gone cold, or whether they intend for it to be only luke warm, but for me I would have liked it hotter to start with. Because there are so many courses, I take my time eating and by the time I get to the end of each course the food is in fact quite cold. This hasn't been the case at any of the other places I have eaten, and in Perugia the gnocchi was bubbling hot when they brought it to the table.
And so the final course here at San Quirico - Panna Cotta. Again just okay, and it would seem to me that this is a commercially prepared dessert, as it was a slice, rather than the traditional moulded panna cotta and it rather reminded me of those catering cheese cakes that you can buy at home - you know the ones, in the big tinfoil dishes which all taste exactly the same, except for the colour of the topping. And then I finished off with an espresso.
Now one thing I was really pleased about, one of the previous Headwater guests had made a comment that the menu had consisted of seafood, seafood, and more seafood and if you didn't like it, too bad, because the menu did not offer any options. I was a bit nervous entering the restaurant in case this happened tonight, but I know that all of the establishments have been warned about my 'allergico frutta di mare crustacean' We are not supposed to write criticism of the establishments in the comments book, but this couple (from NZ I might add) must have felt very strongly about the food and commented anyway.
And so endeth another day. As I said when I started typing today, a bit of a mixed bag, and what looked so horrible to start ended up not so bad at all. Tomorrow I am hoping to catch the bus to Sienna – Not quite as easy as it sounds as you cannot buy a bus ticket on the bus and you cannot buy a ticket anywhere near the bus stop, you have to walk to the other side of the town to the tobacconist. And then it pays not to buy a return ticket, because sometimes it is a different bus company that brings you back home. On the map it looks as if it is 42 kms to Sienna and I overheard some other tourists trying to organise a taxi there and it costs E100 each way. So that is out of the question. I had thought of catching the bus there and getting a taxi home, but that is a tad expensive. But then, as I came out from dinner the receptionist informed me that the weather forecast is for heavy rain and thunder again tomorrow, so maybe I will be staying put in the hotel for another day. A bit of a waste, and while I don't mind playing a lady of leisure for a few hours, the whole day might be a bit much. There are some strenuous bike rides out from here, and a 12.5 km walk to Montalcino, but that makes a 12.5 walk back and I am not sure my knee will withstand that, and then if it rains, that won't be pleasant. I could always go back to Montepulciano, because I haven't seen that town yet, as it was perched up on top of a hill and I didn't walk up there in the middle of a thunder storm the other day.
So lots of choices, but I guess it will all come down to what the weather is doing. And reading the comments book, it seems that all the tourists this 2009 season have had rain. I certainly wasn't expecting that. Oh well, now for some sleep and see what the morning brings.
Ciao