Stage 10 Buonconvento to San Quirico d'Orcia

22 kilometers
Elevation gain/loss: 774/512
Steps: 29,901
Total distance traveled: 188.8 km
Distance to Rome: 225.8 km

Walking through Tuscany is beautiful; the colours, the vineyards, the olive groves, the iconic cypress trees, and the soft, rolling hills.

The soft, rolling, #$%*ing hills, there is no end to them. Big ones, small ones, short ones, long ones, steep ones and gentle ones. It doesn't matter if I'm walking, running, or cycling, I HATE THEM ALL!!!

Today was very challenging for me. I don't know if it was because of yesterday's fast pace, our less than nutritious dinner, or that lovely Chianti last night, but my legs felt like jello all day. I actually considered throwing in the towel at the 14km mark, but I would have had to wait three hours to catch a bus to our destination. Even if I crawled I'd arrive before the bus. I sent Brenda off to walk at her own pace, and I arrived at our destinations about thirty minutes after her.

The scenery on today's walk was breathtaking. We set out at 7:00am, and the sky to the east was ablaze as the sun approached the horizon. There was a line of mist hanging in the air that persisted well into the morning. We saw from several different angles, Montalcino, the hilltop town that's home to Brunello wines. There were chorus lines of Cypress trees, vibrantly coloured bushes, and an odd sculpture of upside-down feet outside St. Rocco's church. I was startled by the cry of a male pheasant as I walked past him.

San Quirico is a lovely medievel town, complete with a trebuchet and rusty iron hitching rings for parking your horse. At the enoteca where we dined tonight, there was a collection of thin, five-foot-long bottles of Grappa on display. I suggested bringing one home with us, but I doubt it would survive the next 225.8 kilometers.Read more