Oh Look! A Castle!

We arrived in Sorano a town on a cliff near Pitgliano and spent the night in Fortezza Sorano, the castle/fort overlooking the town. Small and only a few shops, but one was an olive wood store where I should have filled my suitcase with stuff for the store. We even went back in the morning to do just that, but sadly they had weren't open and we had to hit the road. More accurately the Vie Cave (VEE-ay, CAH-vay). We haven't yet escaped the ancient Etruscans. These roads are Carved out of the rock and in places we saw are more than 20 metres deep and only a couple metres wide. And they were CARVED OUT BY HAND! They connect many small hamlets and cities especially in Southern Tuscany (where the 'tufo' rock is quite soft. In fact Sorano where we spent the night is connected to neighbouring town Sovana by such a road and until the 1940's it was the ONLY way to travel between the two towns! We (as in I) decided that may be a little too far to trek, and settled on hiking in & back out. Time to break out my trusty trekking stick (yes, it's a CANE- I get that!) from Peru. This thing is invaluable for an old 'kneeless' gimp like myself, of course the fact that I recently did one of my shoulders in, means there's only one arm choice, but still helps SO much, especially on the downhills!
This was another 'off the beaten track' visit, we met a total of 3 people on a half hour hike, it was nature and history, that's it. To me there is something magical about touching a rock face where I know the hands of others 2500 years ago did the same. These roads are a powerful place.
From the hike we moved on to another town - I think at this time I will stop saying hilltop town, it's redundant. They are ALL hilltop towns! Pitigliano is the largest in the area with about 4000 people, plus lots of tourists. A great spot for a coffee and a few pictures before we move on to our next stop and then to the Italian coast for the night.Read more