San Miniato to Gambassi Terme

Slept ever so soundly - the quietness, perhaps? - from before 9pm to after 6am. Bags ready at 8, and a breakfast to delight anyone with a sweet tooth, and keep the rest of mankind happy. There were 7 other hikers there... five Australians and two Brits, but using a different tour company, so we may not see them daily.

Set off at 8:50. 24kms, with the last 5 all uphill. Sunny, and not much breeze. We went through the town, and then it was a wide dirt road (mostly) through olive groves, vineyards, ploughed paddocks and sometimes trees. We passed a few hikers, but we in turn were passed by regular swarms of cyclists of all ages in lycra, all on off-road bikes (mostly electric) and going like the clappers down and often up the hills.

There was only one small village on the route today, and we reached it mid-morning. Its 12th C church was closed for repairs. Sigeric, the Archbishop of Canterbury who walked the trail back from Rome in 990, mentioned the church in that village in his diary, so the location at least was the real thing.

Our first rest - and lunch break - was around 1pm. There were no obvious places to stop, so we sat on the edge of the path where there was some grass under some trees, and looked out over Tuscany. Hilly fields being scarified, some sheep walking somewhere, trees, orchards, towns and cities in the distance, and quiet as anything. Idyllic. We saw no-one, apart from two cyclists, who smiled.

Then the last 6 or 7 kms ... a flat, hard, dirt road through olives and vineyards, then 5kms up through the same. We reached Gambassi Terme around 2:45, and the first building was a church, so we kept our church-a-day ritual going.

The hotel is an old villa, and we might be the only guests. There was an instruction sheet for us in a perspex box at the door, with the code for the box with keys. Dinner is in a restaurant again, but breakfast is here, in a room with four small tables and red velvet curtains. Pandora in the kitchen fridge/ freezer. That could be safer. We had a fridge in our room yesterday, but unwittingly I used the powerpoint for charging phones…

The last section was hot and sweaty, so grateful to have a shower that was not as tiny as some: my shoulders almost touched both sides of the cubicle in Altopascio. Washed some clothes, then walked into the “old” city (which was small and unassuming), saw the simple, old church, then back to sit about until dinner from 7pm.

Dinner was later than planned. We put the restaurant name in Google Maps and were sent a long way to nothing. Turns out it is called a tavern (osteria) and Google maps has a different address. It was the real thing: think 1950s films with rural Italian restaurants. Strangely, we weren’t overly hungry despite all, but we ate anyway. Spaghetti x 2, then salami& cheese and pizza. Talked to the “Englishman” we saw yesterday, who is a Welsh document conservator. Home in time to watch the town bell ring 9.

38,351 steps, 30.5 kms and 69 flights. 348 km to Rome. Tomorrow is a mere 15km. That is good. Tired feet.Read more