27th May 2015 Gambassi Terme (Chianni church) to San Gimignano
15.66km
Overcast day all along with very menacing clouds as I arrived in San Gimignano and a little rain, cooler.
Shorter version:
Breakfast in the hostel and then, after a quick visit to the church, I set off for Gambassi Terme for a coffee and then walked (down) out of town and quickly onto dirt or small tarred roads for most of the stage. Overcast skies but still incredible views. Finally into San Gimignano in rain and into hotel. All well.
Longer version:
As the volunteers do not sleep in the hostel Chiara had shown me last night where the key to the main building was so I could get in for breakfast – it was in one of 3 cups lined up on a shelf in an outside area. Breakfast, which had been laid out last night, was some sweet things but in a big tin there were slices of bread – Good! I slipped into the beautiful church again before setting off up to Gambassi Terme.
And I popped my head in the church there as well (the maps and the guide book always take you a church destination) before crossing over towards a bar but a priest called to me to point the way onwards but I said “Bar first!” and he said “OK”!
I was very quickly onto dirt roads (sometimes on the remains of Roman roads) & was going up and down. Over the day (ignoring the initial slog up to Gambassi Terme) I walked up for 6.3km (up 230m with a max ascent slope of 15%) and down for 7.0km (333m with a max descent slope of 15%) so it was quite a strenuous day, although over a shorter distance than yesterday. All the time there were wonderful views. I came across three men planting a new vineyard and they were putting the metal vine supports in place. When I walk in the vineyards next to my home I am always amazed how the metal poles line up perfectly from whichever angle you look at them and here were men doing the same, one with the wooden measuring stick, one being an overseer, and the other on a digging machine. When I signalled to the one with the measure (while he was waiting for the digger to get off the mobile phone) that they had to be precisely measured he nodded and smiled ‘Yes’.
Onwards up and down past vineyards, farms (once with a very fat and contented pig waddling across the road in front of me), olive groves, woods, roads lined with cypress trees and some very nice homes with the whole countryside a symphony of shades of green.
The little Santo Pietro church was a landmark but it is now a private home. In the village of Pancole there was the Sanctuary on the site of where the Virgin Mary appeared to a deaf-mute girl and cured her so the Virgin is venerated as the Mother of Divine Providence – of flour, oil,wine, and all life’s basic essentials. I went in to see the church, built in 1670 but destroyed in 1944 by German bombing and rebuilt in 1949. And there I met my Wayfarer friend again and she offered me some fruit and water while she was waiting for her charges whom she said would not be walking all the way as they had several visits to various places lined up and then it was two nights in San Gimignano before being bussed to Sienna to see the sights and then leaving for home…
I started walking up to the highest point of the day at Collemuccioli (uphill!) and I came across two middle-aged men planting in their vegetable garden & I teased then that they were running late & one smiled and said “in May” but we were the 27th… They already had the zucchini and tomatoes growing well and were planting onions, aubergines, peppers, cucumbers, beans, herbs, etc. Just after the summit there was yet another beautiful little Romanesque church, Pieve di Santa Maria a Cellole, first documented in 1109, which is now a monastery on the edge of a hill which dominated the valley below. So many gorgeous vIews but no photos as under the overcast skies they couldn’t do the landscape justice. And of course there were still the dogs but fortunately no pedestrian crossings…
At times I could see what looked like San Gimignano but thought it was just too close…but in the end it was but I had to do some more km to arrive there.
I was just thinking, 4km to go so I’ll be there is less than an hour, when I had a reality check with a bad cramp in my right calf…one must really keep one’s feet on the ground and not get ahead of oneself! I stretched my leg and just had to keep going (no Romanians or Italians coming along after me…). Very threatening skies when nearing the town and I had stopped at a little grocery store but with the black sky and it starting to spit I decided not to wait to be served but to go on as it was still a km to get up into the city.
On entering the city the rain came down and I asked a woman where my street was (on the other side going out of the walled town) & she said she’d show me on her way home. The old medieval town which is very well preserved with beautiful Romanesque and Gothic architecture, including its famous towers built by feuding families, is quite unique and has always been a stopping points for pilgrims on their way to Rome and is on the Via Francigena. It was also prosperous because of the fertile land around it. So this explains why it is a tourist centre and today there were already many tourists visiting and it seemed to me there was nothing but tourist shops selling specialised produce or gifts, restaurants, bars and gelati shops which claim to make the best gelati in the world (but I have some doubts about that)… I asked my guide how locals felt about about the tourists and she replied so matter-of-factly “It’s our work… No tourists, no work” which showed a sensible but completely different point of view to what I thought she’d say.
Into my hotel about lunchtime and my room overlooking the street, I found out the restaurant was closed (it’s Wednesday!) so after showering I decided to go back to the grocery shop (no others inside the town walls) and get myself some anti-pasti for dinner in my room. So off I set back through the town, had a gelati, stopped for a tea and a little cake, to the grocery and bought a wonderful selection of anti-pasti and some Tuscan bread. The rain was clearing so I walked around the various piazze admiring the architecture and the genius of those old builders and soaked up the atmosphere.
I was a bit worried about the cramp & it perhaps hindering me and then remembered a walking friend who warned about cramps if you get dehydrated, so I was pretty sure that I hadn’t been drinking enough so from now on a new drinking regime!
I took the opportunity to look at the route ahead and think about next week which will be quite challenging with a climb over Radicofani above 800 metres.
In case you are interested my dinner consisted of artichokes, semi-dried tomatoes, tuna, olives, grilled aubergine and capsicum, rice salad, fried porcini mushrooms, bread and wine.
Good night’s sleep as the tourists leave at the end of the day when all the shops close and quiet descends on the town.