Getting Happily Lost

After a few foggy days when the hills around Siena with their cypresses and ancient villages rose like splendid islands in a dream landscape of clouds, the sun has once more  been shining and I have been out walking. 

Yesterday I walked 17 kilometres- something of a record, although it was not meant to be quite like that...I wanted to get to a riding stable, to catch up with my equestrian self, which is quite important and which I have neglected. 

There is this stable, according to Google, which I would be able to reach after one and a half hours walk in a south westerly direction.  I accepted Googles proposal and set out happily, leaving the city through the Fontebranda Gate at 10.55. 

I was supposed to walk for about half an hour before turning right. What Google did not explain was that this led me down a fast moving road where I had to squeeze myself flat against the walls of the buildings at the passing of the vehicles which moved at breakneck speed before having to  cross a spaghetti junction involving a motorway, where there was absolutely no provision for walkers... Siena is an ancient city where nothing changes, where everyone walks and everything moves at a leisurely pace. But just put your toe outside the ancient confines of its city walls and all that is but a faint, quaint memory!

( Illustration only, )

However, once I had crossed this fearful obstacle with my life intact- and some tears in my clothes and skin from brambles as I attempted to forge a path on the wrong side of the road barrier, so as not to be squashed by oncoming traffic, I decided to give up on the stable for this time and just chose the first road that looked like a peaceful option. Thankfully it was. It took me through the sort of Tuscan countryside I had been expecting, and the sun was still shining- in the distance I could see Siena:

I had been hoping for a little auberge to appear on the way- somewhere for a peaceful lunch. In fact this place did appear, and I realize now I should have stopped - in a place called Montalbuccio, there is an eponymous restaurant with very good reviews: I will go next time!

                 After about four hours I scaled the long hill that led to the Porta St Marco: 

after which I was was quite happy to hobble my way to the Piazza del Campo for what I felt was a well-deserved late lunch!