Walking through Chianti

The Weekend excursions continue, but yesterday they took a  new direction. Nevertheless,  here is my Japanese friend Satomi, on our Sunday outing a week ago when we walked to the lovely  Basilica Osservanza on the outskirts of Siena, which holds a few lovely early paintings in the early Renaissance Senese style, such as this Madonna by Sano di Pietro.  

       

 We figured out the route there with the help of Google. The problem with that approach is that you tend to end up walking along deadly motorways again, since Google only really understands the big picture. And in addition Satomi is very undisciplined for a Japanese- I thought they were supposed to be the opposite! But no, she kept walking in the middle of the road as if she did not have a care in the world and only narrowly escaped being squashed by oncoming traffic by my timely, and repeated, intervention. She complained the next day at our language school that I had behaved like her mother....

It was clear that the time had come for some local know-how and assistance, so I decided to join a local walking group called Camminando a Quercegrossa, which I found on Facebook. They were a jolly lot of about 30 walkers, one of whom kindly picked me up in her car at the Porta Romana on Sunday morning to take us to the starting point. (Oh  dear. It looks as if I might have to get myself a little Vespa at least in order to continue this...I can't expect people to pick me up every time!)

A 12k easy stroll took us through the woodlands and vineyards of Chianti, and I met some nice people, all Italians:

                                

including a jolly  dark-haired lady from Calabria, above, called Caterina, who invited me to join her and two friends for dinner in a restaurant in the Campo in the evening- this turned out to be a giggly, girly evening of the sort I have not had for quite a while, and it felt like an important day for me. I needed to begin some friendly interaction with the locals!

Meanwhile the date when those all important Keys to Casato di Sopra are finally going to be handed over to me is creeping closer! I went to see Paolo again, who had put the final touches on the drawings and could give me reassuring news from the structural engineer- what we want to do can be done!