San Gigignano to Colle di Val d'Elsa

Caio!  I am finally at a hotel that I can download photos so the first ones are of the basilica from yesterday.

A very plain exterior

I loved the center stained glass.   So beautiful.

And this was the very unusual rose window.

The basilica is famous for its fresco's and they covered every surface in the long church.

The organ pipes.

These are whole fresh truffles and the smell was intoxicating.  I have never seen a whole fresh truffle.  They were about the size of a regular baked potato.  White truffles such as these sell for six to ten-thousand dollars per pound!

This fresco was on the way out of town this morning.  

A look-back at San Gigignano in the morning.  For the past two nights, Dennis and I have been staying above the clouds.  Today was clear but yesterday we had a good look at the clouds below.

We were mostly on trails today.  This was the first major descent we faced and it felt wonderful for a change of pace.  I kid you not, the second we reached the bottom of the mountain, it was like a vee.  We went straight back up again.  There wasn't even a one-step flat part.  For our whole journey there have been thousands of tiny lizards are lightening fast running across the trail.  We think they are the Italian model of sport lizards, sleek and fast...just like the cars.

We stopped at this beautiful hotel, high in the mountains at about the halfway point for a diet coke.  The hotelier, a lovely woman, told us that the oldest part of the inn was from the 9th century and it had been a lookout for pilgrims. In the really old days, many pilgrims did not make it home again.  It was very dangerous because pilgrims were robbed and murdered so often.  Quite a sacrifice, as compared to today.  They were really at the mercy of the people who lived in the area for both food and shelter.

This is actually the owner of the villa and his name is Romeo.  He was fulfilling his host duties and he greeted everyone.  Then he joined us in the dining room where he was friendly with all. 

Colle di Val d'Elsa is an even older town than where we stayed last night.

A look down one of the norrow cobblestone streets.

We had to go through the walled city on our way to the hotel.  We actually had to take an elevator about fifteen stories down to reach the rest of the town.

Obviously a house of cat lovers.

This is our beautiful villa hotel.  We weren't lost all day until we reached close to the end of the day and we had the darndest time finding it. Our mileage ended up being 12.1 And of course, it is high on a hill right outside of town. There is always major up at the end of the day.  When Dennis and I come to a crossroads and we are not sure which way to go, we automatically take the one that is the steepest and it is correct most of the time.  And we love our hotel!  Our air condition is working perfectly.  It is hot, like 90 degrees here.  Our room also has a tub with jets! Ever so good on the tired muscles. 

Caio until tomorrow!