Thursday, October 21, 2021

 

This was my wonderful breakfast selection.

The hotel I stayed in was beautiful. It goes back to the late 1700s and is the oldest continuous restaurant in Tuscany.

A tribute to women helping women.  The one in front is learning to tat.

This is the baptismal font in the Cattedral di San Giovanni Evangelista.  I think CCUM needs one just like it.  You have to ignore the robed person behind it.

I loved that the main doors have carvings of pilgrims.

Such a beautiful and ornate church.

The rather dilapidated building above was once the oratory of Saint Mary Magdalene, etc.

I am not sure exactly what this depicts but it was outside a modern church.  If you can't really make out the figure, it is a woman with lots of red hair.

I loved this Graffiti.

Beautiful scenery.

My final destination today was Citerna, a walled city atop a mountain.

I was starving when I got to Citerna.  It was a short day of 11.2 miles.  This ordinary-looking sandwich was the best tuna -- not tuna salad but real quality tuna with fresh-picked tomatoes -- squisto!

Chiesa di S Michele Arcangelo

This church was exquisite after you entered its rather plain exterior.  Once again, that old adage that you can't judge a book by its cover is true.

This whole complex is the Monastero Francescano Delle Suore di S. Elisabetta... a monastery for nuns.

If you look carefully there is a building amongst all those trees.  That is my hotel for the night.  I have a whole floor of a house.  My hostess for the night is about 90, well not quite. She gave me the choice of walking a half-mile to the restaurant on a dark curvy mountain road or she would drive me the half-mile on the dark curvy mountain.  Hmmmm?

These are my new friends from Germany.  Felix and his mother Lisa. The restaurant didn't open until 7:30 and our hotel manager gave me a ride to the top of the mountain. And she was a pretty good driver.  I decided to have a glass of wine and these two motioned me over.  It turns out they are sharing the house with me but they have the whole upstairs -- a separate entrance.  We had a lovely meal.

I had the included menu and it sounded like all beef and lamb so I asked for a vegetarian meal.  My first course was this fabulous pasta with much garlic and fresh tomato sauce.  I ate about half of it and Felix finished it off.

Then I had this enormous platter of fresh vegetables.  Both Lisa and Felix helped me eat it and I still didn't finish it.  I was halfway through when I remembered to take a photo.

So I had terrific companions to walk back to the hotel.  Good night until tomorrow.