cuanto costo un chilo de spaghetti?

 We head west from Foligno towards Montepulciano.  The weather has improved and the days are drawing out.  We begin to look for cycle routes or farm roads, anything to keep us off the busy roads.  Italy sometimes reminds us of England, with its crowded and busy roads.  And here there's an extra rush hour just before lunchtime.

Panicale

Panicale - this is the basic layout for nearly all Italian hilltop towns

dike no. 2

We try to avoid the hills but it's impossible.  Eventually there is a climb, short and steep, followed by the inevitable descent into the next valley.  We spend an inordinate amount of time looking for somewhere to camp and just as we think we've found a reasonable spot along a track a couple appear with their huge dog.  Just like England - dog walkers coming out in the early evening.  We detour along a riverbank dike that has waist-high grass to avoid them.  The following day we also camp on a dike, this time in plain sight of the railway.  The road to Montepulciano drags us uphill.  I guess the clue is in the name.  After a morning rain shower which we sit out in a cafe, we thread our way up country lanes and dirt roads through vineyard estates.  It gets steeper as we get closer to the town.  For some reason arriving is enough for me.  Once we pass through the old city gate of the old town and find ourselves pushing through the hordes of tourists I lose interest.  So I wait with the bikes while Gayle wanders off taking photos.  We camp behind a very bushy hedgerow on the other side of the hilltop.  

the view from Montepulciano's walls

Another day, another hilltop town.  First off is Monticchiello, a small but very pretty little village with a ruthless approach.  A lot of folk are out and about this Sunday.  Quite a few cyclists.  Hang on a minute, that young couple are on electric bikes!  We descend a small lane and head straight up a farm road for the direct approach to Pienza.  We are passed by this same couple and some mountain bikers with a guide.  The road is brutal.  The ultimate road to reach the city walls is just a plain slog, but the views are great.  Gayle pushes the final stretch and mutters "No more. No more."  But after a good sit down, a chat with some American tourists and a picnic lunch in the park we're ready for the next leg.

Pienza

The next leg is a footpath.  It's not meant to be.  It's a track on our map.  But it really is just a footpath.  We bounce down into the bottom of some fields, beyond renovated or abandoned farmhouses, and then push up to a road.  Lots of folk are parking up to visit a chapel and lots more are taking advantage of the afternoon sun and massing rainclouds to take photos of the wheat fields and rows of cypress trees in the dramatic light.  For this is Umbria.  The Val d'Orcia to be precise.  After some scouting we find somewhere to pitch our tent just as the rain starts.  We are shielded by two bushes from a couple of farmhouses that are doing the agri-turismo thing.  It will do.

the Val d'Orcia