If the part of the Via Francigena through Tuscany is the best part of the route then we are guessing it must get better...
We left Lucca early afternoon after our morning's Italian class and headed south through suburbia: along busy roads, by residential houses and past the accompanying shops and small businesses. Eventually these thinned out as we diverted off the main routes although at first even here a steady drone of traffic always seemed to be within earshot. As the afternoon progressed we passed through small olive groves and tiny agricultural small holdings with only a peppering of residential buildings. Yet always suburbia would return as rural Tuscany slowly developed into a larger village or town. The outskirts of the largest were marked by small industrial units; we would pass through these, into the town - often charming and with a most ornate church - and then out again clipping yet more industry. Between all this there were occasional peaceful stretches through fields or woodland but they were only ever a mile or two and it was clear from the map we would again be picking up the trappings of civilisation soon after we felt we had left it. But against
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| Half way - Porcari church |
all this we were blessed with good weather and the sight of mountains forming a more or less permanent backdrop in the middle distance as we walked.
Despite this relative lack of isolation everywhere seemed rather quiet with a sense that everything seemed to have simply stopped. We didn't really see anybody in the fields. We passed occasional small and isolated industrial buildings that may or may not have been active. We passed others that were clearly abandoned. Whether this is just rural Italy in the heat of a spring afternoon or whether it is a reflection of the economy is hard to say.
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| Antipascio |
We are now in the small but largely unremarkable town of Antipascio, in a hotel chosen for being right on the route. It did advertise 'mountain views' but the owner seems to have graduated from the Basil Fawlty Training school as far as that one is concerned. They must have also aced the plumbing course there too as we don't seem to have hot water either and the bidet is positioned so that you either have to be an amputee or raise your left leg in a way you'd rather not. Still, we are now well fed and watered and the town has a certain charm in the evening. Tomorrow is a longer day which looks rather similar to today but with more extended periods away from civilisation. We will see.
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| Herds of Wildebeest wandering majestically over the plain? |
We left Lucca early afternoon after our morning's Italian class and headed south through suburbia: along busy roads, by residential houses and past the accompanying shops and small businesses. Eventually these thinned out as we diverted off the main routes although at first even here a steady drone of traffic always seemed to be within earshot. As the afternoon progressed we passed through small olive groves and tiny agricultural small holdings with only a peppering of residential buildings. Yet always suburbia would return as rural Tuscany slowly developed into a larger village or town. The outskirts of the largest were marked by small industrial units; we would pass through these, into the town - often charming and with a most ornate church - and then out again clipping yet more industry. Between all this there were occasional peaceful stretches through fields or woodland but they were only ever a mile or two and it was clear from the map we would again be picking up the trappings of civilisation soon after we felt we had left it. But against
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