3 May - Via Francigena. San Gimignano to Monteriggioni (30km)

Today was an early start, leaving at 7.30, as we had 30 km to do to get to the hilltop town of Monteriggione; this was to be our longest day.  Unlike two days ago though, we skirted a large town at the halfway point so we were not as concerned about carrying lots of food and water.

Leaving San Gimignano

Again it was like a country walk on a hot summer's day back home.  Often we were in shaded woods but there were plenty of stretches over open fields in the heat of the sun; this is not a walk we would want to do in the height of the summer.  We had a couple of rivers to ford early on and as the day progressed the rolling hills and vineyards that defined Chianti country gave way to largely flatter countryside with fields of wheat and arable land.

Today for the first time we were faced with choices in the route. Our map had the 'official' route and we thought it wise to opt for this rather than any unmarked alternatives.  However, it seemed to ensure our route was the longer: early in the day we had passed a lone German walker who was plodding gently along and yet later in the afternoon we saw him in the distance some way ahead of us again.  He was still plodding along and we could only conclude he had taken an alternative and shorter route.  Our faith in our map seem misplaced too as there were definite points where the well marked route headed in completely different directions to that shown on the map: down roads that the map did not have marked; following dog legs through woods and fields where the map showed a nice straight route; and avoiding the town that we had planned to use as a pit stop for food and drink.  The last did not cause too much concern as we had found a small bar in the middle of nowhere earlier in the day where we had stopped but overall we reckon the diversions added an extra two or three kilometers to our day.

We are now in Monteriggione which in reality is an old medieval walled fort rather than a big town but beautiful nonetheless.  We explored the small local museum and walked the ramparts as the day faded and to the north you could see San Gimignano from where we had come and to the south, higher on the hills that stretched to the horizon, Siena where we would be heading tomorrow.