4 May - Via Francigena. Monteriggioni to Siena (21km)

The last day!  Today’s walk was just over 20km so we had a relatively slow start with a light breakfast in the one place open in the small square of Monteriggioni before setting off.  Once again the weather was fantastic.

Last night, from the walls of Monteriggioni, we could see Siena on the horizon so we knew that the ground between us and the city was gently undulating and generally uphill.  It was another day of open countryside with a mix of shaded woods and open fields, rust red and recently tilled, and we made good progress.  We came across a great little rest area that had been set up by a small village for the use of people walking the route: wooden trunk seats and tables, a water pump and even an electric light, all under the shade of an oak and an olive tree.  By lunchtime we were on the outskirts of Siena.

Because of our extra night in San Gimignano we would have to leave Siena this evening so our plan was to drop our bags off at the station and then go into the town to explore before picking up our bags and catching a train home.  First task: get to the station.  Not easy.  It’s in a steep valley just outside the centre and no direct route once you are on the road into town; we lost 45 minutes with all the doubling back on different roads and steep descents.  Second task: drop bags off at Siena station luggage storage.  Impossible.  There isn’t one.  But there was one at the bus station nearer the town centre.  Third task: catch taxi to bus station.  Nope. They don’t have any taxis at Siena station.  So it was back up to the high street to catch a bus.  As it happened there was a shopping centre across from the station with a series of seven long escalators, all at different inclinations, that took you up to the street about 200 yards from where we had doubled back to walk down to the station: how helpful would it have been to have a little local knowledge…

We caught a bus to the bus centre, dropped off our bags and decided on a bus trip back to Florence and a train from there to Lucca (no slower overall).  So we wandered (or more accurately hobbled) around the steep streets of Siena, had lunch, saw the cathedral and the famous Piazza del Campo and then headed back to the bus station.

As the bus headed north we passed signs to the various towns we had passed through or stayed at in the last part of our trip: Monteriggioni, Abbadia a Isola, San Gimignano.  All the effort and sweat and sore feet of more than two days walking equating to literally minutes on a bus.  The same place and yet two very different worlds.

We are now back in Lucca, surrounded by dirty washing and trying to sort ourselves out for tomorrow’s Italian lesson.