Via francigena 2024 - Page 4

San Gimignano - Colle di Val d’Elsa - Monteriggioni

After breakfast at the beautiful Ostello, we first walked along the road to Gambassi Therme. After the village, the route turned off onto wonderful paths with the typical Tuscan landscape. Past fields, vineyards or through tree-lined avenues, constantly changing shades of green and shapes make the route very entertaining and beautiful to look at. Only the last few kilometers were very road-heavy again. We knew that in San Gimignano we would immediately switch from nature to tourist chaos, and so it was. After another very hot stage, we struggled up the road to the town and then immediately to the bar on the cathedral square.

We had to arrive at the Chiesa di San Girolamo at 3 p.m. on the dot, as the nuns at our pilgrims' hostel had only given us a small window of time to check in. Shortly after us other pilgrims arrived, about 8, we hadn't met anyone on the way today. Everything was to our satisfaction, the main thing was to get rid of our rucksacks so that we could devote ourselves to exploring the city. In the Piazza del Duomo, a speaker dressed in medieval costume was giving monologues, otherwise there wasn't much in the way of street performers. We grabbed a pizza to go and a few drinks from the Alimentarii and, after our tour of the city, made our way up to the Parco della Rocca. Here we had a wonderful view and it was quieter. We spent a few hours here, listening to the beautiful ringing of the bells and watching a few footballers on the pitch under the Rocca.

After a wonderful sunset, I went to bed early because of my infection, I was constantly exhausted. Manu went for another walk through the town in the evening. In the evening I was woken up frantically, Manu had seen a bat fly into the room through the window. So I had to look for it, but it had already gone or had never been there 🙂.

In the morning, the bar was again the first port of call for breakfast. The route then led out of the city, with beautiful views of the typical skyline with its gender towers. A short stretch of road, then it was back through wonderful green landscapes. On the way, a young boxer puppy followed us, his master could call and scold him as much as he wanted, the dog wanted to run with us 🙂. But at some point he got bored of running. In Le Grazie, just before the finish, we cooled down in the bar. Today felt like the hottest day of our tour. After a few kilometers, we marched through the Porta Volterrana, the monumental fortress gate of the old town of Colle di Val d'Elsa. The upper town wasn't really worth seeing, so we walked down the steep paths to the lower town, where our B&B was located.

The accommodation was also very good, we cooled down there first, got rid of our rucksacks and walked to the Conad supermarket. Once we had everything we needed, we walked to Sentierelsa, a nature park on the beautiful River Elsa, which gave the place its name. We ate here on a park bench. Not for very long, because tomorrow we would be walking along here again, the Francigena follows the river for quite a while. We ended the hot day with a few beers in Piazza Arnolfo di Cambio.

After a good B&B breakfast, we headed back to Sentierelsa, or Francigena, and took a leisurely walk through the beautiful park. It was still pleasantly cool in the morning. Later we had to get back on the road and shortly afterwards we turned off into more wooded areas. Short stretches of forest and longer field paths dominated the route today. It was getting hotter and we took a break in the bar in Strove. Here we met a Dutch pilgrim and chatted briefly. It got very hot again on the rest of the way, but at some point we saw the beautiful castle skyline of Monteriggioni.

Once we had completed the steep climb to the castle, we entered this medieval village. It takes 10 minutes to walk through the whole place, it's that small. But just as beautiful. Bars, restaurants, B&Bs, a few stores and a large town wall - that's pretty much it. The only church here, Santa Maria Assunta, has a beautiful pilgrims' hostel. I had enquired about accommodation here but got no reply. So we spent the night in a lovely B&B. In the evening, we had a wonderful sunset in front of the castle walls, in keeping with the beautiful location. Today we ate and drank in the bar on the main square, Piazza Roma. There was no Alimentarii here. This was a problem for the Dutch pilgrim with whom I had a brief chat. He had booked a room a few kilometers behind Monteriggioni. There was nothing there and he needed some food to take with him.