The Cappella della Madonna di Vitaleta on the road from Pienza to San Quirico d'Orcia

In 2001 I came to live in Italy. I had some fun, wrote a journal and this is the blog of my story...

"Tuscany is a state of grace. The countryside is so lovingly designed that the eye sweeps the mountains and valleys without stumbling over a single stone. The lilt of the rolling green hills, the upsurging cypresses, the terraces sculptured by generations that have handled the rocks with skillful tenderness, the fields geometrically juxtaposed as though drawn by a draughtsman for beauty as well as productivity; the battlements of castles on the hills, their tall towers standing grey-blue and golden tan among the forest of trees, the air of such clarity that every sod of earth stands out in such dazzling detail. The fields ripening with barley and oats, beans and beets. The grape-heavy vines espaliered between the horizontal branches of silver-green olive trees, composing orchards of webbed design, rich in intimation of wine, olive oil and lacy-leaf poetry. Tuscany untied the knots in a man's intestines, wiped out the ills of the world. Italy is the garden of Europe, Tuscany is the garden of Italy, Florence is the flower of Tuscany." Irving Stone from my favourite book " The Agony and the Ecstacy" A fictional biography of Michelangelo



20. Monteriggioni, Barberino and the via Francigena

After a pretty hectic week, some winding down is in order. Tonight we have been invited by some friends to a barbecue in Tavernelle, a small town on the other side of the Florence Siena superstrada.

To get there we go on a little detour and decide to take a leisurely drive along the Francigena, which is a medieval pilgrimage route that goes from Rome to Canterbury... I'm not sure what happens at the English Channel? Anyway between Tavarnelle and Poggibonsi there are some spectacular views, with green, rolling hills.




We stop off at a small medeival walled hill top town called Barberino, where we find a pretty pine tree park to sit in and enjoy the view from.

We find a nice spot just outside Barberino for a picnic and spend some time relaxing on our rug.

Monteriggioni's not far, so we go and check it out. It's a small fortress town near Siena that was used by the their army in Renaissance times to defend themselves from the darstardly Florentines. It even gets a mention in one of Dante's 'cantos' in the Divine Comedy. The town is slightly bigger than Barberino and we find a really cool antique shop. After some tasting of the local wine we head back up to Tavarnelle for our March barbecue.


(Original journal entry 23/3/02)
Posted by at
Labels:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are so cool! I do not believe I've truly read anything like this before. So great to discover another person with original thoughts on this subject. Really.. thank you for starting this up. This website is one thing that's needed on
the web, someone with a bit of originality!

My web blog; social bookmark
Also see my website - www.warriorforum.Com

February 27, 2013 at 8:19 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)