Day 6 - PM

For the next few hours we just drove around.

This is the same complex that I photographed a couple of days ago, only taken from the opposite direction and given a bit of guidebook saturation.

There was one particular view of two farmhouses I remembered clearly from 2008 which we hadn't seen on either day.  I'd assumed the buildings had probably been completely demolished years ago, so I was delighted when we suddenly came across the same view - and I'm pretty sure I stopped in the same lay-by as they were few and far between.

What a terrible place to erect a mast - I remember when we had a helicopter ride over Victoria Falls we saw masts disguised as trees, maybe they should do that here (actually there was also a whole string of telephone poles/wires on the horizon, but I cloned them out).

I loved the contours of the land but would still like to see some different colours.

At one point we decided to get even further off the beaten track and turned onto a strade bianche, but unfortunately it wasn't particularly scenic so we turned round and retraced our steps.  Just before we re-joined the tarmac road Ian noticed a lovely cemetery; it was so beautiful and colourful, even though on closer inspection most of the flowers were plastic. 

Newly dug plots

This Celosia cristata was most definitely real and I quite fancy growing some next year, so I waggled the flower head around and collected a few seeds.  

There were a couple of other people in the grounds and I had this awful vision if me appearing on the local evening news "woman caught stealing from graveyard"

And a phone panorama to end with.  As always, none of the photos has fulfilled expectations but that's because I'm too idle to get up/stay up to be in the right place, at the right time, for the right light.

We were back home late afternoon which was good as we could pack, clean the apartment and enjoy a last evening on the terrace.  Tomorrow we're leaving at 0830 for the trip back to the airport and our 1250 flight.

Superb accommodation and lovely hosts and we've had a terrific few days.  We'd like to revisit someday in May time for the different colours in the fields but for now all we hope is that we don't get bombarded with speeding etc. tickets.

Day 6 - AM

Last day and what to do?  Thanks to Ian's comprehensive routes we'd covered most of the places we wanted to see and the thought of another very long day driving around didn't really appeal, so we decided to revisit the Crete Senesi area and see if we could better the views.

Apart from the field we saw on our initial drive to Casole, these are the only other sunflowers we've seen, dead or alive.

Lone tree, but I couldn't get far enough away to get the right kind of BLT (photography judge speak = Bloody Lone Tree) shot.

Just a line of cyprusses in the mist, but I did rather like the little figure walking between the trees.

First stop was the abbey at Monte Oliveto Maggiore, dedicated to Bernardo Tolomei who abandoned his life as a lawyer in 1313 and became a hermit.  Unfortunately we were just about to go into the main cloisters when a white robed monk shut the door firmly in my face - closed for 3 hour lunch break!  A shame as it looked a rather interesting place.

We wandered down to the monk's cemetery but not much to see.

I liked this statue but he did seem to have incredibly large hands.

I can never resist taking a picture of a ripe prickly pear as it reminds us of Cyprus when Ian reached out and picked one before I could stop him - ouch!!  Incidentally, I've always called these plants igos chumbos (I never thought about the spelling) because I was told this was the name in 1974 in Spain.  I'd assumed over the years I'd corrupted the words, but I've just looked it up higo chumbo - so the pronunciation was spot on even if the spelling wasn't (silent H in Spanish and I know higo means fig which it does resemble).

I enjoy trying to guess the meaning of signage, but this one I couldn't work out (The cleanliness of the water depends also on you).  The shallow pond was full of brown fish - trout?

Time for lunch and we found a lovely spot just under a tree with a stump for Ian to perch on and save his poor back.

Taking the cool bag with us was certainly a good idea with daytime temperatures in excess of 30°C as it meant lovely cool water to drink and non sweaty cheese rolls!

Day 5 - PM

Next on the itinerary was an excavation site of Etruscan (800-500 BC) baths which was supposed to be just off the road at Larderello.  We saw the signage easily enough but then bumped a good few kms along another unmade road before arriving at tumbledown farm buildings, with about 4 cars parked in the shade.  We went for an exploratory wander around.

We started to climb the steps but the concrete was cracking all around so we decided best not to proceed - I had visions of one of us disappearing into a huge hole with two broken legs (one of us, not the hole!).

Presumably this was a byre given the feed troughs along the wall.

Nature will eventually reclaim this totally.

There was, however, no sign of any excavation works but as we were heading back to the car a Dutch couple pulled up so Ian enquired.  As luck would have it he'd been on a guided tour that morning and pointed us the way bypassing the locked gates.  After about 10 mins walking we came to a clearing where there were 3 groups, each of about 6-8 people, sunbathing and cooking on BBQs - we were worried for a minute that we might have wandered into a nudist colony but luckily not.  It didn't look like much was excavation work had been done for a long time - a bad shot through the fence.

Close by were small bathing pools in the rocks  

A very advanced Etruscan had created a pipe work system to get the water to the pools.

Ian bent to see if the water was hot, "Yes" said Frankie "It's nigh on scalding"

Just beside the car I noticed this log and could see a witch's face in it but Ian saw a ram's head (minus horns).  

Slightly underwhelmed, we bumped our way back along the track to the made-up road and shortly after found our first fumerole (an opening in a planet's crust which emits steam and gases such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, and hydrogen sulphide).

There was a sign up saying closed and tours available at certain times, but we just wandered down and peered through the fencing.  Not quite like the geysers of Iceland I'd expected.

On to the next fumerole which involved a steep climb up loose shale, but a lady coming down assured us it was worth the effort - it wasn't!

But we did at least avoid getting bitten or stung by this beastie.

Not having seen many fortified towns on tops of hills today, naturally we couldn't resist stopping in Massa Marittima, which despite its name is actually about 25kms from the sea.

Of course the first stop was for a beer/Sprite and I loved the shape of Ian's glass.

Piazza Garibaldi is one of the finest squares in Tuscany

The Duomo 

A few street scenes

Doorbells

The lady on the RHS managed to appear in numerous photos and she had the most amazing hairdo - it looked like a purple Coco the Clown wig and she was wearing fluffy slippers.

We only had one hour on the parking so after a whistle stop tour we made our way to our final stop of the day - San Galgano Abbey, claimed as Italy's most impressive Gothic Ruin. Despite it being gone 1700 hours when we arrived the massive car park was still quite busy but we found a space without difficulty and walked the 1km to the abbey.

There's always one.

Or maybe two!

Our ticket also gave us entrance to the church on the nearby hill and the museum in a nearby town but we were too tired to consider either.  Glad we visited late in the day as I can imagine it was heaving earlier.

45 mins later and we were home, enjoying the last rays of light from our little balcony.