We had a fairly lazy start to the day and breakfasted on our little balcony enjoying the views.
And looking towards to town
Casole di Val d'Elsa (to give it its full name) is another fortified town built on the top of a hill with a series of elevators to reach the top (road and steps also available, but we were too idle). It's a rather lovely little town and very quiet.
We bumped into these two lads again a little later and they pretended to shoot us but luckily they weren't water pistols.
I'm not a fan of HDR processing but somehow it suits this picture as it brings out the warm tones in the stonework.
Most houses had some kind of decoration outside; if it wasn't flowers, it was walls plaques etc.
We stopped at the Tourist Information and having waited an age for the previous customer to leave the shop (only one allowed at a time) the lady was full of helpful information and gave us a detailed map of the region. Most of the places she suggested were already on Ian's list but she did come up with a few other good ideas. She was also able to clarify the mask situation; compulsory in enclosed spaces but not on the street unless there are a lot of people around/in close proximity or it’s after 2000 hours.
Although rather crude, this statue made me chuckle so I persuaded Ian to pose too.
Not sure what this one represented but I quite liked it.
After a roam around the town we called into the Gelateria and after a 10 min wait for it to freeze, we enjoyed a couple of delicious gelati.
Heading back to the apartment for lunch we stopped to look at the memorial at the bottom of the hill. Unfortunately I didn't translate all of the text and it wasn't just the usual WWI or WWII casualties but from memory included those lost up until 1966. It was quite a poignant piece of artwork.
