Unfortunately the baguette style bread Ian chose last night in the supermarket was now so hard it could replace a policeman's truncheon, but we did have another sliced loaf we could make a sandwich with having brought several blocks of cheddar with us in a cool bag.
After lunch we headed off to Colle di Val d'Elsa (the town with the supermarket) and another similar fortified town. We walked in through the moated Porta Nova (New Gate)
Through the more modern end of the town, down to the older part.
Unfortunately a wide angle lens is great for getting the whole building in at close quarters, but it does distort it somewhat.
Close up of the entrance to the old town.
Clock tower
My general dislike of cats continues, but this one was quite cute.
We were fascinated by how many bricked up windows this building had.
I'd love to know what this is all about - a tiny locked section of a huge wall.
Another lovely little town but I fear they'll all merge into one after a while. What Ian failed to tell me whilst we were there was that Colle is Italy's largest producer of crystal and fine glass!
We then drove on to Certaldo which is divided into two towns, lower/new (basso) and upper/old (alto), and connected by a funicular. Certaldo Alto is a little different in that the 15th century buildings are red brick, not golden stone. Unfortunately we think we fell foul here of the dreaded ZTL as we missed the entry to the car park and had to drive around the small square to re-enter. B*gger - could be very expensive and we may not get the fine through for 1 year!
Rather cross with ourselves and each other, we then caught the small funicular up to the top and had a wander round.
I loved this little old lady watching the world go by from her window
It always fascinates me how a simple green plant can look so effective.
From Certaldo we headed more or less homewards, via a view of San Gimignano (famous for once having 76 towers, of which only 14 now remain) unfortunately the light was very flat.
We passed a vineyard in the middle of harvesting so stopped for a couple of snaps.
A few more countryside views, but as you can tell it was quite hazy.
We were now seeing San Gimignano from a different angle and the sun was starting to cast a soft light, so we hung around for a while.
And this lovely church on the hill behind us.
Another long day and we got home just before it got dark.