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!