Highs and lows in Tuscany

Tuscany is all that is expected. The landscape is dotted with small towns and medieval villages, narrow winding lanes (that are in fact 2 directional roads), rolling hills with vineyards and olive groves, blue skies and sun sun sun.

Our first day we headed to Saint Casciano for the morning market. On the old stone wall, overlooking yet another stunning view, the market vans had set up their umberelled stands selling homewares, clothes, hardware, handbags and lace curtains. We wandered along until we found the foodie section. Jackpot. A row of local suppliers selling cheeses, cured meats, fresh produce, olives and cooked meats - including an entire roast pig being sliced for cold meat. We watched in awe as a man carried out a new block of Parmesan the size of a car wheel, cut it in half, and in the next 10 minutes  had sliced off family sized wedges making a serious dent in the block. We watched for awhile and then chose some mozarella, parmesan, white bean salad mix and salami. All delicious and only 7 euros. We wandered along, selecting more olives, bread, tomatoes and salad veges. 

Later that night heather fried up the left over polenta and served this up with our days shopping along with a chilled proseco. It looked like a great feast that we wouldn't get through, but by the end of the meal there was only the olive oil and balsamic to use for the following day.

Before we headed off we visited the local museum and church behind the old stone wall. A good display of old tapestries, paintings from the 14th century and then we entered the church. On one alter was an old glass case with a skull and two long bones within it. Alongside these were smaller cases with tiny shards of bone, some special saints we presumed. 

Then of course, no holiday is truly christened until you get lost. Even though we had photographed the road sign as we walked from our park on the edge of town, we had wandered along a few extra lanes and exited on the wrong ridge, not realising until we were way off track, with a 29 deg sun at 1:30, having drunk all our water and climbing steep streets. Tried the cell to position us, but of course it went flat. Even though I'm not known for a great sense of direction realised the way we needed to head, and so climbed up and down another ridge of streets and schools and homes for awhile longer before we located the van. 

Then we proceeded on a route to drive further along the meandering hillsides to yet more medieval villages and historic sites. The route suggested we turn off the small 2 lane road onto a narrower road. Surely only single lane but as we encountered no other traffic for awhile we couldn't be sure. Then the road climbed steeply up the hillside with a series of sharp blind s bends. Got around the first two ok, then lost my nerve on the third, took the corner too sharp fearing unknown oncoming cars or worse, and stalled the beast half way around the bend, with her nose pointing into the bank. The road was completely blocked off as I sat for a moment with my foot hard on the break. Heather, bless her, remained calm and reassuring, and said "hill start"' so I started her up, put her in first and attempted to drive forward, lost traction several times, then finally, slipping the clutch a tad managed to slowly climb round the bend. Despite my shaken nerves, there was nowhere to go but up, so I took the bold move to claim the entire lane for the the next 4 s bends, not meeting any traffic until I got closer to the top of the ridge. I later came to realise that if I more confidently positioned myself in the middle of the lane, oncoming cars would pull to the side further and slow (but that strategy would never work for another van or God forbid, a bus).

When we did finally reach the top of the ridge I pulled straight into a castle parking lot and sat for a moment to gather myself. Then we took a wander around to enjoy the magnificent splendour, getting a sense of how some more wealthy holiday makers chose to stay, and then got advice on where to go next from the discreetly located reception. 

NOTE. When we had first programmed the drive the gps calculated 55 minutes for 22 km, and we mocked her and suspected some malfunction, but she was right, as most of the drive was on narrow windy lanes that shared the road for two directional traffic.