Café racers, hogs, cruising bikes, mountain bikes and ordinary city machines, they were all out enjoying themselves, and most of the riders in full sets of leathers. (Which reminds me that during our month away, we also passed many, many cyclists, all kitted up as for the Giro d'Italia; the sporting gear manufacturers in Italy must be making money hand over fist !)
And we saw a really first-class mooning !; two German campervans, which the Italians HATE !, travelling in tandem ahead of us were the cause of this wonderful experience, as we returned up the hill to Montalcino. An ORV blew its horn to get attention, and from a window a fellow's (_|_) was sticking RIGHT out ! :-)
Sunday 17th March
Travelling: Montalcino - Abbazia Sant'Antimo - Monte Amiata - Santa Maria -Castligione d'Orcia - Bagno Vignone - Gallina - Radicofani - Sarteano - Chianciano - Montepulciano - Montalcino ..........
The Abbazia was recommended as a must-see, so we saw. And yep, it's a good-looking building, alright ! -- but I found the castello of Monte Amiata
better. At Castligione d'Orcia there are *two*
And we saw a really first-class mooning !; two German campervans, which the Italians HATE !, travelling in tandem ahead of us were the cause of this wonderful experience, as we returned up the hill to Montalcino. An ORV blew its horn to get attention, and from a window a fellow's (_|_) was sticking RIGHT out ! :-)
Sunday 17th March
Travelling: Montalcino - Abbazia Sant'Antimo - Monte Amiata - Santa Maria -Castligione d'Orcia - Bagno Vignone - Gallina - Radicofani - Sarteano - Chianciano - Montepulciano - Montalcino ..........
The Abbazia was recommended as a must-see, so we saw. And yep, it's a good-looking building, alright ! -- but I found the castello of Monte Amiata
better. At Castligione d'Orcia there are *two*
rocche, and here I did some serious climbing ... well, serious for me, anyway ! We couldn't get back far enough to get a good shot of the rocca we were on, the Rocca Aldobrandesca, but only of the Rocca Tentennano, about half a kilometre away and visible throughout the region. So we drove off dissatisfied and looked back fairly casually ... Dio mio ! Aldobrandesca is -- *HUGE* !!! It is, in fact, the base on which the entire town sits ! and we had been footling about on its very (ruined) tip without realising how enormous and powerful it once was. Makes you feel very small, that ...
And then we thoroughly explored Radicofani: again, we'd studied it on the Web, and found many familiar images. We dutifully followed the little plan provided with the entrance tickets, and as we were the only people there that Sunday morning, we could wander off in different directions and call things out to each other without offending anyone ! It's a marvellous big fortezza, but it wasn't my favourite place simply because its torre has been largely restored -- hard to be numero uno in *my* books ... ;-)
And then we thoroughly explored Radicofani: again, we'd studied it on the Web, and found many familiar images. We dutifully followed the little plan provided with the entrance tickets, and as we were the only people there that Sunday morning, we could wander off in different directions and call things out to each other without offending anyone ! It's a marvellous big fortezza, but it wasn't my favourite place simply because its torre has been largely restored -- hard to be numero uno in *my* books ... ;-)
