8. The things you notice when they aren’t there

Siena to Monteroni d’Arbia/ Lucignano d’Arbia

There are two things that we tend to take for granted, that when missing take on a whole new level of importance. The first is road kerbing and the second is toilets. If you are planning to walk the via Francigena then I am here to tell you, get used to not having them.

Luckily, most of our walking so far has not been on major roads, but we have still had many occasions when we have had no alternative but to walk along the side of a bitumen road and often there is no footpath or even a token white line with a bit of space to squeeze into to dodge oncoming traffic. Entering Siena we had the added challenge of walls right along the edge of the road so we couldn‘t even leap into the undergrowth. The first thing we have learned is to abandon using the walking pole on the traffic side so as to make our profile as narrow as possible. The second is it‘s safer to face the oncoming traffic than have it come up behind. You can make eye contact with the driver then, to make sure they have seen you - and if they are on their phone you know to dive for cover :) I understand the lack of verges on the old streets in the city but I don’t understand them missing on the new bitumen roads outside them. It must be a nightmare being a cyclist here. I could have reached out and touched the oncoming trucks which passed us today, at speed, in one part of our walk.

The second significant thing to get used to is the lack of toilets on the route. I have seen one in seven days’ walking and it was closed. Passing through a town doesn’t mean you can expect one as the little towns often have no public facilities and you’re often too early for cafes or bars to be open. Also, there are many days with no towns between start and destination. This means, ladies, that you have to be up for the bush squat. If not, this walk is not for you unless you have a bladder of whale proportions. This has worked fine for me up until now as the routes have been rural and lots of suitable bushes to be found. Today was different as we walked through a lot more built up areas and the rural sections were wide flat treeless fields. I found the first dignified tree at 15km…

Anyway, enough of the public service announcements. We had a good day today. 24 km hotel to hotel, so a big one, but there were some cool things. The first was as we left Siena through the Porto Roma. We glanced to our sides and were flanked by two giant brass men, over 5 m high and wearing what looked like virtual reality glasses! They are called KORF and were created by my new favourite sculptor Emanuele Gianneli. He has installations all over Siena for the next few months so if you’re there lookout for them. Here one is for your pleasure

The next cool thing was the sighting of a Eurasian Hoopoe which is the craziest looking bird with a really great call. Quite different to the African one we know.

The third thing was the change in the landscape. The rich red soil has been replaced by white fine clay. There are vast fields of green (wheat we think) and a new variety of wild flowers, but still carpets of poppies. It was a hot clear day with a Virgin Mary blue sky and quite lovely.

The middle of the walk is best forgotten as it’s through industrial and outer suburban rather unattractive places, but the start and finish more than made up for it. We are staying in a hotel situated between two little towns :Monteroni d’Arbia and Lucignano d’Arbia. It’s an old pile of a place, huge with lots of character and our room looks across fields and hills. There is a terrace bar we are about to go and enjoy as the sun sets and then a good looking restaurant in what looks like an old cellar. Not suffering really.

To finish off here is a picture from the middle section of today. I loved the triumph of the beauty of the poppies over the human creations.

Love Marie