Today was 13 miles, bringing our total to 98 miles walked. It was a bit of a scorcher, with early afternoon temperatures in the mid-90’s, and not much in the way of shade on our walk today.

After a day’s rest, we left Siena, heading southward towards Rome.

(The view of Siena from our “rear view mirror”).

The walk was rolling, but generally downhill, passing dried wheat field after dried wheat field. Still beautiful, but in a different sense than forest land.

So, what happens when the Chamber of Commerce writes the guide book? First, let me provide a couple of photos of much of the walk:

What you can see here is an enjoyable, but sparse landscape, with not a lot of trees to offer shade. Enjoyable, but barren.

On  the Camino Frances (Spain), the primary guide book (Brierley) would describe the Meseta (very similar to this countryside) as:  “another dry walk along the soulless senda (trail)”.

Here in Italy, this type of terrain is described as: “Among the most charming stretches of the Tuscan route … offering a different landscape in every season, even the extraordinary uniformity of these hills, nearly without trees and almost entirely cultivated with wheat: green in spring, bread crust in summer, in autumn after ploughing they reveal… the greys of the clay earth. The settlements are few …”

So, lets put this paragraph through a Google translator filter to translate from “chamber-of-commerce-ese” to English:

“The landscape is boring and dry. It is treeless and without villages to get a cold drink. This is true in Spring, Summer, and Fall. Don’t even try this route in Winter! ”

As you can see, the pen is truly powerful when wielded by a Chamber of Commerce writer!

Ciao, for now!