We meet all kinds of weathers in Tuscany!

We left Mantua early on Saturday morning,

after another wet night, and drove 200 miles to Tuscany.  We had decided it was time to explore somewhere different.  We eventually drove up some hills, more windy roads, to San Galgano which has an abbey which is supposedly one of the most striking and poignant monuments in Tuscany.  A good place to start - we thought.  We parked and took a quick walk with the dogs.  Our walk took us up the little church on the hill next to the Abbey.

The 12th century Hermitage of Montesiepi is a striking, simple, beautiful circular church which was built in brick and stone so has a stripy circular roof.  In the middle of the church is a stone with a sword in.  This is the sword of Galgano - a knight from Chiusdino who lived as a hermit on the hill.  The sword in the stone is thought to be the source of the British Arthur and the sword legend.  The church also has a small chapel attached with frescoed walls and ceiling.

We returned to Vincent for lunch with a plan to visit the abbey without the dogs after lunch.  But then the thunder and lightening started and the pouring rain continued until  late so we shut up for the night, hoping for an impresssive sunrise over the Abbey.  Unfortunately we woke to mist - again!  

But after a little dog walk and breakfast the sun tried to burn through and we decided to take the dogs for a walk to the neighbouring village of Monticiano.  We enjoyed the walk over the hill and a ramshackle 'homemade' wooden bridge which Luna crossed without any encouragement - amazingly - maybe the smell of wild boar on the other side - as we met a hunter and his dog!

Monticiano turned out to be really interesting walled mountain village with lovely narrow streets and weirdly lots of wood carvings in the square.

We walked back to Vincent, dropped the dogs and went to the little cafe, next to the church for lunch.  Mike had sausages and beans (Italian style - same effect!) and I had tortellini with porcini mushrooms - yum.  After lunch we visted the abbey.  The abbey was built in the 13th century by Cistercian monks - the first gothic church in Tuscany.  Unfortunatly the monks were hit by famine and then by plague so the remaining monks moved to Siena  and deserted the abbey in the 15th century.  In 1786 the abbey was struck by lightening and the roof fell down.  But what is left is very beautiful and peaceful.

We left San Galgano and drove to Le Soline camping at Casciano.  This is a huge campsite with over 150 pitches - but on Sunday there were 3 of us!  The campsite had a washing machine and dryer, which we needed!  The next morning we got washing done, walked into town to do some needed shopping (milk) and decided to have a local walk.  After making a packed lunch of bread and cheese we set off only to be obstructed by a fence after a mile + downhill and decided to retreat back up to the campsite when it started to rain!  So some 2 +  miles and 200 meters up and down we quit and eat lunch in Vincent and decided to move onto a new place - Monteriggioni.