Day 3 (15 October) Into the Woods – 15 miles

Daily life is: Rising, packing, eating, walking, talking, unpacking, doing laundry, eating, drinking, calling home, and sleeping. —— Rich Gorton

We started at 9 AM and the bus tours were already coming to SG. We said goodbye from the outskirts of town before we started our trek into the woods.

After a steep descent, we forded two creeks, one of which began a long ascent out of a valley. Below is Rich crossing one of the creeks.

After several miles in the woods, we were on a plain with trees to our sides. We passed serious amateur mountain bikers who appeared to be racing. We stood by the side of the path like Tour de France spectators. We encountered them many times careening down rutted paths in the woods as well.

We also filled up our water bottles at a tap. Every segment has had a watering station about every 5 km. We needed such stations because the temperatures by noon are in the high 70’s or low 80’s.

Back in the woods, we were walking off trail to take photos of mushrooms. We stopped to admire the beauty of an open field, a farmer tilling a vineyard, and geese swimming down a creek besides our path. In Quartaia, we stopped for lunch and engaged in an animated conversation, hands flying, with Anna (a Polish emigrate of 41 years) and Daniela, a proud Toscana as she put it. We ended our walk with yes, another climb, to our hotel located just off the VF where we will start tomorrow.

Of course, we had dinner of “real food” — artichoke pie, ravioli Tartufo (Rich), pasta with zucchini (Ron), and pane cotta with limone. We complemented them with a superb Vernaccia. The V we import into the US must be leftovers. Another day completed. More stories tomorrow.