journeywithmadonna

Before we left Canada several people asked “Why Slovenia?  Is that close to or part of Slovakia?”  As it turns out Slovenia, as a travel destination, is not that well known but watch out as tourism here is on the rise, and for very good reasons.   It’s a beautiful country and we all agreed that the people here are some of the friendliest we have ever met.   They are all so helpful and with our complete lack of understanding of the Slovenian language, which I am sure would be impossible for me to learn, they do their best to speak English.   Communication has never been a problem, especially when it’s with the younger folks, ie. under 35ish, who are so quick to pull out their phones when you’re lost and point you in the right direction – of course this rarely happened!   Slovenia is about one third the size of Nova Scotia and has a population of just over two million people.  It borders Austria, Hungary and Croatia and the landscape changes quickly from the Alps to the plains and from dense forests to Mediterranean coastline.  One young man we spoke with said you can ski in the morning in the north and by the late afternoon swim in the south.  Slovenia  was part of Yugoslavia until its dissolution in 1991 and apparently has had the easiest transition to capitalism than all former communist countries in Europe, at least that’s what our guide says!  University education is free, and not just for Slovenians, so International students are welcome.  Before we came here we watched Michael Moore’s ‘Who do we invade next?’ and he did a small piece on Slovenia where he discussed the importance of education in Slovenia.  Young educated Slovenians want to stay and work in their own country and as a result Slovenia has experienced little economic emigration – and you can see this every day with all the younger folks heading to work, walking with children and generally just a sense of vibrancy.  Slovenia is also known as a “green destination” and that was one of the first first things we read at the airport as we disembarked – big signs announcing an award for this hard-earned reputation.   All throughout Slovenia it was noticed, as we saw very little garbage and everyone seemed to really take care of their properties.   Biking and hiking are really big here and for the most part the weather has been good, between 10-15 most days and on occasion it climbed to 20.  The wine has been excellent and inexpensive but we have not, thus far, been too impressed with the food.   Having said that, we are not hungry and my pants have gotten a little tighter so I guess it’s not that bad.    We’re still awaiting that delicious Slovenian meal where we can all say “now that’s what I’ve been looking for!”

To continue on our Journey we departed Piran for the salt pans in Secovlje that we missed the day before.  Now we have salt mining close to us in NS so I was a little uncertain as to what to expect but was pleasantly surprised to learn that salt production has been known here since the Middle Ages.  In the 19th century, however, it became one of the region’s main industries and every year from late April to late  August many families from the Piran area come to the salt pans to work until the harvest is over(much like strawberry and blueberry picking in NS we think).  To explain how this works – dykes were constructed across the bay creating shallow pans where seawater would evaporate leaving behind pure salt crystals.  It was then raked into piles, loaded onto barrows and then exported all over the Mediterranean – no pictures to show but this can easily be googled if you want more info!

From there we drove to Predjama Castle which is basically a castle from the 16th century that sits halfway up a hillside carved into a huge cave.  We toured around this remarkable place for about an hour with our English speaking headsets guiding us through and took a few pictures for you to see but fingers are too tired this evening to type more about it’s history……but Google if you wish!

Following our tour of the castle and a short walk we continued on to a military museum a little further north which we decided not to tour, thank the Lord!   So we travelled on to Idrija where we settled down for the night at Guesthouse Barbara, a small Slovenian establishment where we had a great evening, good (but not great) food and loads of laughs as we planned our next day.  After touring Idrija the following morning we hiked for two hours alongside the Rake which is a man made water course that fed the water wheel which was built in 1790 to pump flood waters from mine shafts.  It was a fabulous  walk  enjoyed by all before we piled into the car for our next destination, Kranj.    

Kranj is the  fourth largest settlement in Slovenia, and is close to the  airport, so we decided to settle in there for a couple of nights as we had one day left to explore the area before we dropped George and Gerry off at the airport for their return to Camada.   Georgina found a lovely little guesthouse outside the city center called Gostilna Ales and it turned out to be perfect.   We were an hour walk from Kranj so we easily walked into the city in the morning, looked around for a few hours and then walked back for a little ciesta before we gathered, once again, for cocktails before supper.   

Stayed up late, reminisced about what a great two weeks it had been for everyone and crashed knowing that the time was going back in Slovenia so we gained an hour’s sleep!   Up early, great breakfast and off to the airport to see G and G off as we continued on to the next event – they will be missed!!!

We all  put in our top three or four places we wanted to visit in Slovenia and Piran  was on everybody’s list. It’s a small town of approximately 4000 people(off season, I imagine) and is squeezed onto a small peninsula in southern Slovenia. It’s a walled town which meant we had to park our car in the parking garage at the top of the hill and make our way into town to find accommodation. Piran grew wealthy on salt produced at Secovlje which was then shipped to Venice and was part of Italy until 1954 when it became part of Slovenia.  Around the same time the majority of Italian speaking population left town, by boat I am assuming as Italy can be seen on a clear day just a stone’s throw away from the beach in Piran.

………a stone’s throw from our waterfront!

We did not have reservations in Piran so started off at the tourist bureau looking for an apartment for the five of us………..three bedrooms, two bathrooms was our usual request. This can, at times,  be hard to find so in Piran we split up when Marco showed us his little apartment units in the same building and although they were two bedrooms they were quite small but very clean with everything you needed. Marilyn, Jim and I shared one and George and Gerry took the one above us. They were very reasonably priced, but just a little too small to cook in, so we ate out all three nights and found good food and wine close by.  Our first day we decided the car wasn’t moving so we spent the day walking the hills of Piran, getting touristry lost, exploring the shops, having cappuccino before noon and wine shortly after before we all headed home for a ciesta. Our host Marco recommended a restaurant for supper (his friend’s) and we were all pleased and headed to the waterfront for a nightcap and then crashed for the evening.
The next morning we walked to the parking garage with a full itinerary for the day. First stop, Skocjan Caves, northwest for about an hour – they are known as one of Slovenia’s most spectacular places to visit. The Skocjan caves are a UNESCO world heritage site and according to our guide are “…the world’s largest network of subterranean chambers and to this day remains only partially explored.” We joined a 90 minute guided tour and walked about three kilometers underground admiring stalagmites and stalactites as well as underground waterways and rock bridges and of course the power of the river running through it. Absolutely amazing and something you must Google for more info as I cannot to it justice…….and no pictures were allowed inside. Once we exited all five .

of us agreed it was so worth the $$ and the time……..as well as a great walk with over 500 steps to get out……”oh legs don’t fail me now!”
From there we went to Lipica, located very close to the Italian border, and known for the Lipizzaner horses which have been bred there since 1580. I am not so much into horses since I was thrown from one when I was 19 so this was not on my list. I was, however, totally impressed with the tour and learned things about the life of a Lipizzaner that I never had a clue about……..and was in awe of their beauty and size.   After an hour’s tour we decided that was enough for us to take in so we wandered around the beautiful farm admiring the mares who were in the field,  visiting the giftshop, buying nothing and then we headed out for our final event of the day, the salt pans.  Fortunately, however, we missed the turn, ended up close to home and all agreed we should save it for the next day as we were all  getting tired and still had to walk from the parking garage to our apartment.  So we called it a day………… except for pre-dinner drinks and supper of course!

We missed George and Gerry on the Lipizzaners so no picture to show…….but they were on them!  Very calm horses indeed!

Unwinding after riding the Lipizzaners and our walk down the hill to Piran.    Thinking the horses have taken off with George and Gerry as they’re nowhere in sight!

all know that the best laid plans sometimes do not work out, so flexibility and ‘go with the flow’ have to be the name of the game. This is our tenth trip with Marilyn and we have become experts at changing plans depending on weather, crowds, minor health challenges, etc. Our plan on leaving our air bnb Kristan in Lake Bled was to head north to Kranjska Gora and  then cross Vrsic Pass and go south. We were aware before we left Canada that sometimes it was not possible because of weather conditions in November but given we were traveling in October we never thought this was a concern. Tourism, however, informed us the day before we were to leave that an early ban had come on and you could not go through Vrsic Pass without snow tires but Kranjska was OK.  This meant rerouting or backtracking to Bled and then heading south which we thought we could manage with the time we had, knowing we always wanted to be off the roads before dark.  However in the morning when we woke up it was raining and close to zero degrees so we decided not to head north but to go straight south in hopes of finding warmer weather and sunshine……..a no brainier for sure!  What surprised us along the way was snow which had fallen the night before and although the roads were clear the fields and sides of the roads were covered. Thought about taking a picture but no doubt you can picture this easily as it is a familiar site in our world and not sure if you have had any yet or not, in Nova Scotia that is!   Before too long the snow was just a distant memory and we started to come into very warm weather with sunshine, people on bikes and finally hit a temperature of plus 17 , all within a few hours!    Time to stop we thought so we ended up in a little place called Solkan on the border of Italy close to Nova Gorica and decided to settle down for the evening.  Nice hotel, good food and great service was all we needed to call it a day…….and so we did!

The next morning we knew we had a travel day ahead of us and given that rain was called for later in the day we agreed that going for a two hour hike before we all piled into the car was in order.   Off we go on a hike that brought us to what has been described as Nova Gorica’s most treasured architectural monument – the Solkan railway bridge.  It opened in 1906 and its 280 ft high arch is the biggest of any stone-built bridge in the world.  It was blown up during the first world war by the Austrians and rebuilt by the Italians in 1927.  Although you’re not allowed on the famous bridge you are allowed to hike around it and not too far away on the hiking path you are walking with one foot in Italy and one in Slovenia………of course we had to do that!

After the snow…..getting warmer!

Famous Nova Gorica bridge – hiking with one foot in Italy and one foot in Slovenia

Woke up this morning to sunshine…….hallelujah! Just good to see it as it has been a little dark in these parts but we didn’t allow that to dampen our spirits or energy but the sunshine has us all pumped and ready to move before we lose it again. First stop was Vintgar gorge, a mile long ravine north of Bled which was carved by the rushing waters of the Radovna river, and discovered in 1891. There’s a narrow wooden walkway all the way in and visitors have been taking this route for over a hundred years…….quite amazing and even in October it was busy with tour buses and visitors and we all commented we were grateful we were not doing this in July. All the way in there were sheer cliffs and extremely strong rapids and at times you got wet from the spray but never you mind it was so worth it!

Next stop was Lake Bled with the oarsman to the Island…….we were told to do this in Ljubljana by the beautiful young waitress at the restaurant…….she said it was a must and so we did……..and I highly recommend it for anyone coming to this country.  The lake was extremely placid so the trip over was about 20 mins, we spent 40 mins on the Island and then 20 mins back.  The Island is famous for its little ancient Church and the many weddings that are performed there…..people come from all over the world to get married there and the day we were there we were witnesses of another beautiful ceremony………beautiful and extremely expensive I am sure!

So smooth and steady -hardly knew you were moving

Smooth sailing!

After our return from the Island, and a walk around Lake Bled, we had time for one more touristy event so off we go to the Bled castle.  It’s at the top of a sheer cliff overlooking Lake Bled and began as the 11th century stronghold of the Bishops of  Brixn who were the  rulers of the area until 1803.  Nowadays it has a museum, restaurant, wine cellar, frescoed Gothic chapel and an iron works shop.  It was here that I practiced one of my few words of Slovenian and needless to say the young apprentice didn’t have a clue what I said and asked me to repeat myself, which I did.  He then said I had a very different accent and was having trouble figuring out where I was from.  He said he knew I was not an American, European or Canadian so where was I from?  When I told him Canada he was very surprised and said “you speak different than most Canadians I have met.   What part are you from?”   So I told him Newfoundland, where the Irish had settled, and he said “that’s it, you sound Irish but different!”   Not the first time we Newfoundlanders have heard that!

Island on Lake Bled taken from Bled Castle while the sun interfered with my amateur photographic skills

Correction:   A picture of the five of us on my previous blog said it was Lake Bled……..actually it was Lake Bohinj – just want to be clear in case I am ever challenged by a couple of you followers who have been there!

Ljubljana was great and it’s safe to say we enjoyed every minute as things worked out so well with great accommodation and fine weather even though it was, at times, a little drizzly and a high of 12 degrees. Gotta remember four out of five of us are Newfoundlanders and we all know you never go to Nfld. for the weather and so far you don’t go to Slovenia for the weather either. But it wasn’t bad and it would have to be terrible to keep us inside………so off we go on Thursday morning to our next air bnb in Bled which, if you took the highway, was less than an hour away.   Jim, however, has an aversion to highways and loves secondary roads so he found us a neat route which would take about two hours and we all thought “that’s great as we’ll get to see the countryside”.   And the countryside was beautiful even though the ipad gps wasn’t cooperating and our excellent road map of Slovenia wasn’t working too well………which meant I was a little stressed as the driver, ie. Jim, couldn’t depend on his assistant to lead the way.   Soooooo we wandered around missing a few turns, stopping for a coffee and a pee break…..and asking for help! The Slovenian people thus far have been wonderful!   On this part of our journey when we told them where we were going, they would just say to themselves “really why didn’t you just take the highway?” but were too polite to say it out loud but of course I knew what they were thinking……..because that’s what I was thinking as well! Anyway after four hours of travelling beautiful countryside with extremely winding roads and me praying that Georgina wouldn’t throw up in the back seat(she refused to sit in the front because of navigation responsibilities) we arrived in Bled and eventually to our air bnb overlooking Lake Bled. Of course we’d been spoiled by the accommodation in Ljubljana but agreed this was fine, just not as neat!  So after check in went off for groceries, a brief walk in the rain followed by a nap for a few and then planned supper and the day ahead where all forecasts were showing sunshine and a high of 12 degrees………not hot but perfect for hiking around Lake Bled and whereever else we want to go………as long as we don’t have to move the car!

We woke up to a cloudy day with intermittent showers and thought it was best to move the car and drive to Lake Bohinj in Triglav National Park, a 40 minute drive away.  Our first hiking trail was Slap Savica which basically means Savica waterfall and it’s surrounded by extremely high cliffs……..and nobody had mentioned that you walked a little, climbed steps a little, walked a little, climbed steps a lot and again and again…….until you were basically out of breath and had climbed  over 550 steps……555 to be exact!    Of course it was worth it especially when you met children who were thrilled to see that grey-haired people were doing it as well and were still upright……although Gerry M kept wondering if there was a defibrillator at the top.   Going down was easier but there were stil those 555 steps coming down but fortunately at the bottom they gave you a lovely cup of tea which we all enjoyed.    And then we moved on………quite proud of ourselves for having completed the journey in less time than was listed in the tourist guide.

Next stop was a brief visit to Lake Bled followed by another hike from Stara Fuzina, one of the best-preserved traditional villages in western Slovenia.   The hike into the gorge was about 90 minutes and was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking and along the way we met a young family from Holland who were a little confused about the exit.   Anyway we walked with them a little while and their 10 year old daughter commented on my good English to her mother who just laughed and said “she didn’t know you spoke English in Canada, she thought it was just French”. The seven year old son then asked where in Canada was I from and when I said NS he said ” yes I see that on my risk game!”   Once that was over we decided to head back to Bled and plan our next day because rumour has it the sun is going to shine……..and we’re excited!

SlapSavica

Lake Bled

.??? Gorge, forgot already and lost my notes!

Before dinner cocktail on deck

Biking…….where is everyone?

Dinner at Manna – House of Cuisine

View from the clocktower, L. Castle

Spiral staircase to the L. Castle clocktower….”oh my poor thighs”

Made it! Everyone was tired but were able to pull it together after our sleepless night and walk around this beautiful city of Ljubljana for the afternoon as well as pick up some food and wine for our first evening here.   Igor’s air bnb, 4bMirje, is not only fabulous but is over-looking an archaeological dig and on occasion there are students from the University of Ljubljana digging up interesting artifacts.   The apartment is very  well equipped and conveniently located so eating at home was a no-brainier as we all knew we were in for an early night.  Surprisingly it wasn’t as early as we thought, 9pm, which was great given we were up and on the go for over 24 hours!

By 10 am the next morning we were on the move, by foot, as this is a super city to walk in so no need to move the car.   We decided our first stop was Ljubljana Castle which was only a 20 min walk from our flat and then an extremely steep hike up as no one thought we should take the funicular…….I quote “we’re not sissies”!    I didn’t add but thought to myself that today I wouldn’t mind being a sissy but I dare not say that out loud so up we go and it was quite the climb, “good for the  heart” they continued!   Guess that explains why  my heart was jumping out of my chest, why my face was so red and why I was so quiet and why there are no pictures……but worth every minute!   The castle is known as the crown above the city and gives you an unbelievable panoramic view of the city even on this cloudy and misty day.  It dates back to the 11th century when the Spannheims used it as their feudal power base, then it became the property of the Habsburg family in 1355 when Austria took over.  Later it became a barracks, then a refuge for the  poor and a prison before the mayor of Ljubljana bought it early in the 20th century for the city.  Since then it has been redone by a couple of architects and stands today as a major tourist attraction and a cultural center -we all agreed it was so worth the visit……and the climb!   While in the castle we also took the winding staircase that I thought would never end up to the clocktower and the picture I took half way up will give you, I hope, an idea of why I was so dizzy when I got to the top.

Once we walked down, which was so much easier than climbing up, we found our way to a wonderful little coffee and pastry shop,which quickly undid all that climbing, but who cares?   From there we wandered around to Tivoli Park and once we realized how big it was Jim suggested we come back the next day on bikes and tour around…..Everyone agreed.   Jim and Gerry had it in them to go to the Natural History museum of Slovenia whereas us girls thought “not for us” and we wandered around the  city window shopping and decided to eat in again tonight since we had been on our feet for almost 7 hours and we weren’t going out again……..unless we ran out of wine of course so we made sure we didn’t by visiting the wine shop as well.  And did I mention our air bnb has a pool table and although we are not pool players, we did play pool, and it was fun, even though I did not win(can’t say I lost as it was too close!)  Marilyn, on the other hand, had no trouble telling me I did in fact lose……ready for a rematch!

Playing pool

We all woke up reasonably early the next day as the plan was to rent bikes and bike out to Tivoli Park which is Ljubljana’s main center for basketball, ice hockey, pop and rock concerts and is used by many of its citizens on a daily basis – very user friendly.    Now it’s important to note that other than Jim the rest of us are not bikers but like the old saying goes “it’s just like riding a bike, you never forget” ……well that is almost true as it took us a little while to get our ‘bike legs under us’ and once we did, watch out as we were a little out of control, at times, but laughter always helps and we had a lot of fun with no serious incidents but a few strange looks!   But who cares!………we thought we were great because everyone was upright.   After an hour or so driving in the park we thought we can now handle the city driving and you know what?, we could because this is an extremely bike friendly and well laid out city………lots Nova Scotia can learn from Ljubljana.    Bike lanes galore and many grey haired folks taking their time driving around just like us and then the younger folks speeding along rushing to work or university but everyone is so responsible and respectful……..great experience and now interested in biking again!!

Once we  returned the bikes it was definitely time for a cappuccino and pastry followed by a long walk around the city and along the canal and then home for a ciesta which was very much needed and well deserved.  After showers and a cocktail we headed to a wonderful Slovenian restaurant, Manna – House of cuisine and it was absolutely perfect!   Food presentation was great, food was extremely tasty and the service was second to none!   Our waiter was only on the job 2 1/2 weeks and was trying so hard to please us, which he did!  And of course as we were leaving the six foot, beautiful and young blond hostess stopped to chat and suggest other places for us to go in Slovenia and most of them were on our list.   Once she and the others heard we were from Canada the conversation became more about our wonderful country than theirs and the owner insisted we have a ‘digestive’ (not the biscuit, the drink!) which we did and it was a glorious ending to a great few days in Ljubljana.

Isola Tiberina

The Forum………violence was a common sport

Trevi Fountain

Rome was our last stop in Italy and we were so glad to drop off the car as driving in this city means you must  have a death wish!   Jim has done an amazing job of getting us through almost four weeks of driving in Italy without getting a scratch on the car and we are beginning to look forward to the metro.  We spent our first day in Rome checking into our apartment, figuring out the metro, how to find tourismo and the like.   Once we boarded the metro Jim told us we got off at stop #8 so it was quite the surprise at stop #5 when everyone was acting confused after an announcement, in Italian of course, that you need to vacate the subway and shortly thereafter we see guards with guns and everyone running, so we did as well only to find out that everyone was running for the bus as the subway was shutting down for renovation of some sort on this Sunday afternoon.   Obviously what happened in Paris two weeks previously was still on our minds and there was a strong security presence in the subways of Rome that caused a little discomfort.  However it did not stop us from enjoying this wonderful and very busy city.  The pictures tell the story or, in this case, attempt to!   What can you say about Rome except it’s magnificent and overwhelming.   We spent four wonderful days here visiting the Coliseum, the forum, Palatine Hill, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, Borghese Museum, Trastevere, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Jewish Quarters, Isola Tiberina and walked for miles while doing so.  As a result we have had a taste of Rome and there is so much more to see. But it’s been a wonderful start with super accommodation, Gioia House, which is in a great neighborhood in Rome, well-connected to the subway for travelling further afield yet so close to everything you need locally.  We are totally done with the art as it has been overwhelmingly beautiful but one(especially this one) cannot consume so much……….and so we are done for now but as Rick Steeves’ says in his guidebook ‘Rome is never done’.   A few final pictures before we head back to the solitude of Tidnish after another fabulous journey…………….chat later!

The day we left San Gimignano the skies opened and it poured, poured, poured and I thought to myself “so it does rain in Italy!”  I haven’t wanted to mention the weather in this blog because I didn’t want to jinx it but now that the rain has come I guess it’s all right to do so.    We have had amazing weather which has allowed us to do so much outdoors without a thought to “what’s the weather for tomorrow?”   The temperature thus far has ranged most days from low teens  to low 20’s which is fabulous for all the walking, sightseeing, shopping, cappucino/wine outside in the cafes and of course you never had to worry about having that fabulous gelato dripping all over you.  I never really packed for such warm weather which is why if you see me in the pictures it’s usually the same t-shirt which has been washed frequently.   Anyway as we were leaving San G and headed towards Civita and Orvieto it was torrential rain which made for a slower drive for us, not so much for those crazy drivers who passed and then almost got washed into us because of all the water on the road.   Also it was on this drive that our lack of Italian along with the heavy rain threw us off course and Clarence(the GPS)and Clara(ipad google maps) were not of much assistance.    This day, however, was different for them both because we basically came to a dead end.  We just couldn’t figure it out even though Jim, while driving, had the map of Italy on his lap, Marilyn had her large print map on her lap and I had both the GPS and the ipad google maps on mine.  After floundering around for about 45 minutes in the heavy rain we finally back tracked to a garage, filled up the car with gas which it hardly needed and bought a couple of bags of chips before asking for help.   Once it was explained that the bridge was closed, except to local traffic, it all became very obvious why 10-15kms down the highway the whole thing was shut down……….not sure why as it all looked great.  So off we went on our not-so-merry wet way  into the hills heading towards Civita which unfortunately we decided not to visit in the end.  The reason for this was because of the heavy rain and the walking that was necessary to see and enjoy Civita.   So change of plans brought us to our hotel in Orvieta, which we booked on-line that morning, for an early check-in.  Yup, rooms are ready so we bring in our bags which of course are all wet because of the rain and Jim and I head up to our room which was not nearly as grand as it was on the internet but it was clean and would do fine and  we were just thrilled to be off the roads.   A few minutes later Marilyn comes to the door and says “come look at this” ie. her room.  Birdcrap everywhere and the window wouldn’t close!   It was obvious that a flock of birds had quite the party as the droppmings were frequent, but not on our heads!   We couldn’t believe it and off she goes to the wonderful young clerk on the desk and he, too, was equally as shocked, apologized and offered her three other rooms so she could pick her choice.   Once she got settled we went into Orvieto which was an absolutely beautiful town but I have no pictures as it was raining a little at first, then a lot, and then torrential.   We had a good visit to St. Patrick’s well, hundreds of steps down/then hundreds back up, then a bite to eat and by the time we got back to our hotel we spent the next hour warming up and getting rid of the chills. Early start tomorrow as we’re heading to Rome!!!!!

For days we have been longing to hike the Tuscan hillside but it is not as easy as it looks!  The hills are everywhere but you never see a person working or walking and there are always fences that prevent you from going in……obviously it’s all private land!    One day while Marilyn was busy doing things she needed to do, Jim and I decided to go off and find a way to get into those hills and we started with the internet researching hiking trails just outside San Gimignano.   There was one very well known Pilgrim trail, LaFrancigena, that was mentioned several times and we had seen the signs.   So off to tourismo we go and yes, no problem,  just join it outside the gates of San G and you could go for 50kms plus on a path.   Well I wasn’t in for that big a hike, knowing Marilyn would be expecting us before the day was out, so we lowered our goal and started off.    Boring, boring along the roadway where you were dodging traffic although we had been reassured there were paths……but not the case although it did get a little quieter with less traffic.    Overall we were gone for a few hours, return, with the inclusion of a cappucino of course, and thought there’s gotta be a better way.    So we emailed our host, Juliana, inquiring how to enjoy a walk without the traffic.  In her best English she gave us a few suggestions and also advised  we check with tourismo……..no won’t be doing that again as my three Italian words with many hand gestures and rapid English just doesn’t get the message across.   So the next day, with Marilyn, we followed Juliana’s suggestion and although we never found an actual path we did find the trail that allowed us to enjoy the Tuscan countryside without  all the traffic………wonderful walk and the top two pictures represent a little of the beauty……..referring to the landscape, not the people!