Following a tasty breakfast at Agriturismo Percenna we started the second walking day of our trip in gorgeous sunny weather admiring the spectacular early morning slightly misty landscapes from the top of the hill.
We had great views of Buonconvento as we walked down the hill to visit this attractive historic little town.
Buonconvento dates back to the late 12th century and was a trading post for pilgrims on the Via Francigena. It is said to be one of the most beautiful villages in the whole of Italy! The fortifications were built in the 15th century.
We walked through the streets following the VF signs however before leaving Buonconvento we had a coffee to help us on our way.
We were soon back in the countryside walking along quiet roads with very little traffic again.
Tuscany cypress trees are often planted along roads or on hilltops and usually lead to a farm! They are a unique feature of the Tuscan landscape and we saw many of them today.
As well as cypress trees we saw many grapes as we spent a few km’s walking through the vineyards where Brunello di Montalcino is produced.
Montalcino wine is made with 100% of the sangiovese grape and apparently wine experts consider this to be one of the best in Italy.
From the Montalcino vineyards we also spent quite a chunk of time walking along a track through rolling brown countryside. Here we first saw a group of German teenage pilgrims also walking a section of the VF.
We had lunch today in a pleasant cafe in a quiet little place called Torrenieri.
Here we first met ‘Richard from Sheffield’ a fellow pilgrim who was walking from Siena to Rome, booking accommodation along the way. (Richard took this photo for us).
The weather forecast had been for thunder showers for the afternoon and as we were within an hour of reaching our finishing point we thought we had got away with no rain today.
Sadly this wasn’t the case as suddenly there were a couple of loud claps of thunder. Next came a heavy shower and we got soaked!
Thankfully the rain lasted only for about 10 or 15 minutes and we were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow. Russell kindly shared his photo of the rainbow as I wasn’t able to take one… my phone at that point was buried in the depths of my backpack to prevent it from getting wet!
As mentioned the shower didnt last long and as we arrived in San Quirico d’Orcia the sun was out again.
Today we had walked for 15.5 miles by the time we got to San Quirico d’Orcia.
We found our hotel for the night which was located a 15 minute walk from the centre of town. Once checked in we then had to set about trying to dry out various damp soggy bits of kit.
That evening the 4 of us went to Restaurant Osenna which had been recommended by the manager in the previous accommodation. She suggested it would be a good ‘locals’ place with good food and reasonable prices. At £50 per couple, the dinner which included a bottle of wine was pretty good.
frombluetogreen.com 
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