Leaving Florence to Pontesieve

 I love this shot of a reflection I saw looking into a piece of artwork on street.

 While I waited to hook up with Sonja and her group. I stood here by this artwork as they finished their cooking class.

 This guy caught my eye standing above me on the street by the river, artwork is everywhere!

 Over the Arno River, lots of expensive jewelry shops on the other side. Day before our trip.

We started here just outside the city.

Looking back at Florence, Sonja had a week there with her sister for her sister's 50th bday.

 Looking back over Florence as we took off up the hill. This is the zoomed in view we had as we took a wrong turn. The picture below is Sonja headed back down the way we came to try again.

Our First Church of Many to Come

We simply could not have had a more successful first day. We began our walk about 10 after securing Susan with the rental car from the airport. Sonja has armed her with day by day Google maps to get her from lodging to lodging. This was probably her most challenging day, getting out of florence and finding her way to our little Inn, Tocani De Sempre, tucked away in an alley. For Sonja and I while challenging for sure, I believe day one was just the beginning in many ways. We are totally reliant on Sandra Brown's book to lead us step by step using the most detailed directions imaginable, like "walk through the ivy covered archway and take an immediate right walking 200 meters past the cemetery, look for a wooden guardrail and make an immediate left up the gravel road." Amazing, we lost our way and had to backtrack only twice, unfortunately once was after climbing a pretty darn steep hill for about 20 minutes. That mistake was rewarded however with an amazing view above Florence looking down into the city. A photo I would love to include here but the blogger on my phone is not very reliable. Sonja and I walked all day, a little over ten miles, up and down the tuscan hill side filled with olive groves and vineyards. It was better than I imagined, complete with a huge handful of the most delicious grapes I ever had, which we devoured each bunch as the sun lowered and we walked slowly down into Pontesieve, our feet aching from the mostly paved pathway. I just wish I could speak to these people we meet along the way as I'm sure we could learn much from them. We are usually lucky enough to find one person who can communicate with us at each location. But the sweet elderly people we have met along the path begin to talk to us and are trying so hard to help us understand, I just want so badly to hear What they want to tell us. All I can do is blow kisses with lots of grazie grazie. The old man who walked out of his enormous vineyard to hand us the grapes was only the first savior of our day (those grapes were an incredible gift). Once checked into our room our stomachs were demanding sustenance so we headed out to one of the only open places, it was a 25 minute walk over the Arno river into a ittle town called Santa I think. We found a jewel of a market, they put together a wonderful plate of meats and cheeses and we enjoyed a bottle of Chianti while we waited for the restaurant to open as most do at 7:30. We finished a fantastic freshly made pasta meal around 9. So beat... susan asks our man behind the counter if it's possible to get a taxi home, he says no, but I will drive you. He was a young man of about 26. It was exactly what we needed and here it was.... handed to us like the generosity of the grapes... people opening their arms to us despite our nationality.  These people seem genuine, honest, fun loving and they certainly seem to know how to live a better life. We saw only two other pilgrims on our path all day, they were going the other direction, judging by our short exchange I'd guess they were from Africa. 

 We met an elderly man sitting by this statue on a park bench early one morning as we were headed up a quiet street. He was sitting alone in a tiny old park. He stood as we approached and was talking to us trying to explain the meaning of the statue I assumed. We were unable to understand him and made assumptions to what he was saying, perhaps he was telling us of his long lost wife.... we will never know. But the encounter stuck in my mind, especially after seeing this photo. I love the angel he is holding high above him. A hierarchy?? Angels over Gods?? I don't even remember what it was titled or who it represented, I don't think it was like anything I'd ever seen before and of course it was all in Italian.