After
the rigours of sightseeing (don’t underestimate the physical demands) we
attempt a brief wander around Montalcino. We are a bit cultured out by this
point, so it’s rather a half-hearted excursion, not helped by the fact that
Montalcino, while very beautiful, has the feeling of a museum, or a theatre
set. There’s really not much going on. Still, the views are spectacular and the
fort is quite something: forbidding indeed, the last refuge of the Sienese as
after Siena had capitulated to the Florentines the fifteenth century, you can
see why they chose it to hole up in. The town is also famous for its Brunello
wine, which some reckon to be the finest in Italy. We buy a cheap version in
the supermarket which turns out to be velvety gorgeousness (or was that the
Blue Nun?)
Anyway,
we decide that any more culture is going to make our brains fall out, so we
decide to head towards a lake we’ve identified and go and collapse for a few
days. We decide to avoid Montepulciano (apparently just a larger version of
Montalcino – and higher up..eek!) and plot a route that should see us avoiding
most mountains and is a mere hop at about 20km. Zoom!
Sadly
no Zoom. And Onzo is being an a***hole, refusing to get into gear, throwing
tantrums and generally being awkward. Our 20km journey ends up being more like
50km. This is largely due to the disastrous sign posting and (by the
unfortunate coincidence) of having 2 towns on the map that have 2 other towns
nearby of identical name. Hardly cricket is it? Slowly we unravel the mystery
of our route and all becomes clear. However, when one problem is solved another
one rears its ugly head. This time in the form of an enormous ridge or mountain
range that we must traverse in order to get to said destination. This route is
now our only option, short of heading towards Rome which is a no no. The route
involves 37km of ascent to a total height of 1200ft above sea level. It’s close
on 35 degrees. This is worse than the Nantua Everest episode by miles
(literally). Onzo is braced.
Once
we realise the full extent of the ascent we have to undertake we realise that
there’s a slim chance that we might not actually make it. This results in some
furious thinking as to how we can make Onzo as light as possible and give
ourselves the best chance. Pretty much the only thing we can do is to siphon
off our water supplies and hope we don’t get stranded, without water, miles
from anywhere. A rather daunting thought, but there’s just no other option. Jon
bravely does the hose pipe sucky siphon thingy and the water tank, sure enough,
begins to empty (how does that work in the laws of physics??? Weird). Operation
jettison is a success! Considerably lighter we take a breath and begin the
ascent of Mount Cetona (Radicofani to Sarteano). Onzo seems to have snapped out
of his strop and is being a bit more cooperative, Jon is being a driving god
again and getting Onzo up some impossible inclines and round some serious
corners, all is going well. We climb and climb and climb. The views stretch
away as far as you can see in every direction, you can’t even take a photograph
of them because all you can see is sky, everything is far far beneath us. We
even pass an observatory. We discover a hidden monastery, a lake that isn’t
even on the map and wild scenery that looks untouched by human hand. We half
expect oxygen masks to appear from the dash. Every time we start to descend and
think we’ve won, there’s another corner and a whole new hill presents itself.
Will we ever get there? Finally a hill top settlement presents itself, at the
foot of which is a sprawling town and a lake enorme: civilisation! We’re saved!
Cue collective sighs of relief all round.
Our
considerable descent brings us to the town of Chiusi. Heart beats for us and for
Ozno begin to return to normal as we spot the sign post for the lake. As we
draw near down a small lane we spot our oasis, Camping Pesce D’oro. Once again
we have got lucky. The site backs onto the lake, it’s completely quiet, nobody
here, shady, beautiful and there’s a bar with what looks to be an extremely
good restaurant with a very serious menu attached. Ours, including showers etc,
hook up, all for about €16 a night. We ain’t moving. Fishing rod and beers come
out, that’s us done for a few days.
