Day Six: Tocchi

Today, I pretty much stayed "home" here at the farm in Tuscany and enjoyed the air, the sun, the clouds and the sweet smell of fresh herbs wafting around me on the breeze. I did duck into Siena to find a grocery store, a trip of 40 miles round trip. And I took a walk through yet another hillside Tuscan town called San Lorenzo de Merse on the way back. That's my home away from home on the right. My room is the just to the right of the front door. There are other pictures of the property where I am staying and of San Lorenzo in today's link.

I have to make a comment about tourists in general. They hurry too much and fail to see what is there before them for the seeing. About 1 kilometer away from my "home" is the Castelo del Tocchi. It is essentially a small walled city overlooking two valleys. I was astonished to find people actually living there. It looks like something out of the Middle Ages. As I was driving back to the main road, a young rider on a nice new BMW motorcycle came into Tocchi. I preceded on my way down the valley toward Siena when the same rider caught and passed me just a few minutes later. There's really nothing to see in Tocchi.It is  made up of about 6 buildings and one street, as you will see in today's photos. But someone must have told him that it was worth visiting, so he stopped, looked around, then clicked the bike back in gear with a "Been there, done that" attitude and hustled on to his next appointment with destiny. He never found the Castelo or talked to any of the people there as I did. He missed the whole reason for being here.

Later in the day, I was walking through the walled city of San Lorenzo, which is quite large. I trekked up and down narrow alleys and steep steps, taking photographs of flowers and roof tiles and noticing everything I could about the town. Frankly, I don't know how people can live in such close proximity to each other, where all the building are connected, everyone knows everyone else's business and privacy is more of a concept than a fact. But people do live like that, as their ancestors did for generations before them. Maybe they have no other options. Or maybe they like it that way.


Later I came back to make myself a sumptuous lunch of crusty Tuscan bread, locally produced prosciutto and fresh asiago cheese. Then I sat out in the noonday sun, read some Hemingway and watched the big, puffy white clouds roll across a deep blue sky. It was heaven! 

For today's photos, please follow this link: Day Six