Sunday September the 19th
Total distance driven: 7.761 Km
Today’s distance: 194 Km in 3:49h
Walked distance: 13,4 Km
A sunny morning awaited me when I woke up. The camping offered breakfast with cappuccino and cornetto for few coins. The best part was eating and drinking with the following show in front of me:
Wonderful stuff 😁 According to the camping owner, so many guests promised nasty things to the rooster if it was to crow too early. The result: it begins after 8:30am. A very well behaved rooster indeed 🤣
Siena is awaiting us but we have a good half bottle of wine left. Here is a creative storage solution 😎
Ladies and gentlemen the fastest wine bottle on two wheels 🤣
Tuscany is not yet done and want to show again its style and elegance. While drawing slaloms with my tires on the sunny hills, I literally cross the Via Francigena: an ancient road and pilgrimage route from the Cathedral of Canterbury in England to Rome. Here is something interesting I read about during today’s trip:
During the medieval age thousands of pilgrims would prepare spiritually, donate their belongings and write their will.
The 1.600 Km long route never really existed as an actual road. It was rather a collection of roads segments and paths with fixed reference points but subject to detours. The journey was full of difficulties and dangers: wolfs, bears, stray dogs and bandits. The pilgrims had very few belongings like a small bag for the coins and a staff used as a walking support but also for defense purposes. With the years the Via Francigena has become safer and easier to follow, being used also for commercial purposes. In 1994 it has been declared “Cultural Route” by the European council and so, together with the path of Santiago de Compostela gained supranational importance.
Lollo looked at me and it was clear what to do. Selecting the Enduro riding mode was just the logical consequence. Just 10 minutes ride through the cypresses. Fulfilled 🙂
Switching back to Touring mode and asphalt was a breeze. The bottle of wine felt relieved 😅
I’ve always wanted to visit Siena but never has the chance before.
So far no place has disappointed and Siena is no exception. The streets and the details look exactly as I imagined them.
Monte dei Paschi 
Squirrel! 
Around the corner the cathedral manifested itself.
Very nice. My goal was actually the main square, the one where the Palio di Siena takes place. When this event takes placec it looks like this:
Here it is. Hard to believe that the horses ride it a full speed on the hard pavement and with sharp corners. Amazing.
As expected it began to rain while I was exploring an antiquity bazaar behind the main square.
As soon as the rain stopped, I got back to Lollo and pointed the front wheel direction Monteriggioni. Allow me to return to the movies and video games connections in this tour. Monteriggioni is where one of the best episodes of Assassin’s Creed takes place. In this videogame the software house Ubisoft has reconstructed the village of Monteriggioni in high fidelity along with Rome, Venice and Florence. A masterpiece.
After the game was released in 2009, the tourism in Monteriggioni has increased exponetially. This was confirmed to me by some of the people working there today.
Spectacular! As in the game I wanted to exercise my parkour skills by climbing and the walls. Well, it was not possible but not because of lack of skills 😂
Without the chance to do some parkour I took the only possible alternative:
The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to ride to Lucca, our next stop. I arrived exhausted in the evening and had a pizza 🍕 to cheer me up.
