From: Montevarchi
To: Burchio
Miles: 13
Total: 828
We had a bit of difficulty finding a place to eat last night. The first place we tried was recommended by our hotel, but they were having a private party. The second place we went by was the number one rated place in the town according to trip advisor, but had just opened for the night, no one had any food yet and it was packed. We skipped it. The third place had no available tables. All of them were reserved. Finally we went back to a takeout pizza place we had walked by and decided to eat there. They had a few small tables. John had a large slice of their Margarita Pizza, which is basically a cheese pizza, and I had a loaded Calzone. They were both great. I guess it was just a busy Friday night.
After a good nights rest and a nice breakfast we were ready for the day. It started out a bit foggy but cleared up and turned out to be a beautiful day. Our route told us to take a bicycle/walking route to cut off a few minutes and the road looked good so we took it.
It was nice and quiet along the river. It was all going good until we saw a construction crew. When we got close we noticed the road was washed out at the creek and they had it blocked. It wasn’t too deep, but the creek bed was steep so we decided just to walk across the field in front of us to the bridge we saw ahead and go over it. The field was dry so that was an easy walk until we got to the bridge and noticed it was a train bridge.
That was still no problem, since the bridge was less than 100 ft long. It was really wide, with plenty of room on the sides and completely made of concrete. It was also used for the slow trains, not the express ones. We could see for a couple of miles each direction and no trains were coming so we crossed it quickly. That was easy!
Our only issue turned out to be when we reached the other side and went down to the road we were fenced in by about a 6 ft high fence. The fence was made of concrete so it wasn’t easy to get over. John noticed there was a metal gate but unfortunately it was locked. It was made out of square metal wire that we could just barely stick the toe of our shoe in. John decided we could get over it and went first. It took a bit of balance and making sure we had our shoes securely in the fence, but we both made it over without a mishap.
That was our excitement for the day. It wasn’t really too much of an issue. We just had to work our way through it and be safe about how we navigated that challenge. The rest of the walk was not bad with another typical climb into town and to our hotel.
We had the receptionist at our hotel this morning call to make sure our hotel tonight had rooms since there is only one other B&B in this small town. There are also only two other restaurants in town but luckily the hotel restaurant is open tonight so we don’t have to walk anywhere. Another bonus was that they had a washing machine we could use so we don’t have to wash our clothes in the sink like we usually do and can wash a whole load of laundry at a time.
We are looking forward to arriving in Florence tomorrow and hopefully taking a day off to see some of the sights. Enjoy your Saturday!
