San Miniato

Yesterday was a 26km walk which took us through some peaceful rural trails and roads. We enjoyed passing an equestrian centre where they were training sulky horses. Unfortunately we didn't have the video ready when four "buggies" tore past us, very close to the trail. It was quite pleasant to see horses in their corrals as we passed.
A large part of yesterday's walk was on elevated tracks beside rivers and canals, and we saw several great blue herons, a muskrat swimming, and a turtle.
We had some trouble both with missing critical signs and veering off the trail, as well as with our guidebook and the iPhone VF waypoints not jiving with the signs we were following on the trail, so that was frustrating. Seemed like the signs were taking us away from the busier roads, but in doing that we were walking further! We made out ok by using a combination of signs, guidebook directions and the iPhone ap (which is our lifesaver).
One highlight yesterday was meeting three more pilgrims who actually speak English! That brings our total number of pilgrims met to 7 so far. Quite different than the Camino!
Our destination, San Miniato, is a "hilltop village", so that meant a lot of uphill climbing at the end of a hot day! We could not even face walking around the town to see the old church with its famous tower..our feet just couldn't do it. We did however have a wonderful meal of eggplant parmesiana, deep fried rabbit, bean casserole, and tiramisu, all washed down with some great red wine, for the grand total of E38. It was actually a "pelligrino" menu, and these pelligrinos sure appreciated it.
This morning we were awakened by a thunderstorm-it stopped by the time we left and we had a wonderful walk through remote countryside, with perfect Tuscan scenery...then the thunder storm caught up to us and we walked the last two hours in the middle of it-fortunately our rain ponchos served us well.
Tomorrow is an easy 12 km day to San Gimignano where we are having another rest day! It is another hill town, known for its many towers, so should be fun to explore.

Russ
Sent from my iPhone