The sight of a town up high on a hill is one of the lasting images I have of Tuscany. Everywhere I rode there seemed to be several hilltop towns along the route. These towns were all very old -- I'm sure that in the middle ages it was important to have the town strategically located up high.
There was something intriguing about seeing one of these towns off in the distance, and then having the road eventually start climbing, often with switchbacks, all the way up to the top. Always a good workout too. In this area of Tuscany, the mountains weren't too big -- maybe 600 meters at most. But that's high enough to require some significant effort to climb, and high enough to have some fantastic views at the top.
In the area close to where I was staying, there was Casale Marittimo, Monteverde Marittimo, Sassetta, Suvereto, Massa Marittimo, and others. These were not really tourist towns -- people seemed to live and work there, and they were not big tourist destinations.
Then a little farther away were bigger tourist areas such as San Gimignano and Montalcino. These towns were interesting, and had some of the classic views that you might see on a postcard. But to me they seemed somewhat overdone in their efforts to be a "destination".
On one of the rides, I took an unplanned detour to climb up to a town called Sassa. The climb was difficult, and when I got to the top I found this tiny little town, seemingly perched on the edge of a cliff, with very old cobbled streets and stone buildings. There were no shops or restaurants that I could see. Just a few houses where people lived. There were a few people standing outside, talking or walking the dog. I felt as though I had intruded in someone's backyard. I felt funny taking picutres ... but couldn't resist.
2 comments:
Great photos! It's interesting to see all these towns on hills, since all the towns in Germany seem to be in valleys!
Do you speak Italian?
I can't say enough how beautiful this area was -- and I only saw a slice of Tuscnay. I definitely want to go back and see more.
My Italian is "phrase-book" level. I can understand numbers, and the usual important things: where is the WC, how much does this cost, I don't understand, etc. etc.
It seems much less common that people in Italy understand English -- compared to Germany and other places I traveled in Europe. But I was able to get by OK with what I knew + a phrasebook/dictionary.
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