OK, I haven't actually written a guidebook yet but I can describe what it's like to do the background work. In order to write a guide to walking in Tuscany, one should first collect a lot of information about that subject, a task that I approached with great enthusiasm! Most of the writing will come later but I'm now quite familiar with what a typical day of information gathering looks like. I'll call it "field work".
Breakfast
I stayed in an AirB&B apartment which was much cheaper than a hotel and had a lot more space, a private entrance, a kitchen, and a deck. It was important for me to be able to cook because not only was it economical, it was a lot faster and allowed me to get more work done. Fortunately, I enjoy grocery shopping and cooking.
November 3rd started as usual with coffee made in this little gem of a mocha machine.
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| Morning friend |
One of my favourite breakfasts in Italy is gorgonzola cheese and jam on toasted whole grain bread. Hearty bread is uncommon in the Italian diet but supermarkets have have this excellent 100 percent whole grain bread from Germany.
The weekly market
November 3rd was a Saturday, so I couldn't miss the fresh vendors in the main square only 5 minutes away from my apartment. Greve has a history of settlement going back to pre-Roman times (Etruscan) and their outdoor market is over 1000 years old. I bought a couple porcini mushrooms, some more gorgonzola cheese and a few slices of "porchetta" off the whole roasted pig. These three premium items are not very expensive considering their quality and are better than anything comparable at home. I got a photo of the nice man who sold me the gorgonzola and porchetta.
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| A free taste of porchetta before buying |
Plan, pack, and go
I made a sort of sandwich using leftover focaccia and sausage. My plan was to take a bus north and walk back to Greve on country roads and trails. Unfortunately, the bus that was supposed to come according to the schedule posted at the bus stop didn't show up. Part of writing this guidebook is giving advice on how to get around so I need to solve this bus puzzle. I thought the posted schedule was the most reliable but maybe the schedule had been changed at the beginning of November and the ones posted at bus stops weren't updated yet.
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| Focaccia with onions ("focaccia alle cipolle), sausage, and mustard |
Make plan "B"
On Saturday afternoon, I found a route that didn't require a bus trip and found the route shown below. It's pieced together from a variety of segments ranging from drivable roads to trails that are impassible to vehicles. The countryside has a lot of old tracks that are great for walking but not well-travelled or even shown on maps so a lot of my route-finding is by trial-and-error among many possibilities. This route worked out well for a plan B and I documented it with a GPS track and many photos.
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| An 8.5 km loop walk from Greve in Chianti |
Why it's not a holiday
A day of guidebook field work might look like a holiday but I'm more organized and persistent. It's not enough to simply find a route and go for a walk. For a suggested walk, I want to find a logical route and record any challenges so that I can suggest the route to readers with helpful instructions. The countryside I'm exploring is a maze of old roads, foot trails, and paths through vineyards and olive groves. Sometimes there are dead ends at locked gates or fences and I have to backtrack to find an appropriate route. I will have walked most of my suggested routes two or three times - often in both directions.
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| View of Montefioralle from my lunch stop. Olives in the foreground and highest point in Chianti in the distance. |
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| Dirt track on edge of vineyard, vague path by house, quiet country road |
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