security in long, straight paths. Life flows smoothly on. But the Genius Loci appears from behind sudden dips and bends and lives under the uncontaminated blank spaces on the wayfarers map.
Walk slightly uphill to the large renovated building on the right with its chapel standing on the ground opposite. The view from here over the olive groves and cypress trees towards Florence in the background must surely be one of the deepest emotional admiration.
Not far along the track we come to a house on the corner of a junction. This is Casa al Vento. Look for the large cypress tree on the right. Walk round the house and take the rough stony road to the left. Do not be tempted to take the path to the left before the house (Trail 2) or the track from the house leading straight on past the small ruin in the field on the left. Walk slowly downhill. This path is rough and dusty in dry weather, and slippery after rain. There are olive trees on the right, cypresses up to the left, and further up heather taller than a man and plants showing a struggle to survive. After 20 minutes you come to Via del Fossataccio. On the left is a house with a shrine up on the wall. The inscription reads
MONSTRA TE ESSE MATREM.
Note the marks on the wall to the right. Walk straight forward along Via Desiderio da Settignano, past the cemetery on the right, uphill a little between the first houses of the town to the junction with Via S. Romano. Turn right and proceed down to the Piazza. Look at the curious façade of the Società Corale, a building on the right just after the very narrow part of the street.
…even I feel in me to have suckled in with milk the love for sculpture in Settignano