Vincigliata. On the high outer walls are stone tablets commemorating the sojourn of names such as Queen Elizabeth and Beatrice, Battenberg, Hohenlohe and Hohenzollern and the Duchess of Russia.
At the first sweeping bend after the castle, we take the track on the left through the olive groves.
“There is comfort and security in long, straight roads where life flows smoothly on. But the Genius Loci in the Tuscan countryside appears from behind the sudden dips and bends of the footpath and lives under the uncontaminated blank spaces on the wayfarers map.”
Now 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. A lofty cypress tree rises on the right and round the house and we enter the rough stony road on the left.
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 bushes taller than a man beside smaller plants showing a struggle to survive. After 20 minutes we 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. Now straight forward along Via Desiderio da Settignano, past the cemetery on the right and uphill a little between the first houses of the town to the junction with Via S. Romano.
A right turn takes us to the Piazza not forgetting to look at the curious