Monteriggioni and nearby cities

( Monteriggioni, Badia a Isola, Colle di Val d'Elsa )

The other day was yet another day trip. We ventured out about an hour into the Tuscan Hillside to Monteriggioni and nearby areas.

We began in a itty bitty town called Badia a Isola. It is in the countryside. There is not much there but a few shops, a gas station, some housing, and a little church. We meet our tour guide there. She was a nice Italian lady that lives in a nearby town. She took us into the church. It was cool to see this very old, relatively simple church. The part I liked most was that to walk in we had to go through the side entry passing through this storage room full of antique wooden furniture. The whole place smelled like antique wood! We gazed at the views from the town and then took a quick bus ride over to the city of Monteriggioni.

Monteriggioni is a medieval city built on a hill. Within Dante's Inferno, Dante refers to this city and that is the reason we went there. This city took a while to grow on me. I couldn't really understand our tour guide because she spoke a broken English so I just dazed gazing around the city taking photos as we went along. This whole city is surrounded by medieval Romanesque walls and only contains 30 families. We climbed grated metal scaffolding stairs that lead to a path surrounding the top of these tall rock walls. Climbing these frail stairs terrified me! Especially the height of this medieval walls and the little support we had under our feet. I sucked it up, faced my fears and stayed up there with the group. It was a breathtaking view of the Tuscan hillsides, but i was too anxious to really enjoy it. Once we were wrapping up I quickly bolted for the stairs. I have never been so happy to be on the ground. My knees trembled for the next half hour. I was glad I took the opportunity to face my fear of heights, but would not care to climb those stairs again. 
Once down we walked around the walled city, which was a very short distance. Then we sat down for lunch. I tried this traditional Tuscan soup made with vegetables and filled with bread and beans, a very hefty soup. It was amazing! After lunch we got to wonder the town a little longer before making our way back to the bus. By this time I had gained a liking for this area, enjoying the antique shops and gelato within it.

We got back to our bus and our bus driver insisted on continuing this adventure, contributing one more town to the trip. He dropped us at the top of this town, Colle di Val d'Elsa, which slopes downward to the base of a hill.  This town is known for their crystal and have a nice factory there. We strolled through this final town of the day and then got back to the bus to head back to Florence.

This day trip was yet another successful day in Italía!  This area would be a great area to come back to and hike through some day.


Ciao

Jamie