Italy's Tuscany Trail Ride
Day 1: Arrive on Sunday and settle into your accommodations at Il Poggio Equestrian Center. You will have some time before dinner to relax, meet the owner Enrica Bartolino and your guide and enjoy a complimentary aperitif. This evening you will have the opportunity to sample the first of your delicious meals at Il Poggio and meet the other riders.
Day 2: Your ride today will take you in a southwest direction and carry you through some of the most scenic hillside landscapes of cultivated fields and clay hills. During the course of your ride in this area, you will be exposed to the perennial erosive actions of the atmospheric agents that have created the startling and extraordinary slopes and ridges known as "calanchi". You will travel the famous Via Francigena, the road of the ancient Etruscans and Romans with its quite, distinctive geography. The road brings you through the open rolling hills that are planted with golden wheat, the gray balze and some of the most famous monasteries and great abbeys located in the area. This is an excellent way to see what Tuscany is really like.
Day 3: On this day you will head off in the northeast direction from Il Poggio and ride to the Mount Cetona area. This area is one of the most important pre-historic settlings of central Italy. The ride travels across the eastern slopes of Monte Cetona, an area where mushrooms and chestnuts are delicious and plentiful. Since the Paleolithic era (50,000 years ago) many of its natural caves were occupied by humans. The area is so full of animals such as buzzards, green woodpeckers, nocturnal birds of prey, deer, roe and many others. Amongst all this nature you will stop for a picnic lunch. The afternoon ride will continue past farmhouses and through quaint villages. From the Assolate River bed, the final stretch of today's ride, you will climb back to the Il Poggio stables.
Day 4: Today is your Free Day. You have an option to visit two different places by Self Guided Tour. You may opt to go to Siena or visit Val D'Orcia where the landscape varies, and the many villages, castles, parish churches and abbeys, works of art and traditions can be experienced first hand. This is truly a memorable experience and a fabulous way to get personally familiar with how a local town functions and thrives. It is suggested you visit Montepulciano (the town is encircled by walls and fortifications designed by Antonio da Sangallo, the Elder in 1511 for Cosimo I), Pienza (a Tuscan town where renaissance town planning concepts were first put into practice after Pope Pius II decided, in 1459, to change his town), and Montalcino (whose surrounding countryside is now dedicated to the production of wine that is acclaimed throughout the world for the Brunello wine, the younger Rosso di Montalcino D.O.C.).
Day 5: Today you will ride to the castle of Radicofani, built in the 9th century. The castle is located in a strategic position, dominating the Francigena route. In the middle ages, it was occupied by the "gentleman bandit", Ghino di Tacco, a Robin Hood of sorts that was mentioned by Dante in the Divine Comedy and by Boccaccio in the Decamerone. Being 896 meters high, it dominates the whole territory set between the Mount Cetona, the Orcia Valley and Mount Amiata. During the war between Siena and Florence, it was Cosimo I Medici who wanted it for a defensive fortress. Since 1735 it was neglected but the recent restoration has restored the ancient splendor of the past.
Day 6: Your itinerary today takes you eastward to the area of "crete senesi", the Rigo Valley and around the San Casciano Bagni with its 46 thermal water sources that encircle it and have rendered it famous from the time of the ancient Romans. Along the way you will find a few secluded farmhouses, some of them restored, some not. Among these there are Banditelle and Manella that are included in our estate.
Day 7: Time to say ciao and head onward to your next destination or home.
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