Italy 89 - San Quirico D'Orcia a little gem - yet another out of the way Tuscan box of delights

---

Our next stop after Monterigioni was the medieval town of San Quirico D’Orchia set again in some stunning Tuscan countryside. We have been drinking Tuscan Chianti in homage to the lovely landscape and campsite that we find ourselves in.

The town has defeated us many times before. We have seen it on Google Earth and we have seen car parks which sadly cater for cars rather than camping cars so we have always had to pass it by on its by pass . Today though come hell or high water we were getting in there. Sally Sat Nav was armed with co-ordinates for the local sosta /parking spot was camping cars and we wound our way down narrow streets and through the houses until we reached the car park. It was totally empty apart from one other motorhome that we were later to see in another of the beautiful Tuscan villages along the way. The sign was very confusing but then it always would be in Italian . It seemed to me that you paid 10 euros to stay overnight – no facilities . Pay by the hour for a visit to town. However the minimum payment the machine would accept was for 6 hours stay at 5 euros .

We were not staying overnight so paid our 5 euros and walked uphill , more aching feet, more aching knees and then downhill alongside the town walls to the archway leading into the old part of the town itself. Pretty purple sweet peas scrambled up the banks and over the walls. The town itself was just as we expected with its tiny shops, its perfectly formed not one but two churches. One open but very baroque inside , the other the more interesting was sadly locked. There was a park set in an English style with clipped box or yew hedging , no planting but the walls dripped with the absolutely stunning wisterias that seem to thrive in this part of the world. Life was going on in San Quirico, old men sat in the cafes talking ,old women stood chatting. Have you noticed in Italy that the men seem to sit about and there are few if any women with them? Perhaps they see the café as the man shed where they can chew the cud and put the world to rights without the wife to bother them. We were looked at very oddly as we sat outside a café which was full of older men and ordered our espressos and bread with ham and salami . It was lovely to sit in the sun with the sun on our backs enjoying simple fare which tasted fantastic .

Our campsite for the night was called Panorama and what a view it had . Set high above the Tuscan countryside the vineyards dropped away from it, the distant hills looked pretty and the houses pretty as they were were few and far between. The site was set on terraces along the valley and each one lower the one above. There was a swimming pool but it seemed to be in the process of restoration, WiFi which was free worked up at the bar area. Seating provided where you could drink beer, coffee or wine and eat breakfast or a supper of paninis and simple food. Bread was ordered the night before . Showers clean and warm and the staff welcoming.

The only neighbours we had were a German couple with their Goldwing motor bike , a Swiss couple and a few motorhomes where I didn’t see the owners. When I went to pay the ACSI site fee of 16 euros and pick up my bread order I fell into conversation with the young lady who was running the shop/reception. She apologised for being late due to the traffic which I found rather charming as you could count the number of cars passing on one hand and rushhour here bore little resemblance to rushhour in Chesterfield. She told me she worked somewhere else as well and this was her second job. As always working for the jobcentre I could not resist asking where she worked . She told me in perfect English the employment office . Of course I smiled and said I worked for the same organisation. We then traded experiences. She worked part time it seemed as she had just had a baby . She earned 2000 euros a month, that seemed a very good wage but was reduced to 1000 as the rest went in taxes. We chewed the fat on rates of unemployment and around this area there is a lot of it – same as back home. It seemed that people who came to work on the campsite stayed a week and said the work was too hard , that they had to clean toilets and left. They did not want to work. I told her that that was similar to England where the benefit rates were too high to encourage people to take up menial jobs. I felt as if I were having the conversation with a colleague from work . Comparing notes I told her how much we pay in benefit and it seems that in Italy the same contribution rates apply in that you have to work two years to get benefit but you get 80% of your salary for 8 months. After this it goes down and down and down until you have to go on the social. She was amazed we pay for six months and carry on if you don’t find work . We both admitted we rarely told anyone where we worked .

I could have talked to her for hours as it was interesting to compare her job with mine. She felt she would be working forever as the age to retire as in Britain was going up and up. She thought you get things for nothing if you don’t work but have to pay for everything if you do work. Nothing changed there then.

Sadly we had to leave and got on the road again heading for our next Tuscan town – this time a thermal baths. . This was going to be different again. So far this holiday we have seen French villages, the Alps, a small Italian town with Roman remains, a big city and a small one, a hilltop medieval town, a medieval fortress, an Egyptian museum , some stunning Tuscan countryside and now a thermal baths . Could you do all of that without a motorhome?. Suzy is doing us proud .

---

Photos

San Quirico D'orchia
Life is unchanged here for centuries