Anghiari and La Valtiberina

We arrived in Anghiari, a beautiful well preserved hilltop town in the Valtiberina region - just north of Arezzo - La Valtiberina is the Valley of the Tiber - so held promise for some water in the rivers, and hopefully some cooler temperatures due to the slightly higher altitude 🤞The Town has a truely medieval feel to it, and is known for its many wood, textile and ceramic artisans, both past and present.

Beautiful Anghiari

Stayed at the lovely Agriturismo Val Della Pieve, 500m from the old town - just space for 6 vans, and a very relaxed feel to it, run by a multi generational family - very welcoming and hospitable 👍

Our camp spot

Spent some time exploring Anghiari and seeing what it has to offer. Beautiful medieval centre, very buzzing with activity, and extremely relaxing to wander around. Seems like the town hosts many arts festivals, and in fact later that evening we chatted with a young English woman who had previously visited the town to sing in their annual international music festival (she did say that some Labour MPs also participated in the singing - not sure who 🤣) 

Loved the ironwork - not sure what it’s actually saying 😃

Interesting narrow alleyways and artisan outlets

Medieval arches

Dave was keen to do some mountain biking so very readily accepted an offer from the owner of the Agriturismo, Andreas, to join him on a “community ride” - seems that once a month one of the neighbouring villages plans and hosts a ride - anyone can join. I don’t think Dave was quite expecting what was in store though - an 8km ride just to get to the village hosting, then a 30km tough ride up through the mountains, then a final 8km ride home! Anyway, drink and cake stops were set up along the way, so that definitely helped. About 200 riders set off - quite an occasion! Andreas is in the process of setting up some MTB guiding holidays in the region - so who knows, maybe Dave will be back sometime 😃

Setting off

Dave trying to take a selfie 🤣

My time was spent catching up with the laundry (access to a washing machine here 😃), and exploring the antiques market in the centre of the town - 

Town famous for antiques & crafts 

Unfortunately the cooler temperatures, and water in the rivers that we had hoped for didn’t materialise - so luckily for us there was a lovely swimming pool at the Agriturismo - Ruby had to make do with a bucket of water thrown over her 😟

Lovely setting among the olive groves

Explored some of the Monte Rognosi national park just outside of the city. The most important crop around here are chestnuts, being a fundamental part of peoples’ diet. Communal drying sheds were common in the past, where anyone could go and dry / roast their own chestnuts- providing an end to hunger for a few months of the year. 

The only communal chestnut drying shed still operational in the region

Dave and Rubes intrigued by what they will find!

Fire laid on lower floor ready for roasting chestnuts above.

Again, far too hot for walking which was a shame really as looked a really fabulous region - but we did manage to find a bit of water for Rubes to cool off in 👍 Definitely an area to explore further another time 🤣

Never misses an opportunity 

Spent a bit of time just north of Anghiari, on the outskirts of the National Park - at the birthplace of Michelangelo. Caprese Michelangelo is a small village, mainly given over to tourism now, and hosting an interesting museum within the medieval castle where he was actually born, on his early life and works.  

Plaster cast of his iconic David

Plaster casts of his famous works

Looks interesting - and fun 🤣

Interesting to potter around, and also explore the surrounding countryside that is reported to have inspired some of his work. 

Countryside that inspired Michelangelo 

Allotment crops seem to be grown all year round

Caprese Michelangelo 

The campsite we stayed at served a purpose, but was a little rundown to say the least - good job we weren’t wanting to cool off in the advertised swimming pool - looks like it no longer exists 🤣

No chance of a swim here!

The lovely Peroni pump at the camp more than made up for it though 🤣

We’ve been quite amused by the various vending machines we’ve seen on the streets as we’ve travelled around - Anghiari first introduced us to the Frizzante water vending machine 😃 As I stood puzzling it, wondering how on earth to operate it, a very kind elderly man came along and inserted his payment card for me - seems there is a special card that is required 🤣

Frizzante on tap 👍

Something not mentioned before is what has turned into our VERY long search for Camping Gaz - can’t quite believe this situation, but we have travelled so many miles over the past week in search of a gas refill - so may tip offs as to where we could get it (even from the Camping Gaz website) only to arrive there and people look at us blankly - they don’t stock it! Where on earth do Italians buy their camping gas?? Anyway, after yet another tip off,  a lovely woman in a Ferramenta (ironmongers) offered to phone around the region to see if she could track one down for us - and she came up trumps! So after another half hour drive we became the very grateful owners of a gas refill! Need to be sparing with this now 🤣

Hooray 🥳

We’ve really enjoyed this very quiet eastern corner of Tuscany, which has so much to offer, both culturally and in terms of nature and activity. But again, soaring temperatures have hindered play, so time to move on.

Arrivederci 😃