Poggio, Tuscany – A Wild Ride

After breakfast in Montepulciano, I started the four-hour drive to Poggio, a small village in Tuscany that would be my home for the next two weeks.

About an hour from my destination, it started to rain. After the heat I’d been experiencing in Montepulciano, it was a welcome relief.

For the last hour of my journey, the road followed the river before winding higher and higher into the mountains. The closer I got to Poggio, the narrower the roads became, sometimes passing within inches of the villas.

The drive was uneventful, apart from the mad Italian drivers, and the speed limits. My phone, the Fiat’s speedometer and the car’s navigation system all seemed to be showing me different speed limits. It was the 30-kilometre signs I kept missing. I hated to think how many tickets I was going to get!

The Ancient Village of Poggio

Finally, I arrived in Poggio at about 4.30pm. I had found the village. I couldn’t find the driveway to the villa I was staying at. My host walked up to meet me and directed me to her villa. I just needed to drive down a very steep and potholed driveway and park close to the edge of a cliff. From here the view of the arched railway bridge and the mountains beyond was breathtaking.

After admiring the view and making sure the Fiat wasn’t too close to the edge of the cliff, we sat on the covered terrace and chatted for a while. Later, I was shown around while zucchini pasta was being prepared for dinner. We ate and drank lots of wine, including the white wine I’d brought from Montepulciano. My hosts left early the next morning for France to organise a new home as they were soon relocating from Tuscany.

I was pet sitting four cats and had been warned about wild boars and wolves in the woods across from the villa. I had no idea whether the wild boars and wolves were likely to appear during the day. Every morning when the cats disappeared towards the garage or around the side of the house, I chased after them. Early one morning a cat was scratching at my door so I got up to let him out. The mountains were covered by fog. So beautiful.

Driving Around Tuscany

The drive down from Poggio to get groceries was interesting. On the way up I had been too busy concentrating on the cliff edge beside me to notice much else. Going down, the cliff was a little further away from the Fiat, although the other cars were disturbingly close. I thought these Italian roads were the training ground for Formula One drivers.

I passed people filling large water bottles from a natural spring on the side of the road, and there were so many statues of Mary encased in glass that I lost count. At one point, the road was only wide enough for one car, with buildings standing directly beside it on both sides. It felt almost like driving through a tunnel.

Views of Tuscany

The view seemed endless, overlooking a town on the other side of the river with the mountains behind it. The Fiat needed fuel, so I drove over to the town I’d been looking at, but all of the petrol stations were closed. I eventually found one open in another town, but they charged an extra €0.20 per litre to put the fuel in for you. My card wouldn’t work at the self-service pump, so I had to let them do it.

I drove to Lucca, about an hour away. It’s a beautiful walled city, although on this particular visit I spent more time trying to work out where I was allowed to drive than admiring it. I accidentally turned into a residents-only area and found myself going down a one-way street. I didn’t know where the street ended, so I decided to turn around and go back out the way I’d come. Of course, another car was coming in. The Italian driver shook his head and wagged his finger from side to side at me. All I could do was shrug.

I eventually found somewhere to park but couldn’t work out how to use the parking machine. It was so hot that I gave up and drove back to the villa, stopping for groceries on the way. After buying groceries, I took another wrong turn and ended up driving through the middle of the town square where people were sitting around enjoying the afternoon. No one paid any attention to me as I slowly drove through their afternoon and up an adjoining street.

Full Moon Sound Bath

During my stay, I received an invitation through my hosts’ friends to a Full Moon Sound Bath at Namaste, a vegetarian restaurant and yoga studio just up the road from the villa.

I arrived at 9pm and was warmly greeted by the hosts for the night. I was smudged before entering and invited to join the circle while we waited for everyone else to arrive. We started with a talk about the full moon, which represented being adaptable. We also had a drink of cacao before choosing a yoga mat.

The sounds came from didgeridoos, bowls and an enormous gong hanging on the wall. The gong was so loud I could see sound waves with my eyes closed. At one point I was lying there wondering if aliens were landing and thinking – Beam me up, Scotty. I also remember thinking, so this is also the restaurant… mmmm

It was a different experience, but I enjoyed it.

A Wild Ride in Tuscany

I had booked to go horse riding at Scirer’s Ranch Horses. Unfortunately, the 4G wasn’t working when I left, so I headed in the wrong direction and got completely lost. I rang the ranch and rebooked for 5pm.

My horse was amazing. She knew exactly what to do. We followed the lead horse down a steep track with a 90-degree turn, over large river stones, through thorny bushes and across a creek. I just held on and trusted her. She’d obviously done this many times before.

The mosquitoes were terrible in the bush, and she kept shaking her head. At one point, she stopped and pulled a branch from a tree. She did the same thing on the way back, and I couldn’t work out whether she wanted to eat it or was using it to keep the mosquitoes away.

We stopped in the creek and waited for the other horses to catch up. There were fewer mosquitoes there than we’d encountered along the track.

We eventually came to a clearing with the Tuscan mountains in the background, where the guide took photos of everyone with their own phones. – the guide used everyones phones to capture their moment

We eventually came to a clearing with the Tuscan mountains in the background, the guide used everyones phones to capture their moment.

Horses love to gallop home, and my horse was no different. As we galloped across the clearing, our guide rode ahead of us, singing loudly in Italian and waving one arm as he sang. Maybe it was opera.

Once we reached the ranch, the horses calmly walked back to the stables.

It was a wild ride, not at all like the ad, which showed a lovely ride across a bridge and along the river. I was quite happy it turned out to be a wild ride, like the one on Mt Vesuvius with my daughters, where we galloped and kept galloping until we reached the stables.

I love horse riding in Italy.

Meanwhile, Back in Poggio

A few days into my stay, I woke up with more than twenty bites under my arm, chest and down my side, which had turned into large red welts. I had no idea what had bitten me, and I was feeling quite sick. That night I couldn’t get to sleep until after 2.30am as the bites were sore and itchy. I didn’t want to sleep in the bed, so I moved to the couch and slept there for the rest of my stay, happy to have all the cats in the room with me.

Giorgio would lie on my chest with his paws up around my neck. Luce would smooch with me and his nose would touch mine and my face. Zora was cute and liked to join me on the couch and Princess M would just lie in her beloved cardboard box.

When I started to feel better, I drove to the pharmacy at Camporgiano. The town has one small street. It’s tiny. The pharmacist didn’t speak English, so I showed him the bites. I left with tablets, cream and a pen with the pharmacy’s name on it.

Who knew Poggio had scorpions! I didn’t, but the cats did. From the couch, I could see three of them sitting and staring at the fireplace, where I later found a scorpion on the floor in front of it. I nervously and quickly relocated the unwanted visitor outside and watched it scamper away.

The Hailstorm

Late one afternoon a storm was approaching and, because I like watching thunderstorms from a safe distance, I was going to sit outside on the terrace. It wasn’t long before it started hailing and I retreated inside. Every time I thought it was going to stop, it hailed harder.

My poor rental car was battered by the hail for almost an hour, but I had to wait until the next morning to see if there was any damage. Amazingly, the Fiat had no damage at all. The villa, however, had a leak in the ceiling. After cleaning up the water from the leak, I sent a video of the damage to my hosts.

It was my last day of the sit, and the hosts asked me to stay the night and join them for dinner at their favourite pizza restaurant, which was a thirty-minute drive away. Of course I would stay. Pizza in Tuscany! The restaurant was really busy when we arrived, and I soon understood why. The pizza was amazing.

The cats were very pleased that their humans had arrived home safe and sound.

I left Poggio the following day, very excited to be heading to La Spezia, the gateway to Cinque Terre.

Travelling through Italy with me? You might enjoy reading about my time in Cinque Terre.

Thank you for reading. Follow along @roamingwithleila for more travel stories and adventures.

Planning a trip to Camporgiano, Tuscany

Poggio is a small village in the Camporgiano area.

Thinking about horse riding? Find out more about Scirer’s Ranch Horses here.

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