Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria: Revised Edition

My wife and I just returned from a two-week trip to Tuscany and Umbria where we had planned to do several walks in this book. Although the book does not even pretend to address tourists traveling by car, we assumed that would not be a problem, and we were wrong. For example, we set out from Lucca to do #13, a walk in the Garfagnana. Naive American drivers need to know that the road to the trailhead, while beautiful, is a heavy industrial corridor with a large number of trucks as well as cars driving to defy death at high speed on a road that is often only wide enough for one vehicle, usually with no shoulder, often skirting sharply around mountain switch-backs with steep drop-offs. Traffic frequently stops as truck and bus drivers try to figure out who is going to back up, and how, to let the other go by. If you have a car, absolutely only consider doing this walk on the weekend. Also, we attempted #2, the Lamole ring walk. On a typical mid-October day, overcast and drizzling, there was absolutely no place to leave the car, which was very disappointing considering the effort to get there. The one walk we did do, #23, the Monteriggioni ring walk, was ok, but a very long stretch of it, from just after Abbadia a Isola to C. Giubileo, is continuously up a steep grade on a gravel road, mostly with minimal views, and gets to be a real drag. Also, and possibly not the authors' fault, the directions fail near the presumptive end when you encounter CAI signs with different numbers than the authors indicate, and trail options that don't quite fit the description. We got lost and went much further southeast than we should have, adding a pleasant enough but unplanned hour to the trip. Also, the Montauto spur access is completely overgrown now with thick, high thorn bushes at least 20 to 30 feet deep behind the well near the beginning. In sum, I was left wondering how big the target audience for this book is. Although we had a car, we were told that bus schedules are not particularly reliable outside the larger cities. After spending two weeks in the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside, it appears to me that, with the amount of time typical travelers have, the hassle and waste of time taking (and waiting for) busses to and from trailheads away from the major centers would just eat up too much precious time. Although there is a lot of good information in this book and it's obviously an earnest effort, we did not find it very useful. If you want to hike or, per the authors' distinction, walk, in Tuscany and Umbria, and have a car, this can be one source of many to help you out, but you need other resources. We got some good info at an information center at the base of Orvieto that led to the best hike of our trip, but note that information centers seem to be closed for unknown reasons frequently. Next time, we plan to do more research, learn a little more Italian, learn more about the CAI system in general, and buy more maps and resources before we go.

I did the Fiesole walk when I visited Florence in May of 2003, and even though it has been a few years since the book was written, it was still very accurate and easy to follow. Of course, this was not one of the more ambitious walks, and we didn't use any of the B&B or restaurant recommendations, but for the walk itself it was a great guide. The only problem I had with the book was that my particular copy (bought used on amazon.com) was missing a few key pages!! The seller reimbursed my purchase price, so I can't really complain, but I think the binding glue was weak, so I would recommend checking your copy to make sure all the pages are there before you set off on a walking tour of Italy.

In a recent trip to Tuscany we were able to take one of the walks described in the book. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. When used with a good map, the directions are good. The trails are easily traveled (my map had many other trails, but some of them were overgrown) but not overused (we did not see any other tourists the whole day). Following this guide helped us see a side of Tuscany we would have missed otherwise, and gave us stories that made other friends who have visited Italy jealous.

Because of torrential rains I only had the chance to do one of the walks in this book on my visit to Italy this past October--from Ripa d'Orcia to Bagno Vignoni--but it was one of the highlights of my trip. I found the directions to be painstakingly accurate, which was surprising to me considering that this book was published 3-1/2 years ago. Walking from place to place and then eating delicious local cuisine is a wonderful way to explore Italy and I'd love to return and do other walks from this book.

This is truly a great book. It adds a new dimension to your holiday without turning it into a full on trecking trip. We completed the walks within the time specified and found the directions to be more than adequate. We used the book in 1997 and 1999 and are planning to use it again in 2001. I hope there's a new edition out by then. Enjoy!!