Day 10 of possibly 17 cycling days from Piacenza to Rome along the Via Francigena.

We started the day with breakfast in our apartment eating the coppa ham and mild and semi-seasoned pecorino cheese that we had bought the night before from one of many such delicatessens around the old town. We packed and left down a steep hill and paused to admire the view of San Gimignano in the sun. Today’s route was about 40% off-tarmac. This involved “proper” gravelled roads in most cases. But also a former railway. The weather was kind, but there was another yellow wind warning which felt alarming as it buffeted us as we cycled along and was hard work as a headwind. Morning coffee at the end of a 10km stretch of former railway.

We avoided a section of the route which looked particularly steep along a gravel track which went up a hill and down again to rejoin the quiet country road along the bottom a couple of kms later. Lunch at an unexpected and unexpectedly good trattoria. We collected another VF passport stamp. We are passing many groups of pilgrim walkers along the way. And we get passed by faster cyclists.

Final series of short hills took us to Siena with a diversion to a bike shop to get spare brake pads for Alistair’s bike.

Our hotel is actually a B&B on the fourth floor in the old town. Bikes stored on the ground floor of an apartment a few doors away. A stroll around the breathtaking old town, il campo (horse racing event twice a year) and striking cathedral. Easy to understand that it is a World Heritage site. Dinner in Il Campo. Bought more cheese for breakfast on our fourth floor terrace tomorrow.