Walking in Tuscany

Well, it's another sunny morning in Tuscany at the villa at Lavacchio. Our guide this week, Kathy Grindrod, is just about to head off on the first day of walking with our guests who arrived yesterday at Pisa airport. The walking here is great with the limestone landscape offering ridges, and jagged peaks and towers, natural arches and bridges. Essentially, the mountainsides are forested by hornbeam and chestnut trees which offer an incredible lushness, but also help provide the contrast between shady walks, and then the openness and views of the summits and ridges. Our guests are a great bunch and there looks like being plenty of humour this week!
As for me - I have been looking at some mountain biking in the area as this is something we hope to offer fairly soon. The terrain is pretty wild and finding the routes is proving very challenging. The maps are, how can I put it politely? - not great! There are few signposts, if any, and the paths are often rarely used. This all makes for great biking and a real sense of exploration though I had more of an adventure than I cared for yesterday when I disturbed a wild boar in the forest! She was not impressed to see me and I beat a hasty retreat. I have also been told that there are wolves in this area and there have been several sightings recently. It would be great to see one but the chances are slim I guess. Anyway, must slap on the sunscreen, dig out the shades, climb onboard and get biking! Lindsay