Stage 32a. San Gimignano to il Pietreto. The third meeting earns me a coffee.

Supper of raviolo ai funghi, given it's mushroom season.  I'd met a mushroom forager the previous morning, who, conjuring a perfect image of a greying beard with one eloquent gesture, explained his light basket was because the porcini were getting old.

Despite some very poor signage in and around the city, (stamp from tourist office, though) I reluctantly left San Gimignano behind, and set out through more vineyards, gradually segueing into oak woods.  

I kept meeting two Dutch sisters, siblings rather than nuns, and at the third meeting they explained that by Dutch custom, after the third encounter, they were now obliged to buy me something, which they duly did at the next café.

Shortly after, on this stretch, I came across a British transit van, its delivery driver and her bored lab, who (the driver, not the dog) had managed to wedge the van on the road in the dark the previous night.  Her sister in Florence had sorted out assistance, which was due shortly, and she explained that in between deliveries around Europe she takes off on adventures, this one was an attempt to reach a fluvial bathing spot, which I came across later.

The walking and scenery were glorious, but after this reminder of how far I've come, at a free pilgrim oasis, I was glad to reach my Tuscan villa with cool pool for an evening dip, just outside Graciano d'Elsa in pretty gardens and woods, passing on the way an inviting looking stone-rimmed and limpid bathing spot.