Relentless!!

So, it's almost the end of the weekend already!

We decided to take the morning to do a bit of sightseeing today, planning a leisurely walk around Pescia. After a lie-in and a lazy breakfast, it was around 11am by the time we got into town. By this time, the sun was out in almost full force - it promised to be another mid-30s scorcher today (in fact, the forecast predicts the same every day until next weekend), and even on opening the front door at breakfast time we could tell that the day was going to be HOT.

We started our walking tour in the small part of town that is on the opposite bank of the river to most of the commercial side of Pescia (the opposite side from the main square with the bank, the comune office, the enoteca, the hardware shop etc.). This part of the town is dominated by the large cathedral (duomo), and has a nice old feel to it.

Here are some of the highlights:

We then crossed to the main part of town and headed straight back out again, following signs for churches we'd not yet seen. The town was nice and quiet as the locals were either in church or making a start on cooking lunch - we were treated to the sounds of church bells and the smells of food as walked around.

After following signs for 'Casa di Nazareth', we started climbing up towards Monte di Pescia on a signed footpath. I say 'signed', but footpaths here are most often marked with a painted pair of stripes (red and white, blue and green etc., depending on the footpath you are following), which can be anywhere: walls, trees and lamp posts, so you have to keep your eyes peeled!

In think the stone path was at about an incline of 40° most of the way, which in today's heat had us dripping in sweat. After the quality of the path finally deteriorated into hiking boot territory, we did a U-turn and headed back to town - we were afforded some lovely views southwards on our way back. 

So we ambled a bit more around the back streets along roads we'd not yet been down and finally called time on our sightseeing at about 1pm - not only were my factor 20 covered shoulders starting to burn and our tummies starting to rumble, but we had less than an hour in which to get to the supermarket to replenish our bread stocks for lunch.

After a quick stop at the supermarket to pick up those bread stocks, we headed home and had lunch. 

We had entertained the idea of a bit of strimming and tier-clearing this afternoon, but by the time we'd finished lunch, it was so hot that we realised that we wouldn't even be sitting outside if wasn't for the shade provided by our new garden umbrella - a very well timed purchase!!

Sweltering. (The ambient temperature was probably more like 34-36.)

So instead of throwing ourselves straight into strimming, we headed out again to see if the garden centre was open in order to buy some herbs to plant out in the new guest herb garden that we created yesterday. The garden centre turned out to be closed - not a surprise really, but worth a try, and it was a good excuse to make a stop on our way back at Pescia's best ice cream shop, for our first taste of gelato since we arrived! It was well worth the wait, and we decided that perhaps we should have a rule that whenever the temperature rises above 30C we have to go into town for a gelato (which, if the forecast is right, will make that at least every day this coming week...).

So after a stop at the petrol station to fill the jerry cans for our power tools, we headed home to 'suit and boot' and get stuck into these tiers. By the time we had suited and booted it was nearing five o'clock but still baking hot and with long trousers, ear protection, eye protection and face masks, we were sweating before we'd even made a start. Nevertheless, we threw ourselves into the task at hand with gusto.

Every anti-fly precaution (face masks, goggles, ear defenders)...

It was SUCH sweaty work - sweat was literally pouring off us and regular stops were needed to drink gallons of water and hose our heads down with the garden hose.

Sweaty work.

However, by the time we threw the towel in, at around 7pm. we had made a bit more progress. This isn't going to be a quick job (it has been made much much worse by the state the tiers are in - not only can you not see where you're walking, the undergrowth is so overgrown that you can't tell whether you've already cut what you're standing on, and have to be careful not to stumble into the many dips and hollows or trip over the odd tree stump or lump of stone). We're sure that, once tidied, the tiers should be easier to keep on top of. After having cleared only one and a half of around a dozen, we need no more convincing that keeping on top of them is exactly what we must do!

So, after showering off the sweat and grass clippings in the hopes that the flies would have made a retreat by the time we had finished, we ventured back out into the warm evening air with a beer - only to be hounded back inside by a swarm of those pesky kamikaze flies. Maybe cutting grass late in the afternoon isn't the best plan after all!