Walking through Tuscany

I know I have not posted much on my blog recently, but I have been away. We have just got back from a superb 2 week trip to Italy which involved a very nice walk through Tuscany. Over the last few years we have favoured more active holidays, having cycled through Languedoc as well as had a walk along the Amalfi coast. This year we decided to go for a nice walk. I had not been to Tuscany for years and Jennifer never has been so it was a natural choice.

I am not a great photographer of scenery or of little painted men but I thought I would post a few photos of our trip. We landed in Pisa from Gatwick after a very short overseas flight from St John's Newfoundland (less then 5 hours). Neither of us had ever been there so why not. The plan was then on to Florence for a few days before we took the train to Chiuisi, our gateway to Tuscany.

Pisa

First time we had been to Pisa

You can see that I am a little nervous about heights.............

.............my wife less so

Florence

Getting ready to climb the La Campanile of Giotto, all 414 steps

Buildings in Florence are all beautiful: Santa Maria Novella

The most famous of all

So Italian

Florence at night

Red roofs from our hotel room

Boboli Gardens

Cypress Alley

The Walk

As you can see, our walk was to the southwest and then back north to end the trip. Each day ended up being 12-15 miles, with the third day being the shortest but by far the toughest because of the 2 very significant changes in elevation. I would say the walking was moderate to moderately difficult. I found days 3 and 4 a little more tough as there was no village to stop in to have a lunch. I am not one to sit down in a field and have a picnic, and the last 2 days we took our nourishment while walking. It was much more pleasant to sit down and have a glass of wine with a lovely carpaccio. 

 Day 1 Montepulciano to Pienza via Montechiello

Ceiling of our B&B room in Montepulciano

Fortifying ourselves for the walk the next day, the wine and food was just superb

A bit of a wet start...............

............but cleared almost immediately, San Bagio church in the farground

Our first destination the hill town of Montechiello

Look cheerful, we do not have a selfie stick

The afternoon darkens, Pienza in the distance, this was quite a climb

Pienza in the morning

Day 2 Pienza to Bagno Vignoni via San Quirico

Most mornings started off cloudy............

...............but usually improved

Hill towns in the distance

Another darkening afternoon and another hill town ahead

Bagna Vignoni was the only place in which we stayed that was in a valley; very small place with thermal hot springs but a lot of black flies, but we were able to enjoy another night out 

Still looking quite cheerful, it must be the spritz

Day 3 Bagno Vignoni to the Abbey of San Antimo

The next day's walk was a little unusual, it was mostly through wooded areas at the beginning with  some significant changes in elevation. The first climb was 800m with a 500' change in elevation......pretty steep

We then ended up walking on a high ridge for a while until we again plunged down to the river  Orcia. We had to cross one of it's tributeries. My wife Jennifer was quite agile with this, I wish I had taken a photo of her jumping from rock to rock with the pack on her back. I am a little less agile and had to wade across. 

Once out of the river valley there was another long climb ahead of us.

Along the way we passed many castles which have been converted into exclusive  resorts. We were told to stay away as they do not like tourists............I wondered as I walked by whether it was a Bunga Bunga party place!

Tons of vineyards in the second phase of this walk.

The climbs just never stopped on this day, you can see that even Jennifer was getting tired.

I was quite plucky as you can see and soldiered on.

Finally San Antimo in the distance.

We had a look around although we were pretty tired.

Day 4 Montalcino to Buonoconvento

The last day started off looking OK when we got up and had a look from our hotel room, but the forecast was not good.

This was through well developed farmland

Started to getting cloudy, soon after it started to rain, the first adverse weather of our trip

Starting to look a little demonic maybe.

You can see a little colder too.

The famous tree of Salti di Pieve, we stayed at an Agriturismo  just outside of Buonoconvento, this was very nice

hmm...........Trump voters or maybe Brexiters. As an aside, I was unable to convert pounds sterling to euros in Rome at the money changers except at a very severe discount, the best I was offered was 0.80 euro to a pound (on a day when the official exchange was 1.12).

 Rome (where all roads end)

There is no place like Rome

and as should be obvious, there is nothing else I rather be doing

Already for a good shop on the Via Condotti.......she had a very good one indeed..........well into 4 figures

Well it was really a great trip and we are already looking at more walking trips, there are plenty out there. Back to work and soldiering.

Closing the Gap: The Crossroads

Yesterday we finally got in our next game in our Falaise Gap campaign. It had been 4 months since our last game, both myself and Mike had busy summers, but oddly enough we really had no problem with the rules. They seem well imprinted now. This was our seventh game in the campaign, I (Canadians) had won the last two games and was clearly looking for a victory to clinch the campaign. Famous last words!

I packed up the car and headed off to Rhode Island, it is a bit of a drive but it was a nice day and I find the drive quite relaxing. Added to this was I was driving my new A7 as well as anticipating an excellent lunch that I knew Mike's wife Paris would provide.

It was my choice of scenario, and the only one we had not played was The Crossroads (Scenario 5 in the campaign book), this had a significant number of buildings but I felt we probably had enough houses. This is scenario 3 from the main rule book, Attack and Defend.

By now in the campaign the Canadians had almost sealed up the Falaise Gap, all they had to do was seal off the centre of St Lambert sur Dives and the Germans would be prevented from retreating to the east. Defending the town were hardened German Falischirmjägers,  these are a strong force with 2 LMG's per squad. The Canadians morale was high though and all though having suffered about a 15% attrition rate they planned to attack with vigour.

Canadians attacking from the right

The terrain, the forest filled the whole triangle and blocked LOS.

The German defensive position

Looking from the point of view of the Canadian advance.

The end of the patrol phase, the Canadians got 3 free moves

The 3 Canadian JOP's

The 3 German JOP's

How it looks on the scenario map

My initial steps were to lay down smoke in front of the German positions and then advance section 2 through the forest  to capture the isolated German JOP. I moved section 2 to support this and provide covering fire. I also advanced my Sherman down the road to provide HE support against the German FJ's deployed in hard cover in the houses. I had 18 support points while Mike had 7, so I knew it would be very unlikely that he would select an AFV. I had selected a Pregame Barrage as well as Allied Air Support. This made it quite difficult for Mike to deploy his troops in the first turn and the air support took out one of his LMG teams, things were looking good for the Canadians. I had also selected a Vickers HMG team as well as an extra 2" Mortar team. I like laying down smoke.

Everything was going according to plan, I waited until I had a CoC dice before capturing the JOP, so I could end the turn and force a Morale Test. I planned to split section 2 so the Germans had to divide their fire. Best laid plans!

Things were going according to plan, but immediately after capturing the JOP, Mike got a series of double phases (maybe 4-5), with these double moves he was able to chew up the Canadian section 2, causing me to take a morale test for breaking and then another for being subsequently destroyed before I could get them off the field. Additionally Mike was well prepared for my Sherman with what I understand were multiple Panzerfausts. Two FJ's jumped out in the road and fired this powerful weapon and kaboom my Sherman was knocked out. Bu now my morale had dropped to 5 and German morale was still at 10. I made one more attempt but lost another team and dropped to a Morale of 4. My command was falling apart to I made a tactical withdrawal.

Lots of smoke!

Here is the position after game 7. The campaign is no longer than 9 games, if the Canadians have not defeated the Germans by then the Germans have essentially made it through the Falaise Gap and escaped to Germany. Mike had an impressive victory moving the Campaign Tracker to 9, the only way I could win now was to reduce this to zero, as I lost my opportunity in this game to win 3 games in a row. I had essentially lost a full section. The Germans had lost 2 men, there was no way I could win, so I surrender the town to the Germans. A German campaign victory. Congratulations to Mike on a very well played defensive victory.

Well it was a great campaign, Mike is a real gentleman and an absolute pleasure with whom to game. All there is to decide on is which campaign we shall play next.