Deliciously Scared

These hikes have been pretty strenuous the last few days with steep up hills and the same on the downside. Down hill can even be more difficult at times as your toes get jammed in your shoes and cause them to go numb or even worse can cause blisters under the nail. So today I woke up wishing for a day of strolling through fields and just some gradual up hills. And that is just what we got, it was such a pleasant and relaxing time. We did have one stressful moment when we came across a fence blocking our trail. Do we go through the fence and risk being on someone's private property which also had a pack of barking dogs just daring us to enter or do we back track and see if we missed something on a sign. Well being the hardy hikers that we are there is no way we want to go backwards and add any extra steps to our trip. Before we started our Italy hike we were warned about these dogs. They are called the maremmano dog and are herding dogs that will defend their sheep to the end. There must have been four or five of them up ahead but Melissa and I had our trekking poles to defend ourselves if needed. I made sure someone else was between me and the dogs at all times. They just barked loudly at first, Joanne was in the lead, then they started coming at us, Sue loudly hollered NO, the dogs still kept coming, so Joanne just veared us out into the field further away from the dogs. Tammy kept talking to them like they were her house pets and Melissa just wanted to take pictures of the abandoned farm house, like there were no dogs around. We made it past them with all arms and legs intact, maybe they were just trying to herd us together now that I think of it??

When we felt safe we took the time to look at the old farmhouse and then we noticed the old Billie Goat standing there wondering what all the commotion was about. We saw lots of sheep, each with bells on their necks that made a very melodic sound when they all moved together. 

We had to be transferred the last couple of days to different locations and our driver was the cutest little old Italian man who didn't speak any English but just smiled at us all the time. If he is around the next few days we will have to get a picture of him.

Our stay tonight is at Fattoria Pieve a Salti, an Agriturismo, which is an active farm used as a bed and breakfast