We played around waiting for our breakfast while the swallows were actively taking theirs. We were going today to cross the border between Latium, our beloved and boasted region and Tuscany. In fact the Etruscans which lived in independent cities were located first in what today is Tuscany and then expanded with new cities and properties to the Tiber river and then gave Rome a royal dynasty at the pick of their power and cultural development.

We crossed the magic wood and almost caught a Rabbit: the first that spots it gets a free private tour in Rome! After admiring the hawks hunting around we left and observed the landscape slightly changing. At the 9th kilometer we arrived to the city of S.Quirico and from there to Pitigliano was adventure. I selected a path that brought us to the discovery of the lost city of Vitozza, there were also two medieval castles; the so called caves were inhabited since X century B.C. and build with some columbariums probably by Etruscans. The wood that embraces the ruins of the village hides also a waterfall but after having pushed our bike down a steep excavated path with all the bags we were happy enough to refresh our feet in the cold waters of the Lente creek that has its sources in this area. From here starts the XIX century aqueduct of Sorano were we arrived at our 16th Kilometer.

The city is picturesque raising from a tuff spur and having tuff and houses bricks the same color, actually to make it perfect even the antenna have been colored brown-red. The city was more animated by tourists than any city before in our tour and even if we were looking for some salumi, cheeses and panzanella (Tuscan bread salad), so a quick lunch, we had to wait since the nice enoteca was overwhelmed. Stress is not a friend of enjoying the very moment we lived, so we didn’t bother to much about it and enjoyed the quality of the food and the prosecco that we got.

As we were leaving a scacciadiavoli ( devils shoo) appeared under the shape of a madonnina, this holy statues supposed to hold the devil back in places that were often haunted. From here the road been excavated in the tuff were beautiful and in some cases we rode through the authentic Cavoni (streets excavated by Etruscans for mysterious reasons).

At the 35th Kilometer we arrived in Sovana, also very scenographic because of the tuff color, the small houses, narrow streets and buildings. Time to refill our bottles to eat an ice-cream and then we hit the road again. At the 48th kilometer we arrived in Pitigliano, our favourite of the the Tuscan stage: it can boast the warmth of the tuff, the narrow sneaky streets with scenographic corners, a ghetto, elegant palaces and loggias, wide airy and popular squares. Moreover we could have a wonderful dinner under the loggias at Hosteria del Ceccottino. The wind started gently to blow and it was chilly, the loggias protected our dinner and made it more romantic while we enjoyed the typical plates of this area advised by the careful owner. At the end we walked around it and spied Pitigliano putting its night charming dress.