I imagine the thread title may have grabbed your attention and quite rightly so as the lovely Tony & Cherie are now forever linked with The Penis Tree painting by my recent holiday in Tuscany.
Mrs Duke Sox, or Sally as she prefers to be called, recently had the good fortune to be whisked away by me to Tuscany on a horse riding holiday, horses being her absolute passion in life, equivalent to how most of us are with our bikes. We were staying in a very remote, rustic area in a heavily wooded and hilly part of Tuscany with just a few small medieval villages scattered around close to us. If you like rural then this place is heaven , these were the views from our bedroom window and then the mountain bike workshop.
The first day was a bit overcast so we just drove around to find our bearings before starting on the activities the second day. I`m competent to ride a horse slowly or just about trot on an easy surface but as we were in steep hills and on narrow gravel paths or worse I just had 2 fairly gentle short rides while Sally joined some better riders and had some 4 hour trips way up in the hills.
While there a couple of times we rented electric mountain bikes, proper hardcore bikes nothing like the more basic bikes we have at home. They were absolutely brilliant and a blast to ride. You can switch the power off and pedal like normal (although that is hard as they are kin heavy) or choose 1 of 4 power modes offering different levels of help. If you have not tried one they are well worth a go although sadly horribly expensive .
We generally stayed in a 50 mile radius of the hotel but luckily that included the very lovely Baretti Beach which in late September and early October seems practically deserted . The locals seemed to need coats and scarves as soon as the temperature dropped below 75 not like us rock hard Brits hey. Anyway, we were delighted to have the beach pretty much to ourselves and the sea was perfect for swimming . We also found a lovely bistro overlooking the boat park or harbour as I believe some people call them.
One of the local medieval towns is a lovely place called Massa Marritima, here we initially sat at a local wine merchants shop sampling the reds along with delicious grapes before moving to a restaurant overlooking what I was told was a 12th century cathedral although I think its looking pretty good for an 800 year old building. Maybe Jebus keeps it nice ?
Lastly to link the title, it seems Our Tone & Cherie had some horse riding lessons at the hotel we stayed in and in Massa Marittima there is a painting called the Penis Tree for fairly obvious reasons. I couldn`t get a decent photo of it so here is one from the internet .
So there you go, if you want an active holiday in a rural setting or just want to look at a picture of witches fighting over cocks may I recommend this part of Tuscany.
Mrs Duke Sox, or Sally as she prefers to be called, recently had the good fortune to be whisked away by me to Tuscany on a horse riding holiday, horses being her absolute passion in life, equivalent to how most of us are with our bikes. We were staying in a very remote, rustic area in a heavily wooded and hilly part of Tuscany with just a few small medieval villages scattered around close to us. If you like rural then this place is heaven , these were the views from our bedroom window and then the mountain bike workshop.
The first day was a bit overcast so we just drove around to find our bearings before starting on the activities the second day. I`m competent to ride a horse slowly or just about trot on an easy surface but as we were in steep hills and on narrow gravel paths or worse I just had 2 fairly gentle short rides while Sally joined some better riders and had some 4 hour trips way up in the hills.
While there a couple of times we rented electric mountain bikes, proper hardcore bikes nothing like the more basic bikes we have at home. They were absolutely brilliant and a blast to ride. You can switch the power off and pedal like normal (although that is hard as they are kin heavy) or choose 1 of 4 power modes offering different levels of help. If you have not tried one they are well worth a go although sadly horribly expensive .
We generally stayed in a 50 mile radius of the hotel but luckily that included the very lovely Baretti Beach which in late September and early October seems practically deserted . The locals seemed to need coats and scarves as soon as the temperature dropped below 75 not like us rock hard Brits hey. Anyway, we were delighted to have the beach pretty much to ourselves and the sea was perfect for swimming . We also found a lovely bistro overlooking the boat park or harbour as I believe some people call them.
One of the local medieval towns is a lovely place called Massa Marritima, here we initially sat at a local wine merchants shop sampling the reds along with delicious grapes before moving to a restaurant overlooking what I was told was a 12th century cathedral although I think its looking pretty good for an 800 year old building. Maybe Jebus keeps it nice ?
Lastly to link the title, it seems Our Tone & Cherie had some horse riding lessons at the hotel we stayed in and in Massa Marittima there is a painting called the Penis Tree for fairly obvious reasons. I couldn`t get a decent photo of it so here is one from the internet .
So there you go, if you want an active holiday in a rural setting or just want to look at a picture of witches fighting over cocks may I recommend this part of Tuscany.
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