Italy Day 14 – Final Road Trip

Today I went on a final road trip along the winding Italian roads and covered about two hundred kilometres in five hours. I chose to head south west towards Pitigliano, a town built into the top of a hill and the side of a cliff with old tombs in the cliffs used as parking garages and wine cellars. Plenty of rain fell but there were also some clear moments and lots of beautiful scenery through the changing mist, sun, and rain. Due to the rain I didn't really do much walking, I mostly just drove and pulled over to take photos. Why is it that when the light falls just right on the hills there's never any space to pull over?

Pitigliano far away.

Pitigliano close up.

As I was driving through one of the towns I saw the gated entrance to a cemetery. I love walking in cemeteries and I was curious to see what an Italian cemetery looked like. The burial area was up on a hill so I couldn't see it from the road. When I climbed the stairs towards the gate I cringed to realize it was one of the "shelf" cemeteries. I don't know why, but this style of burial makes my skin crawl and I got out of there as quickly as possible.

An Italian cemetery.

But I liked the entrance gate!

Entrance to the cemetery.

I've mentioned to a few people that many of the towns here are perched on the tops of hills. They definitely take on the appearance of fortifications and are well-situated to have good views of the surrounding areas. I've been trying to find a place to capture a decent shot to show how isolated some of these places are and today I found a pretty good spot.