Again, a few months have passed between our return and my time at the computer keyboard. I hope you readers will forgive me.
Our way from Bologna to Firenze was full of surprises. We had expected a very dry country, rolling hills with cypresses. Probably we had been distracted by pictures from Tuscany. But I would want to travel there to confirm the landscape there is really that!
Between the two cities, the Apennine is moderately high (we culminated at about 1100m, or 3500 ft), but steep, we had several ridges to pass. Much of the ground is crumbly sandstone. North of Firenzuola, about the middle of our trip, there is a mountain that consists of such brittle stone that it forms a natural kind of rough gravel. The gravel works there don't need to break it down, they simply scoop up what is eroded naturally with big machnes...
The plant life was extraordinary, too. Just the richness and density of the vegetation was awesome. I often thought "I hope this is really a well-travelled trail and not a dead end" because the plants grew so thick there would not have been a way through aside of the trails. They were really kept open only by the people using them, like elephant trails in the Savanna.
And we saw a lot of special plants, wild orchids for example, the largest of which came up to my tigh! The broom was in full bloom and where it was abundant, the smell was almost overwhelming. Only on the afternoon of the last day did we get into a landscape as expected, hot and dry with cypresses and the songs of the cicadas.
