More Sculptures and Hill Climbs

Tues 10/3
We went out wandering the area with the destination of a visit to another outdoor sculpture garden just outside the village of San Giovanni di Asso.

View from path leading down into the garden

This one is done by a (crazy??) American sculptor named Sheppard Craige and the garden is called Il Bosco della Ragnaia which translates to woods of the spider place (roughly.) The garden is gigantic and is truly in the woods.

Many of the "sculptures" are very simple posts or boxes with antonyms printed on them.

"Therefore"

"Instead"

Some are squares on the ground with moss growing over them. We walked probably for at least an hour or more up and down hills and through the woods on trails.

Renaissance garden

At one point there is a view to what appears to be a Renaissance style garden below also by the sculptor. It was far below where we were and would have required lots and lots of steps down then back up so we just enjoyed looking at it from above. It was quite beautiful and symmetric and appeared to have a few of the same type of simple sculptures that we had seen. Very interesting.                 

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Then we were back on the road and went to the Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore, a very old abbey that is still in use.

Della Robbia over entrance to Abbey

Abbey Church

It entailed a very long downhill hike to reach it where all was closed for the afternoon siesta. Then there was the very long UPHILL hike to get back to the car.
This required a stop (in Buon Convento) for gelato which served as lunch then on home. For dinner we went back to the osteria where we had dinner the first night and had another really excellent meal. We shared a primo of pici con cacio and pepe then Dick had grilled quail and I had steak with porcini and grilled vegetables.