Leserzuschriften
Liebe Leser/innen,
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Wanderführer Tuscany North
 | 04.10.2002 |
Dear Sir/Madam
My boyfriend and I have just returned from a holiday in Tuscany. We took your Rother Tuscany North walking guide with us as we are both keen walkers.
The walks that we did we really enjoyed and generally we found the book to be well written. However, there were a few walks where the information given or the maps were rather inaccurate and I thought that it might be helpful to you if I pointed these out particularly as at the beginning you ask for opinions and suggestions for amendment to the guide!
A general comment I have is that often the walking trails have numbers which are written on signs and on the red and white strips that are painted on trees as markers and whilst the numbers are sometimes referred to in the walking instructions in the guide, it would be helpful if where ever walks are numbered the numbers are referred to in the walking instructions as it would make the walks a lot easier to follow.
The walks that I have specific comments on are as follows:
Walk No. 10 - Monte Senario
On page number 57 where it states "To the right (sign Badia Buon Sollazzo)", there appeared to be no sign here and it was therefore very difficult to determine in which direction we were meant to go and when we finally did work it out and make our way to Casa Sodera the instructions given to go along the edge of the forest were very hard to follow and confusing.
Walk No. 12 - Monte Secchieta
At the beginning, it states that we are to follow the walk as described in Walk 10. I think that this should be Walk 11, as Walk 10 is in a completely different place and Walk 11 starts at Vallombrosa, the same as Walk 12.
The map for this walk shows a small stretch of the walk along a road next to where is written the "II" of "II Paradisino" on the map. At this point though, instead of walking along the road you should cross directly over the road and follow the sign "Secchieta" very steeply up though the wood. The instructions are correct and state this, but it is confused by the map showing that you should walk along the road for a bit. To begin with we followed the map and walked along the road and then couldn't find the "Seccieta" sign and nearly ended up scrambling up a rock face thinking that the sign was just missing! Luckily we turned back and walked back up the road and then saw the sign for "Seccieta" and realised that we were meant to go straight across the road and not along it as the map showed.
Walk No. 16 - Monte Falterona
On page 71 where it states "return to the first meadow; there bear left onto trail no 16", to us this implied go all the way back to the first meadow having gone to the second meadow. We went back to the first meadow and then couldn't find a trail no. 16. All there seem to be was a very steep drop down, but no path. Having looked for about 15 minutes we decided that we had better go back to the second meadow and follow a trail which was marked off there, although it was not no. 16. It was only by chance that about half way back to the second meadow I happen to glance to my side as we returned to the second meadow and that I saw on a stone on the ground off to the right, a red and white marker with an arrow and the No. 16 painted on it. To us the book was confusing in saying return to the first meadow.
Walk No. 18 - Val d' Inferno
This walk was a disaster for us! We completely lost our way and went about 30 minutes in the wrong direction. Luckily we thought that we had gone wrong and just turned round and made our way back to the start. I think what would be really helpful in the description of this walk would be to stress that you must not lose the red and white markers, this is where we went wrong as when we retraced our steps we realised that we had missed a bend round a corner which the markers did show, but we just hadn't seen them and did not realise that we had to follow them. The walk is through lots of trees etc and therefore often it is difficult to see exactly where you are, but the markers are frequently marked and I think that if we had know that we had to make sure we could always see where the markers were then we would not have got lost.
I hope the above is of some use. I will look forward to returning to Tuscany and doing some more of the walks.
Yours faithfully, Caroline Garrood