Today I’m back in Southern Tuscany, the Maremma, my home… where my Tuscan travels began all those years ago and where I met my soon-to-be-husband Giulio.

And we decided to do some exploring… unfortunately things didn’t exactly go to plan.

On the border between Tuscany and Lazio in a region of Viterbo there are some incredible ruins known as the ‘eremo di Poggio Conte’.

They are frescoes painted in the 13th century by some very dexterous monks and which still remain hidden amongst the beautiful forests that have wound themselves around the banks of the Fiora River.

From what I’d heard, these drawings are awe inspiring and the atmosphere that surrounds them breathtaking, especially now in June, with all the flowers and dense boschi vying for your attention!

The pictures decorate a makeshift chapel, built by the hermit monks as a place of prayer amongst the splendour of nature.

In all, the experience is supposed to leave you speechless – I mean how often do you get to admire the cultural and artistic roots of Tuscany in a veritable natural paradise?

So naturally I was  jumping with excitement when we arrived at the beginning of the sentiero del briganti path just off of the road to Canino and that which leads to these paintings… well at least we thought it was the beginning.

Hopping out of the car, we had to crawl under this barbed wire fence and walk across a field exploding at the seams with brilliant red poppies.

From there we arrived at the banks of the Fiora River. Only problem was that the path ended there, covered by the overgrown brambles and extremely foreboding thickets.

‘We’ll need a knife to cut through that,’ say Giulio, to which I replied ‘Ridiculous!’ After all, why would a location as famous and notable as this be inaccessible?

So we wandered around the river beds and rocks with me trying not to break my ankle or get attacked by grilli (grasshoppers who are normally cute but there were so many of them in that field that I was barely suppressing my terror – I’m a city girl – we don’t do grasshoppers!)

What we didn’t know was that we were in the wrong spot. Some 5km from where the path to the paintings actually begins, to be exact.

My born and bred, Maremman-through-and-through husband-to-be was lost, which may come as a surprise to you, but, believe me, it happens very often. Of course, he didn’t think he was lost and blamed the provincial council for not taking care of its landmarks.

While he was ranting I cooled my feet in the Fiora River. The view by the running water was spectacular, so lush and so wild, I couldn’t help feeling like Indiana Jones in some undiscovered paradise… but without the ancient ruins.

Even though we didn’t find the paintings, the sense of adventure was there… at least for me anyway! And I’m not giving up on Poggio Conte. Next week I’m coming back with a guide… stay tuned!!

By the way, I did, like all good adventurers, sustain an injury on my travels. I scratched my head on the barbed wire leaving that idyllic field… I forgot it was there despite passing under it a total of three times beforehand…

Here’s how you actually get to Poggio Conte (courtesy of Colline Oggi!):