Three of us decided to take a walk through the rolling countryside surrounding San Gimignano.

The area practically calls out for a hike. Lots of up and down, but most of it not really intense, and it generally stays off paved roads — in favor of dirt tracks or rutted secondary roads leading into dense woods or between neatly cultivated vines.

We used as a reference the 2006 edition of Walking in Tuscany by Gillian Price, who laid out an itinerary that would take us to “marvelously desolate” castle ruins inside the Castelvecchio Nature Reserve. And who doesn’t like “marvelously desolate” caste ruins?

We certainly walked long enough to get where we thought we were going. But we never did get there, wherever it was, and we can imagine only two explanations.

1. We didn’t follow directions. We zigged when we should have zagged.

2. The directions are incorrect … or have become incorrect over the past decade.

We climbed into San Gimignano, then down the other side of the hill, took a left at two “stately cypresses”, crossed the “malodorous stream” … found our way past a farmhouse (and here, the book is flat wrong; it told us to go right, which led us on to a farm, which led to some blundering around on a hillside and then back to the farmhouse) and then to the little village of Racciano.

Soon after that, something went wrong. We were on a real road for about 25 minutes until we saw a steep and rocky path, wide enough for a four-wheel-drive vehicle, and we turned onto it and went up and up towards a ridge.

Every time it looked as if we were near the top of the ridge, and might be able to see past the trees around us, to get oriented … the path took another turn. It got progressively narrower. Then dark, as the trees closed in. We saw a deer. Then we saw a shotgun shell. It was getting a bit creepy, and we had been out more than two hours …

And we turned back.

We did see lots of nature, which is important for those of us in the arid and fried brown UAE or even the Inland Empire.

But it was not a total loss. We got some exercise. We had a nice conversation. We picked some wild blackberries on the roadside, and those were tasty, and we passed a handsome restaurant with great views of the countryside where we stopped for a light lunch — and returned with the rest of our party for a nice dinner.

We may give the “marvelously desolate” castle one more try. But perhaps via car, this time. Carving out three hours again for a hike we’ve mostly already made is probably not in the cards.