Goodbye dosh, plus The Museum of Sacred Art

The furniture store in Navacchio still hadn’t been in touch, so we decided to check out the artist’s store and afterwards head into the less interesting looking part of Colle di Val d’Elsa to purchase a single chair.

The artist is a lady, who is wildly effusive about her work, and from looking at her work on a current piece, operates solely from memory or imagination, with no recourse to reference images. Quite a talent to have. Her work is relatively inexpensive, but is nonetheless pretty and colourful. We ended up choosing a wide piece, without a frame, of a bucolic scene with lavendar and poppies, with a farmhouse and cypress in the background, all overseen by magnificently painted clouds in a cerulean sky. Lovely.

She boggled when we bought it and was extremely grateful – we’d only been in her store maybe 15 minutes. I’ll slap up a photo when we hang it. We have to wait ’til the end of the first week until the first piece we bought is framed. I’ll show you this too when it’s ready and in-place.

Then onwards to Colle. You might recall that this is our second attempt to visit this furniture store – they had been away on holidays the last time we called out. We arrived and the store was open. It was also a great deal warmer than Volterra at about 33 celsius. We went inside, where it was nicely air-conditioned. I think we might have been in the place less than 10 minutes when we had the chair selected. I think it was her first day back after having nearly a month off, so she probably couldn’t believe her luck! We managed to fit it in the car (the advantages of having a hatchback), and drove home. I took snaps on the way back.

Once home, we carried the chair between us up to our apartment. In hindsight, we should have driven into town and deposited the chair much nearer the apartment, but oh well – lesson learned. The tendons in my arms were sore afterwards, leading to comic instances of shakey-hands when I tried to eat lunch. Here’s the chair!

We went to Da Beppino for lunch, where I ordered the pici with lamb sauce, and Niamh sliced grilled beef with a side of greens. Niamh got what she ordered. I didn’t. But I’m kind of glad I didn’t. Instead I got pici with a sauce of Chianina beef and it was excellent, and proof why I prefer a stock-based ragù to a tomato one.

That afternoon, I had a little siesta, and then got up to go to the Museum of Sacred Art. Whether you’re a believer or not, I think it’s an essential visit, just to see the progression of humankind’s skill in painting and sculpture. I got there around 17:50 and paid the €5 to get in. They have a couple of touch-screen sections in Italian and English, explaining a little about their masterwork pieces.

I had a good nose around, and with some of the works, the sculptures in particular, it was hard to believe that many of them were about a half-millenium old. One in particular, of Pope Linus (the second Pope, who was born in Volterra, and succeeded St. Peter in the role). The bust is the one in the photos below with the robes in blue lacquer.

St. Linus

I was almost done, when a lady approached saying that they were closing the Museum – but they could give me a few minutes to finish-up. The closing time was 18:00, and they only gave me the bum’s-rush at 18:25. So a 30 minute visit should be enough – unless you are a student or historian of art. I grabbed a few evening shots of Volterra on the way home, and snuck into L’Incontro for a cone of chocolate and coffee gelati (practically the only way you can get me to ingest coffee).

What could be more Italian than spaghetti (or bucatini) and meatballs? Quite a lot, as it happens, as that dish is an American concoction, and can only be found in Italy in the hokiest of tourist restaurants. Meh, we were going to have it anyway! On our last trip to Ikea, we grabbed some frozen meatballs on the way out. Niamh cooked these up in a tomato sauce with bucatini for dinner. Rawr! Those meatballs are worth a purchase, should you happen to find youself in an Ikea.

My right Achilles is giving out to me a little – most likely from all the hill-climbing – so I’m resting it this morning – therefore, no walk. My brother is a keen hiker, so I need it to be ok for whatever he might put us through when he visits on Sunday.

Thanks for reading – I hope you enjoyed it!