The builder who managed the updating of our bathroom was supposed to arrive this morning to grab the rest of the old porcelaine items he left in the cellar and to have a look at a couple of other things. What he thought we were going to do with them, I do not know! Sadly, we blew the morning on waiting, and this was the first of two reasons why we didn’t venture out in the car for an explore: it was raining.

We lazed in for a while and then had a short walk about town, before stopping in Dolceria del Corso for a sinful pastry and coffee… well… I had a wonderfully gloopy hot chocolate. Was chaotic at the bar, but we ordered and were told to grab a table at the back. I love the liveliness of Italian bars, but despite having sufficient Italian, I often find it intimidating – mostly down to not always knowing local protocol, but we survived and loved the fare.

After that, we had another walkabout. A few years previously, we’d stopped in Monteriggioni and I was completely captivated by the work of Fabrizio Ferrari – I bought one of his pieces there. He has opened up a studio in Volterra (on Via Minzoni), along with another favourite: Veronika. We arrived there, and while we found the place open, there was nobody actually in the gallery minding shop. We heard movement in one of the cellars, but decided to have a look without disturbing who happened to be down there. I hate to rag on Ireland, but honestly, this simply wouldn’t happen back home. In Dublin, the place would be ransacked. Anyway, we had a look around, and there are some amazing works there, but I found one of Fabrizio’s thematically similar to the one I’d bought in Monteriggioni.

We called down the stairway to the cellar, and two voices called back; neither of them female, so I guess Veronika was back in her work studio in La Sassa. Fabrizio called up, with a younger man in tow. We reintroduced ourselves to him, his broken English matching my broken Italian. He introduced us to his son, who must be following in his dad’s footsteps. We showed him a photo of the piece we’d bought from him, and he recognised it immediately. He really warmed-up when we told him we’d met his brother at their exhibition in Radda in Chianti a couple of years previously. He gave us a tour of the showroom, including what several pieces meant to him. I eventually showed him the piece we wanted. He informed us the price hasn’t changed, despite his higher profile: €50 for a piece in coloured Bic pens. Here are the two side by side.

We walked out with the work pressed between two pieces of thick, stiff board and made our way towards the framers on Via dei Sarti. On the way, I bought a meaty arancino (breadcrumbed rice-ball with fillings) and then headed into a new produce/deli store onn Gramsci, and came out with oils, salami and some truffle crisps!

After we’d spent 15 minutes select our frame (light cobalt blue?) and border (none!), we left the art with the nice framing guy, who said he’d have it next week. Then we had a rare lunch at home – I say rare, as for the rest of the holiday, we spent a lot of time eating out and putting on weight. I ate the arancino (no photo – sorry), some mixed leaves, cheeses and meats. Niamh had made herself some panzanella the previous day, so it had flavoured-up nicely for her!

We stayed in and lazed/screen-watched. Then, out of the blue, our doorbell rang. It was our builder! He collected some stuff, but had to leave the toilet and bidet until another day. He took a look at the towel-rail that needed hanging, but declared that he’d have to order in a new drill bit, because the tiles we chose would shatter if tried using the bit he currently had. He also had a look at a new large damp spot that appeared over our fridge. Heading out, we indicated that it was coming from where plaster fell away from the brickwork outside on the terrace. The terrace above belonged to another person, and so he said he’d have to come back with the building super and a geometra to see what could be done.

He said his farewell, and we stayed in, as it was raining a bit.

That evening, we went back to L’Incontro – they started recognising us by now. We had a nice little aperitivo, and then headed to Torre del Porcellino for some dinner.

We went back home after that. And that was the day that was!

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