Sorry I’ve been away a while. I’m working on a project which is chewing up a lot of my time at the moment. Normal service will eventually be resumed.

We spent this day in Volterra – except to take our guest home. She wasn’t due to fly ’til later that evening, so we went on cultural excursion to the Art and Alabaster museum. But first, the walk of course! I kept it inside the walls today, starting with a trip down the steps at Docciola and then working my way up to the Bastione carpark. Although we’re allowed to use this carpark, we’ve never done so. It’s easily the closest one to us, but the entrance to the lane that leads to the carpark is super-narrow. The laneway broadens, but it really isn’t wide enough for 2-way traffic (which it is!), so we have a vague terror of meeting another car going in the opposite direction. At both ends you would have to reverse around narrow corners… and at one end up a steep hill. We’re too chickenshit to do this in a rental.

Some of the views over the Val d’Era from the carpark are rather nice, though.

The walk continued inside the walls. It’s not as demanding a walk as outside, I feel, but there are enough hills and dips to give the heart a good workout in places.

Not untypical of me, I had dessert before I had lunch, at Chic & Shock. I rarely go anywhere other than L’Isola del Gusto for gelato, but sometimes a change is as good as a rest. Afterwards, we went to La Taverna della Terra di Mezzo for some lunch. And more dessert. I have a sickness.

We said our goodbyes to Robbi and Aurora and made a beeline towards Volterra’s lovely Art and Alabaster Museum, to show our guest around. Failing to secure tickets for three students, we went in grudgingly as adults.

I was super-excited, as I thought they had restored Rosso Fiorentino’s Deposition of Christ, and it was on display. I was surprised at the time, as I thought it didn’t particularly need any restoration. Anyway, it’s one of my favourite pieces in the entire collection, and it’s always nice to see it.

We entered the courtyard after buying the tickets and I noticed a peculiar thing: an exact copy of Rosso Fiorentino’s Deposition of Christ turned on its side, and leaning casually against a wall. I didn’t think anything of that until later.

We toured the alabaster museum first. Volterra is one of the European centres for Alabaster, so if you’re a fan of the medium, you’re in for a treat. I was taking video at the time (see below), so I only have one well-taken photo of a ‘slice’ of a replica of the bell tower in Pisa.

Our visitor was enthralled with the history and examples, and rendered slightly terrified at the bust of the scary smiling lady in the mock-up of a workshop they have in the museum. This seems to freak everyone out – you can catch a brief glimpse of her perched in front of a window at 09:37 in the video you can find a bit below.

Once done in the alabaster section, it was time to check out the paintings in the adjoining building. Most of the artwork is religious because, back in the day, the Church (or wealthy families needing to curry favour with it) was the only patron wealthy enough to commission pieces.

And the grand-daddy – Rosso Fiorentino’s mannerist masterpeice, The Deposition. I remember seeing this painting in art books when I was a kiddo. However, there was something different about it. It was not in the same condition I was used to seeing it, and access to it was blocked off by plastic glass and temporary walls. Some of the paint had flaked off. And then I understood. This was the real version undergoing restoration – so they were not finished yet. Then what had I been looking at before? Was it the one so casually left leaning on the wall in the courtyard? I lingered for a while, feeling a little disillusioned. Maybe all galleries do this with their masterworks. Is the Signorelli painting above a restored original or another copy? I’m almost too afraid to ask. Perhaps I’m being too idealistically romantic.

Below you can find a video of our day to that point:

We left fully culturalised and took a meandering route back to the apartment.

A while later, it was time to drive our guest to Pisa Airport. I think she enjoyed her time with us over the weekend, and there’s still plenty for her to do should she decide on a return visit.

That evening we chilled. We had hunger pangs and so nipped out to L’Hamburgeria for a bite to take away. It was not bad. I love the fries here – they’re like shoestring chipper-chips!

Finally, we topped off the day with a slow walk on our street and around Piazza dei Priori.

Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think, or if you have any questions.

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