January 2024 – Our Man In Volterra

I’m expecting this to be a short one.

Well, the morning started off super-well! I went on an enormous walk: all the way out of the walls through San Giusto and on to the cliffs. The path that I thought took you to the base of the cliffs was actually reopened after a couple of years being closed.

After I’d gotten to the campsite near San Giusto and breezed past the old Etruscan walls, I decided to walk the narrow track to see if I could get a good shot of the Balze – the cliffs surrounding the northern part of the the town. I passed by the super-sized stile (steps really), leading down towards the valley below. They had been closed for 2 years previously, so I was eager to give the route a go. I wasn’t wearing sensible footwear for a strenuous hike, but it turns out that was ok.

The pathways and steps inexorably down, down… towards the road. Hmmm. I thought it was going to eventually lead all the way down past the valley to the base of the cliffs where old Etruscan village ruins are rumoured to be found. But no – it led to farther on down the road that just leads back to Volterra. Although, more positively, it leaves you within a much safer walking distance of the abandoned abbey of Badia Camaldolese and the hamlet of Montebradoni, neither of which I have yet visited. I see lengthy walks in my future this year!

However, I walked back towards town. You can see some of the photos of the view above. When past the Conad supermarket, I paused at the studio of the ‘dreamwalker’, Nico Lopez Bruchi – a mural-painter here in Volterra.

Once home, I shaved and showered and prepared myself for the trip of the day: to Ikea in Pisa. Ok, not particularly glamorous, so I didn’t document it really. Our friend was moving apartment, so we said we’d help out by bringing her there to shop for knick-knacks, and doo-dads. Oh yeah, and see if any furniture grabbed her attention. On the way to pick up our friend, I grabbed a gelato (what else is new?) and papped the wonderful Vicolo delle Prigioni, which flanks part of our apartment.

We had a little lunch there in Ikea, and while our friend got some joy in finding what she wanted, Niamh and I ended up buying THE WORLD’S GREATEST CHAIR™. Our sofa is annoying us somewhat, so we wanted another comfy chair we could sit in, and actually point towards the telly, rather than contorting ourselves into all sorts of unnatural poses. It’s sort of a balancing light-rocker that’s only enhanced by an accompanying footrest. We didn’t buy the accompanying footrest, as we have a couple of blow-up poofs in the apartment at the right height.

In case you want one in your life – I think the cushions come separately

On the way home, our friend said she wanted to take us out to dinner and asked us to recommend a place. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I suggested Trattoria Albana in the lovely hamlet of Mazzolla – a 15 or so minute drive outside Volterra. I phoned them up and booked a table. Me! Alone(ish)! Yay for improved Italian skills!

So, later that evening, we prettied ourselves up and I was designated driver. On the way, we experienced a little bit of magic, as we got caught behind a herd of sheep who were being moved to another field. It was golden hour, and it was amazing to see the golden light kiss their woolly hides.

I WAS DRIVING! Cut me some slack… you can find slightly better footage in the video below.

We parked, walked about the panoramic perimeter of the town, suitably going ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’.

We were the only people for a while in the back of the restaurant/bar. The food here is always great. Don’t expect haute, but flavourful, well-cooked, rustic Tuscan food.

Afterwards, we went home, and I squashed a poor hedgehog on the road. I still feel sad about that nearly 9 months later. Poor scrap. We ended up in Antica Velathri Café for digestivi and cocktails. Pietro attended another couple and we got a fantastic demo of him making a very fancy cocktail for them, which you can see in the video below.

It was off to bed, then – via testing of the WORLD’S GREATEST CHAIR™. We went to bed happy!

Below is the link to the video of the day. Enjoy!

Whenever I got to Volterra, as happy as I am to be in it, I’m also dead keen to get out of it too. Not for any qualitative reason, but just to explore new places. I tend to forget, therefore, why first-time guests are always keen to stay in the town rather than move about. Volterra alone will command your attention for 4-6 days, especially if you’re a thorough bugger. Admittedly less than that if you just want to see the highlights. She is also very beautiful, and all you would rather do is chill, then is no better town for that.

Anyway, my point here is that our guests wanted to hang about the town for another day, rather than go on an excursion, and so we obliged them. Niamh and I must have done very little of note in the middle of the day. I quite possibly sat in and played CyberPunk 2077 while the ladies went out shopping. Having said that, I did go start the 28th with a nice walk.

Look at that lighting and sicken yourself with jealousy

The sky was unbelievably clear and the light to shadow ratio on the rolling colline (hills) was as good as it gets. Such a clear view of the geothermal stacks in Larderello in that last pic. You could see as far as Corsica, and I was unsure if I could even make out snow on its mountains. I’d seen photos of that before, but wasn’t sure if it was snow on mountains or distant clouds.

I walked around as far as the steps at Docciola and nearly killed myself by walking up all nearly 200 of them. I needed the XBox to sort myself out after that (any excuse!).

For lunch we did something new, at least – and had a sandwich somewhere different. This time, it was Al Vicolino‘s turn, and it was quite yummy.

It was our guests’ last night, so we took them one of our favourite restaurants: La Vecchia Lira, who change up a lot of their menu, based on season. Apart from one moment on insensitivity from me, the night went pretty well! I too often think that folks have the same sense of humour I have, and that used to get me into trouble a lot more than it does these days – but I do have the occasional slip. Apologies again, Maire, if you’re reading this!

Thankfully the food was on point more than I was!

We went home, suitably stuffed. We most likely got soundly thrashed by the young lady at pool on the XBox and went to bed disgusted.

Next morning, and it was time to see our lovely guests off on an afternoon flight from Florence airport. That’s right: Florence. We’d never driven to, nor seen, Florence airport, so it would be an experience! However, first: to (quickly) show the ladies around Florence. We parked at our usual spot, and took the tram in. 10-12 minutes sees you into the central train station (Santa Maria Novella) and a 7-10 minute walk to the cathedral.

The frontage of the Cathedral in particular has so much fine detail

As much as we take the same route in Siena, it’s even more so. Usually, we fly in by tram, then it’s Duomo > Piazza della Republica > Piazza della Signoria > Ponte Vecchio > eat in the Oltrarno > a quick look at the Palazzo Piti > a quick explore of the lanes of the Oltrarno > gelato > back over the Santa Trinita Bridge > through the Piazza di Santa Maria Novella > tram > home. This was only slightly different. After we’d taken the ladies across to the quieter side of the Arno we had to have an early lunch, due to the ladies’ flight time. We broke our own rules by stopping at a restaurant with pictures galore of its food – it was one of the few places open – and had some pizza.

I seem to remember a lot of salt in the food. Ah well… you get what you pay for sometimes. We travelled the rest of the route and took the ladies to the airport.

You can see a video of this day, plus the day in Siena we had the previous day.

We had to negotiate one of the few tricker highway junctions in order to get to Florence airport. I couldn’t get over how tiny it was! We drove in, got our little parking ticket, said goodbye and had to validate on the way out. There seemed to be just one guy guarding the carpark. It’s so tiny. Anyhoo, we did so and took the tricky highway whorls out of the town, and (eventually) home.

I treated myself to a gelato from L’Isola del Gusto, and had a moment over a pet rock that was left behind by the younger of our two guests.

With the guests gone, and our appetite for more Italian food on the wane, I had the great idea of going to one of the Chinese/Japanese places in Cecina. We drove to the carpark near the train station, and walked to Sushi Queen. I checked Google, and by golly, it was open! Except it wasn’t. We walked up to it, and it looked open. People were busy moving furniture around and rushing between rooms. I walked up and asked them if they were open, and they replied no. ”But Google said you were,” is what I wanted to yell at him, while shaking him by the lapels. But I just walked out disgusted, Niamh following behind less disgusted. I was on a crusade and wrote a scathing review afterwards (I have since removed it).

Here’s the thing restaurant owners: if you don’t have a website and have your times on Google, please update the bloody things when you’re not actually open. It could save people a round trip of disappointment if they travel to your place of business to find it shut. I was annoyed, as it’s a round trip of over 80km.

It turns out that there is another Chinese/Japanese place about 100m away, so that sucked the anger out of me somewhat. So thank you, Sushi Giapponese Tokyo for being open! We ordered a fair bit of food. It wasn’t bad – especially the rice, dim sum and noodles, but as usual we still haven’t fully found our Chinese Shangri-La, so to speak, with the stir-fried dishes. But it was a different flavour profile, and enjoyable… and the staff were really nice.