A shortish one, but contains a little adult (childish) humour and some language in the video near the bottom – you have been warned.

Sunday, June 11th
Every second Sunday of a given month, the small town of Vicopisano hosts a huge antiques and collectibles market. We have been there a number of times now, and met up with friends Marie and Lorenzo of Authentic Tuscany, their Tuscan experiential and lodging rentals company. These guys work their fingers to the bone, so it’s always great to be able to see them relax. This day, we would meet them a little later, as they were checking out an annual car-blessing in a nearby town. Three great things about Vicopisano for me, is that you can check out 600 years of architecture in a single stretch over 200 meters, explore defensive battlements designed by Brunellischi, and finally it is a haven from the stretch of towns that run into one another in the Val d’Arno – which is rather densely populated (for Tuscany) – whilst still being a great base for exploring.

As well as meeting Marie and Lorenzo, we’d be calling into Chianni so we could Marisa along with us. Check out Marisa’s YouTube channel here. She had no vehicle and, as lovely as Chianni is, we would be giving her an opportunity to get out and about.

We drove the hour (plus the additional 30 mins there and back for Chianni), parked in a field at the northern part of town and had an explore of the market. We would soon find out that, as usual, the temperatures are 4-5 degrees warmer here than they are in Volterra. We were glad of it, though, as we were pretty tired of rain by this point. Having said that, it was a glorious day in Volterra too.

We had a tour around the main part of the market – around the square and the roads spiderwebbing from it. There were the usual knick-knacks, signs, war memorabilia, books, glass and ceramics, ancient dildos and gramophones. Yes, that’s right: I said gramophones.

We were standing by a stall when I saw an enormous wooden phallus sitting innocently at the front of it. Out of nowhere. And what a remarkably, ah, detailed specimen it was, and had useful testes attached. A couple of tourists approached it – not us, a pair of older men, and picked it up and started making jokes, both verbal and physical. The rather aggrieved owner of the stall got shirty with them and ordered them to put it back on the table. I’m kinda glad he didn’t ask them to put it where it belongs. Anyway, they did so and the the spectacle was over, and we moved on.

Usually, you can find another stretch of stalls by the community Circolo – a wonderful bar with tons of outside seating. We traipsed down this area too, and Niamh picked up a demijohn she’s been looking for for ages. It was a small one – a sort of semi demijohn, if you will. It now rests in our apartment kitchen. I’m sure Marisa also picked something up too – check out the last 5 minutes of this video for a run-down of the market.

We had a drink in the sun, but Marie and Lorenzo were still delayed at the other town – but we were advised to go to the restaurant on the corner of the square. It’s currently called Aurora Taverna Toscana Osteria – but might have been called otherwise back then. We asked for a table and Marisa told them that we were with Marie and Lorenzo and that there’s a table for six booked (they were expecting another friend from New York).

We were shown to a table where we waited. And waited. And waited. They just didn’t seem to have any interest whatsoever in serving us. I’m not sure we even got water or bread – but we found it impossible to order. Admittedly, we could have been more ballsy, but I was caught eating as a group and not. Anyway, the sky didn’t fall, and by the time Maria and Lorenzo arrived it was only more likely that we’d enjoy our food all the more. We ordered, the food and wine came and everything was really delicious.

A little of the way into the meal, we were joined by another ex-pat in Vicopisano – a New Yorker whose name I completely forget now (sorry dude), but the more the merrier. We all had a good laugh – but soon it was time to leave and off we popped, and left Marisa back in Chianni.

We had just the one course to eat in Vicopisano (astonishingly), so that evening we had pizzas in La Mangiatoia and post-dinner cocktails in Antica Velathri Café, and then spent our night in the apartment – as we had work the next day! Yay!

Mon-Weds, June 12th-14th
This next section is a collection of photos from the week. I’ll break them down between walks and food. At the bottom you’ll find a key memory – one of my best from Volterra – hard to explain why – with an accompanying video! Those few days went quite well, weather-wise, until Wednesday evening.

And now the food and drink-related pics!

Now for my fondest memory! We went midweek drinking with our friend – who usually doesn’t drink much. We’d had aperitivi in Volaterra (see one of the pics above), and decided that we were giddy enough to carry it on back at our apartment. We stepped outside and the heavens opened. We stopped at Fabio’s, and picked up some wine. Then it began to seriously pour, and so I took this little bit of video on the way. And it was good times. A core memory of Volterra for me now. Our poor friend had a 36-hour hangover after this night – we worked with little problem the next day!