In the interests of moving things along more speedily to 2024, I’m going to start condensing blogs a bit, unless there are special occasions to be detailed. So, this week was a week of work, at the beginning of which was Volterra’s annual arts night: the Red Night. I’ve written about this a couple of times before.

It’s a night held once a year during which, if you visit the walled part of the town, you will find both ourdoors and indoors works of art, demonstrations, music etc. You can also visit private palazzi which are otherwise closed (they’re peoples’ homes!) on other days. It’s a relaxing and chill time, once you have mapped out the attractions you want to visit – some may close early, as I found to my cost in 2019.

I will say this: as fun and interesting as it is, it hasn’t quite returned to the heights of 2019’s night, as there are very few art installations and demos in the streets since Covid. There are some bands out playing, and the palazzi (we visited one) and dance school is open. A couple of additions made this year’s great: the Sacred Arts museum was open and free. I think the Etruscan Guarnacci museum was also too – I think it usually is during Red Night. Museums may be free, but I’m not sure on this point. There was a lot of activity around the pinacoteca (art gallery) and alabaster museum too. But best of all for us, was coming across a wonderful choral group in a chapel on Via San Lino.

I didn’t take photos of the choral group, but you can check them out in the video here:

Niamh went home early, while I went to the dance school, and then ambled along Via Porto all’Arco to KALPA Art Gallery. I heard some piano playing, so walked upstairs to listen and caught a couple of friends. We chatted briefly, before I headed home again. We didn’t attend the 2024 version, as friends of ours were using the house, so I can’t say if the night is on the mend – but 2023’s was a little better than 2022’s in terms of attractions.

On the Sunday, after a pizza lunch (no pun intended), we had a drive around looking at a couple of the mercatini dell’usato (2nd hand markets), but came back empty-handed. We decided to treat ourselves by heading to Pontedera to a Thai restaurant which was reviewing excellently, in our quest to find good Asian restaurants.

They really were lovely people, and the drinks were incredibly authentic, but the food was less so. It was merely ok, and Pad Thai I had didn’t taste at all like I’d expect it to.

The rest of the week was broken up into walks, work and food. Here’s a selection of photos:

We really like to spread our business around, as you can see above!

We finished the week off by attending an exhibition of Roberta Staccioli’s (niece of Mauro Staccioli) works at Osteria Fornelli. After that, a bunch of us clubbed some tables together and we had one of those magical evening where the meal goes on for a few hours, while we talked with both native Volterrans and incoming expats. I remember the North American lady who pronounced the word ‘avvocato’ (a male lawyer) as ‘avocado’ the famous creamy fruit, which led to all sorts of hilarity. I will chiefly remember Costanza, the lady who works at the ticket desk of the Guarnacci museum, who was so generous and patient in insisting that I only speak Italian in order to help my practice.

It’s nights and people like these that make Niamh and I want to move over permanently.