May 2025 – Our Man In Volterra

We had a busy couple of days in store with my brother, and both days we visited towns Niamh and I had already visited. One we’d gone to I think in 2018, and one we’d just been to the previous year.

The first morning, my brother and I took a walk part way around the walls. It was a good day!

Calories burned and consumed, we debated where to go and what to do, but by the time we had done so, we felt it was a little bit late to skip lunch in Volterra, and attempt to dine in our target. This is because that many kitchens in rural Italy will close their doors for lunch around the 14:15/14:30 mark. So, we went next door to Porgi l’Altra Pancia.

Just the one course – something I have to get used to, to get rid of my ever-increasing belly. And then we were on to one of the area’s loveliest hill towns: Certaldo!

Parking is a bit of a weird one. You can either park in the modern square from which you can grab the funicular up to the old town. When we were visiting, however, the square was under construction. We hit the place where we parked last – a designated spot just outside the walls of the old town. A note of caution here, though. Google will try to take you through a ZTL to get to it – not a good idea, as you’ll be fined. So, you have to go around a long way – through some suburban estates and along a very narrow road, along which you’ll sorta double-back on yourself. It’s a lengthier way, but at least you don’t run the risk of losing some money.

Certaldo is a lovely hilltop village, surrounded by a much larger new town. The old town is closely associated with pre-Renaissance poet Giovanni Boccaccio, who you probably haven’t heard of. But maybe you have heard of the Decameron, which was his masterwork? A very famous piece. Anyway, he is rumored to have been born in Certaldo, but certainly died and was buried here in the church of Saints Jacopo e Filippo.

We got out of the car and entered through the northern gate.

Giovanni Boccaccio’s tomb in the church. Blow this photo up and look in the bottom right corner!

In the tombstone photo above, you can see a little object on the bottom right-hand corner. It’s an onion! Certaldo is famous (at least in Tuscany) for its red onions – a more bead-shaped onion, than spherical. They are sweet, like the more world-famous Tropea onions, but while they don’t have DOP or IGP status, they are highly regarded by the Slow Food Presidium. So there you go!

We carried on with our little explore, and came across the Osteria Del Vicario, who kindly sat us in their beautiful back garden so we could have a refreshing drink. They less kindly refused people to take photos of their premises without buying a drink, but oh well. In fairness, they should have just bought a drink – it was worth it.

We had a little explore of the other side of town, before we took the funicular down to the new part of town, which we’d never been before. One snag, however: The machine at which you buy tickets was out of order, and there was nobody at the the ticket booth. We were told we could buy tickets at a nearby touristic shop. We couldn’t, but she kindly phoned a dude whom she told about the broken machine. He had to travel up to verify us and come back down when we did. At the bottom, we played fair and bought a return ticket.

It’s not quite as impressive or as lengthy as Montecatini Terme’s track, but it’s nice and very practical. Volterra could do with at least one!

I had a reason to explore a little of the new town, and dragged poor Niamh and my brother along to the Irish Bar – Fionn Mac Cool. I was wondering if it could possibly be the place closest to me at which I could enjoy an ice-cold hard cider. For some reason, this most perfect of summer drinks is infrequently available anywhere near Volterra. In fact, I have yet to find it outside Florence. But, by the time we got to the place, it was closed! I was sick! It only opened in the evenings – maybe moving to longer opening hours a couple of weeks later – further into the tourist season. The new town itself is modern and functional, and in need of a little TLC.

A little disappointed, we walked a different way back to the funicular terminal and went back up.

On the way back to the car, I made did two things – one a mistake, the other something relevatory which made me feel like an idiot. We stopped off at a gelateria, and while Niamh had some gelato, I didn’t. But all the time I was looking at the Certaldo onion flavour, but I never got it. Next time I’m there, I will get the onion flavoured gelato. I’m still annoyed I didn’t get it. Anyway, instead I got a can of Lemon Soda’s Virgin Mojita. For the past couple of years I have had a virgin mojito in a bar in Volterra, but never saw them mix it. I even recommended the drink to non-drinkers – I thought it was expertly balanced and mixed. Then I took a gulp from the can… and it was the exact. Same. Drink. I had to laugh at my own stupidty: of course it wasn’t the bar – they just poured a can and added ice and a little mint. Having said that, it’s still a wonderfully refreshing drink (not sponsored!).

We rested and chilled until it was time to go out for some dinner. Now, I am almost loathe to give the name of the place, because they’re usually good – and you know what, almost all the dishes we had that night were good, but there was one that was an especial travesty. Sorry, Ombra della Sera!

My fish was literally pulled apart in order to make some sort of attempt at filleting it. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. There’s no way a professional restaurant should have served it like that. Anyway, fortunately the rest of the dishes were tasty – so I have to tip my cap for that.

The next day, I decided to take my brother to the open Etruscan tombs past the Porta Diana. The journey to and into the tombs is wonderful.

I’d visited them a couple of times before but they’re still cool to visit – and motion-detecting lights switch on when you get inside them – looks grim and scary before you do, though. My brother waited patiently outside while I took a few snaps – and then it was time to return.

The journey back is less fun, as it’s uphill all the way – sharply in some areas. I had to pause at one point to catch my breath. On the plus side, the Oratorio della Visitazione chapel was open, and it very rarely is whenever I pass by. I took my chance to step inside and grab a shot o two.

A year ago, we went on a tour of the Val di Cornia and Valle del Diavolo, where our last town visited was Castagneto Carducci. We toured the residential area, wondering where the business/shopping district was, when we came across it – I thought it was a great little place. At the end of the shopping street is a really cute little piazza, and beyond that again is a panoramic viewpoint where you can view a huge chunk of the Tuscan coast – gorgeous – if only I had a drone!

Looking all the way north to Sassoscritto, just north of Quercinella

The weather wasn’t the very best that day, but we made up for that by having lunch in Risto-Macelleria San Martino. Vegetarians and Vegans – sorry about ya, but don’t even bother. This is a carnivore’s dream. Lunch turned into dinner when we saw the menu. I started by having tagliatelle al ragu – with one of the best beef ragus I have ever had. It was rich, intense and maybe even a little smokey – I wondered if they had put a trace of smoked paprika in the sauce. Anyway – I was blown away. For seconds, I got grilled sausage – I didn’t know that there would be three, and although they might look a little dry they were moist and succulent. Incredible. I just ate too much. Niamh and my brother had a chargrilled burger, with Niamh having had a . It might have been a little too much on the rare side, but it tasted nice.

We went home and chilled and, incredibly went out to eat in Don Beta. Honestly, I don’t remember this meal. I remember being absolutely stuffed by the meal earlier in the day. I look now at the photos below in disbelief. Then at my belly, and appreciate the reasons why I am quite overweight at the time of writing this!

I had three courses – soup, spaghetti all’olio aglio e peperoncino and cheesecake? What a pig!

We did burn some calories with an evening walk – it was the Italian equivalent of Corpus Cristi that night, so there was a little religious parade.

I’m going to leave this dark moment in my history alone now! I hope you enjoyed the read and the photos, but let me know what you think.

Six or seven weeks after our return from Venice, it was time to return back to our little cradle of peace – Volterra. This year began a spate of flights that were supposed to take off at 18:20 in Ireland, but about 75% of the time were delayed, meaning that we didn’t actually hit our beds in Italy until 01:00-02:00. Tired but excited. We had a little appointment with a friend on the first day, but first – a little walk!

Afterwards, we had lunch in Ristorante Etruria (which I see has climbed from 3.8 to 4.0 in Google – well done guys), and I had something on their menu I’d never had before – or it was new to their menu; not sure which. It was a sausage, cheese and pepper sauce… and do you know what? It was bloody delicious!

Shortly after lunch, after we’d re-prettied ourselves, we called out to Chianni to see Marisa and David of the Tales from Tuscany youtube channel. Earlier in the year, Marisa had taken a very nasty fall in a hotel, and she could only walk a small distance, so our usual meetup of going somewhere to explore was out the window. The plan was we’d have a good old natter, then David an I would leave Marisa and Niamh to chat further, while the pair of us took in a local football (soccer, il calcio) match.

There are some spectacular views from Chianni

Now I know Italians are very passionate about football, but when we got to the carpark of the local pitch it was rammed with vehicles. David and I had only just stepped out of the vehicle when a huge firework went off. Post-anxiety, I’m now usually relatively cool and collected, but that terrific noise came out of nowhere and I nearly lost control of my sphincter!

There was a shed opened with a shop inside. We grabbed a beer each and headed towards the concrete bleacher seating that stood only on one side of the pitch. In front of that was a light railing, and in front of that again was a chicken-wire fence behind which the game was being played. There were maybe a couple of hundred people here, if even. I noticed that someone had duct-taped flares to the railings, and a couple of these were lit during the game. They really love their football here.

It turns out it was quite an important game – the last game of the season. If Chianni’s competitors won (they were from Staffoli), they would win the division championship. Chianni needed three points from the win to give them a better playoff position. It ended up a goal apiece – the second half being a little more fun than the first. A couple of Staffoli supporters got a little emotional at the verbal abuse at the end of the game, and had to be held back to avoid physical altercation. All-in-all, I’d go again, and I really must attend Volterra’s games when I start spending more time over here.

We went back to Marisa and David’s and had a good long chat. They both have a good sense of humour, and can give a slagging as well as taking it. Poor Marisa was moving sluggishly, and there was no way we could have visited anywhere in a meaningful way. We wished Marisa a speedy recovery and headed home.

That evening we were in La Terra di Mezzo for some yumminess and smiles:

Next day, we were up pretty early. My brother was arriving on a morning flight and we had to go pick him up. These days, whenever we have to travel north (either to pick someone up or drop them back to the airport), we take advantage of being north enough to travel to places we haven’t been before. In this case…. we didn’t! Haha! We had been to all of these places before, but my brother hadn’t, so we took him along to see two spectacular bridges. The first of which we stopped at before, but heck – it’s beautiful, so here it is again! The wonderful Devil’s Bridge:

My brother was suitably impressed. The colours are just amazing. It was approaching lunchtime, but we didn’t hang around here for food, but instead carried on to the next bridge, at which that last time we didn’t stop. It’s more of an industrial, steam-punky affair – at it can be found at the far end of Fornoli, and is only a 7 minute or so drive from the Devil’s Bridge (at the time of writing this – 02/05/25 there is a road-blockage, the detour around which doubles the travel time).

The bridge takes you from Fornoli’s new town to the old town.

We stopped in Bagni di Lucca, and ate in the square which contained the Theatre and the Circolo (a sort of social club you’ll find in many towns – don’t overlook the occasional one for killer food). Bagni is a strange kind of town, as it’s split into two – firstly a really cute part with a tiny piazzetta by a bridge and direct views of the river. Then there’s a bit of a gap as you take a bend with the river with few, if any, buildings and then a larger part, bordering the river.

Anyway, we parked by a hotel and didn’t go to that Circolo. Although the menu looked really nice, it was a little restrictive. We walked up the town a bit to see if there were any restaurants opened. Strangely, there were none. It was a Sunday and I would have thought we were in season, but there weren’t a lot of people about. We walked back to the square and ate in a place that had everything on the menu – Ristorante del Sonno. I usually try to avoid these places, as their food only tends to be so-so. It had a 4 or sub-4 rating on Google at the time, but now it has a 4.1. I’m glad we stayed. The pasta dish I got was, in fairness, wonderful. It also serves pizza – and I remember at the time one of the two Americans sitting next to us complained that his wasn’t sliced for him. Oh dear! The service was a little wary at first, but it soon warmed up when we used a little Italian to order – always works a treat.

We didn’t walk around for long. In fairness, it was a big ask of my brother who had been up since the wee hours and was now beginning to fade – so we drove the 2-hour drive home.

After an later afternoon rest, we caught the sunset out by Fornelli and had a couple of spritzes.

As we had pasta earlier on, we didn’t go mad during dinner – just pizza and beer at La Mangiatoia.

I began the next two days with walks with my brother.

The landslide has killed this amazing view

I’ll be honest, I do not remember a lot of what we did these days, except they were spent in Volterra. We had dinner in La Vecchia Lira for the first day, for the second we spent ttime in a restaurant we don’t visit often enough: Osteria La Pace.

Well, that’s how it began. I will continue to merge days where I can in an effort to catch myself up to 2025! For extra-special days, I’ll holder over an entire blog. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.