Author: eoinarmstrong

2024)

And so I was seated (in the apartment), for a thousand seasons (about 36 hours) upon my throne (frequently on the toilet) – see last blog. During that time I ate plain (but still yummy) food, and Marie and Lorenzo from Authentic Tuscany came over. We were supposed to go to lunch with them and I ushered Niamh to do so, but bless them – they came to the apartment and we had a good chinwag for 90 minutes or so. I felt guilty. Then I had to use the bathroom again.

My tummy felt better for a few hours, and we decided to hit the town and go for a pizza. I thought I was being wise by not having beer, turns out I was only slightly wise.

I even went for a white pizza, in case my stomach found the tomato base too acidic.

It transpired that this was the dumbest move I had made possibly all year. Even before I reached the apartment, I felt a lead weight in my belly, and drew the conclusion that I had just given the new nasty bacteria in my belly a fresh meal. It was about 3 days before I would recover from this mistake – the guts (pun intended) of this week’s holiday. During this time, I had more plain(ish) food and I ventured on walks that didn’t take me too far from the apartment.

Once I’d become well again, it was back to a cycle of walking and eating, but generally keeping to the town as much as possible.

We hadn’t seen a friend of ours from Montaione for a while, and though we’d treat her to lunch. She and her husband, spend a lot of hours in work in their shop (they run an antiques business: Tutto Torno Antiques), restore antiques or are out buying or delivering their wares. They don’t have a lot of time to themselves, as is the case for a lot of people we know who work for themselves in Italy. Anyway, we reached Montaione, collected her and we drove to her recommended restaurant: Ristorante Il Caminetto. We found out during the meal that it was her birthday soon, so of course we told her we totally new this and she was very welcome to her birthday lunch! It turns out that not only was the food here was mostly great, it was also quite inexpensive! The steak was cooked perfectly, but the sauce had a sourness to it, like the base was mustard instead of cream.

Not many places in Tuscany do steak au poivre

We had a good chinwag and a laugh. After dropping her home, we drove back through the picturesque Val d’Era – which, to my mind, always gives the Val d’Orcia a run for its money.

A couple of days later, we headed to Livorno with our friend. We stopped of first, though, at the lovely lavender fields of Santa Luce. There’s a small carpark there near the more cultivated show-grounds a little bit away from the town itself – the more extensive commercial grounds, being closer to the town. We got out and had a small wander around the smaller, prettier, set first. I didn’t stray too far, as there were bees, which I am a little afraid of – I love them, but have issues with being stung (pain, more than allergies!). The plants here were full and smelled fantastic, and there were a few people around wandering through the rows.

Once done there, we headed back to the more extensive fields. The flowers there weren’t as fully grown, but there were more fields, plus it looked like searing for a lavender sagra – nothing was open there at the time.. a pity, as I wanted to try the lavender gelato. The views from these fields, however, were fantastic.

It was one of those places you occasionally come across which I call a ‘Tuscany in a bottle’ scene. It had rolling hills, vineyards, olive groves and, for once, lavender fields. If you’re in the area, it’s definitely work checking out, especially during the lavender festival.

Anyway, onwards to Livorno. We parked in our usual spot, and ventured forth. Our friend hadn’t been to the food market there before, so we had a look around and she bought some spice and rice. The usual market was outside too, but also the outdoor food market – it’s an amazing place to go if you want true sight into the heart of Italian life. Livorno, although a port town, where cruise ships land is seriously under-visited by tourists. I guess it’s a little rough around the edges in places, but there are parts – the food market, mini-Venice, the fortress and Terrazza Mascagni – which are really lovely; and the food scene is great too, once you do your homework.

There are times when you just want to skip Tuscan food after a week or two of it, and burgers were the order of the day. We went to Livorno’s branch of I’m Burger. We loved it!

Then it was off to explore – and yes, we went to the usual places – and drove to the checkerboard Terrazza Mascagni to boot. I love these places.

We decided to drive home by the coast. The road south out of Livorno is a thing to see. It has some of the most startlingly over-the-top properties I’ve yet seen in Tuscany. Give it a go! Anyway, we drove down the coast, avoiding most towns, but stopped at Vada, for which Niamh and I have a strange kind of love. On the way home, just past Cecina, we found somewhere we could stop to take photos of some sunflower fields. These are at their best for maybe a month if you’re lucky, so it’s an advantageous to come in early to mid-July.

We largely stayed at home for a couple of days after that grand adventure, sometimes eating out, sometimes cooking at home.

We still had some more days left on this holiday – but this is where I’ll leave you for now. The 2025 season is now over for us, so I’ll be able to start updating the blogs more often. Hopefully, I’ll be all caught-up in time for 2026! Thanks for reading, and take care!

Holiday Within A Holiday (29/06-03/07/2024)

Warning! Due to circumstances which befell me during this period, this blog may have a lot of scatalogical references.

We knew were were going away to spend a weekend in a hotel, and so spent a quiet day or two in Volterra after the white night in Vicopisano, just eating at home and in the lovely traditional restaurant La Carabaccia.

The next day, I went out for a morning walk, and managed to catch the beginnings of a classic car rally leaving from Piazza dei Priori. It was a lively affair, and there were plenty of vehicles and their proud, gabbling owners knocking about quite early in the morning. I took some shots… some artsy!

There seems to be some sort of early-morning vehicular activity in the square at least once a month. Mostly it’s cars – which might be brand-restricted, other times it’s motorbikes.. and on a couple of occasions in the last few years, mountain biking urban course championships have been held here, as well as the beginning of one of the routes of the Gira d’Italia.

That afternoon, we had bruschettone in Porgi l’Altra Pancia and a gelato from L’Isola del Gusto.

Later that evening, we went to one of our faves: La Vecchia Lira for dinner.

Finally, we hit what was to me the more looked-forward to part of the year: to spend two nights away from Volterra, somewhere else along the coast: a holiday within a holiday. We booked the improbably-named Mercure Argentario Hotel Filippo II on Monte Argentario. It wasn’t too expensive, had a pool, and was reasonably well located, but took a small car journey into the nearby coastal town town of Porto Santo Stefano.

Monte Argentario itself is effectively an island, joined to the mainland by two curving land-bridges and one actual bridge bisecting a manmade lagoon.

Monte Argentario

There’s Monte Argentario above, courtesy of Apple Maps.

A friend of ours was thinking of spending some time in Castiglione della Pescaia, and so we thought we’d join her for half a day, and give her a lift there. So, that was some unexpected fun! We got up at sparrowfart, drove via Cecina down the main vein of the Tuscan coast – the E80. We parked in our usual spot, and then saw our friend into her lovely Air BnB, before hitting Bango Perla.

The restaurant at Bagno Perla serves reasonable food, and we left happy. We’d usually head back to the beach for a dip and a rest before we’d head home, but this time we had a different destination.

We changed, and drove on entirely new roads to Monte Argentario. We even saw a little bit of Grosseto itself (the capital of this particular province), having to skirt around its train station and shaggy suburbs.

Our excitement grew as our distance to the coast lessened, and was palpable when we were crossing the northernmost landbridge onto the ‘island itself’. I love coastal scenes generally, and the ones here were no exception – people lying on rocky beaches or scurrying across the road to or from their accommodation. The air itself changes, and more stone pines can be seen, which always reminds us of the coast.

We finally reached the entrance to the spiraling road that led up to the hotel. It was over worrying narrow bridge, that was less than fun to cross back over unsighted onto the main road. Parking was handy enough, and we checked-in.

It turns out we were given something of a suite. A huge living-room/kitchen area, a big bedroom and bathroom and a large terrace to boot. All fully, and blessedly, air-conditioned. We were well-impressed!

We had a look over the terrace walls onto the Mediterranean and thought we’d landed in paradise. We rested for a little while, as we’d been going since the early morning (I can never truly ‘rest’ at the beach).

Later on, we took the car into the town to grab some dinner. It’s so cute on the way in.

It took us a little while to find a parking spot, and we eventually resorted to parking in Piazza Facchinette, which was essentially carpark, which only seems to charge daily rates – so go elsewhere if you’re on any kind of budget, or have a modicum of pride. Niamh and I were burdened by neither!

We walked along the promenade. It’s a noisy place. I didn’t mind it as much as Niamh, being a bit of a city boy and all. We found three restaurants in a row, settling for the first one: Osteria La Terrazza di Mataloni Riccardo.

Niamh looking smug, because her dish ‘won’

We sat outside, so we could look at the promenade and the bay. What we should have copped on to was that we were right beside a busy road. Again, I didn’t mind too much, but it was terribly noisy. Anyway, despite the location, the food was actually pretty decent, with the standout being Niamh’s pasta dish.

Rain came down quite heavily after a while. The couple near us on the other corner, and the couple behind us to my right had to be moved due to the leaky gaps in the parasols that hung over the tables. A spatter or two came near us, but somehow our corner wasn’t as bad as the other areas.

When done, we wandered up towards the end of the commercial part of the promenade and back again towards the car.

We drove back to the hotel, used the terrace to gaze about and went to bed, which was the end of night number one here.

The next morning, we got up, had breakfast, wore out the views from our terrace.

Our plan today was to drive anti-clockwise around the island, and make stops in Porto Ercole and Orbetello. I love to drive, but Niamh would often rather I didn’t, whereas I trust pretty much anyone inherently who drives me anywhere. So, it’s easier for the pair of us if Niamh drives. I still drive – usually from the destination back to Volterra, so I do get my chance. Anyway, it was Niamh who drove, so I got a smattering of a chance to take photos and film footage – more on the latter in another blog, but if you’re intrepid enough, you can find it in youtube.

Niamh negotiated her way left off the narrow bridge that led away from the hotel, towards Porto Santo Stefano. Missus Google took us through the backstreets, which were interesting little neighbourhoods in their own right, but not necessarily worth a separate visit. However, I certainly regret not stopping at the towns major tourist attraction: the Fortezza Spagnola. At least we’ll have something to come back for.

It took us on a loop, then, back to the promenade and we did one of my favourite things: a coastal drive. They’re not often easy to do in Italy, as either the most serviceable roads are a couple of hundred meters away from the sea, or train tracks are between the road and the sea, affording rail ticket holders better views. But when it happens, it’s glorious! And it was glorious, for maybe the first third of the journey, especially along the Via Panoramica and (to lesser extent) the Via dei Pionieri. Then something happens. Tuscany happens, to be precise. There is an instant where the road turns from freshly laid asphalt, to dusty grey and cracked asphalt and nearly halves in width, and then with a lousy 3km to go ’til you reach Porto Ercole, it turns into a strada biancha and narrow even more – see more below the pics. The best thing about the first part of the road, is that there are frequent enough places you can pull into and admire the view.

I took more video footage than photos. And we only stopped once or twice, as we had our eye on the clock. In reality, though, we had a lorry-load of time and needn’t have worried, even when what was about to befall us befell us.

We enjoyed much of the trek, even when the road became narrower, torn and pitted asphalt. It wasn’t until we hit the the strada bianca (white road), just 3km away from Porto Ercole, we said “no”. There had been some rain in the week leading up to our holiday – and rain the previous night, and the white road was in pieces. There was a large central hill with chopped-up tracks. We were mindful we were in a non-4×4 rental vehicle and instead performed a 15-point turn and then spent another 15-20 minutes driving back the way we came. The road, I’ve just learned while writing this, does have its normal days and only goes for about 1.5km before becoming broken asphalt again, and then back to normal road. Oh well.

Anyway, we took a slightly inland road that rises and dips and took us back to Porto Santo Stefano. We blew through that, and went clockwise this time and hit Porto Ercole a little while later. It really is a shame that about half the road is wonderful, and the other half is awful. You should be able to circle the mountain in a normal car – but it is what it is.

We parked here, and walked 3 or so minutes to the bay. What can I say? Maybe it was the time of year, or maybe it just is the place it is, but we loved the vibe in Porto Ercole – to wit: it was quiet. Much quieter than Porto Santo Stefano. There were only a few places open along the promenade, which we walked, but we didn’t mind. In the distance, on the other side of the bay, there was an old-town part to it, which we didn’t explore. It was getting hot out, and we were more inclined to feed our bellies than work our legs.

We passed by several groups of young ladies, most of whom were devouring gelato – so, sheep that we are, we had to join them. We stopped at Botania for some creamy goodness and bench-sitting, and both were pretty good – recommended if you’re in the area. A little while, we decided to look for somewhere for lunch. One of the best-scoring places seemed to have been getting ready for service on the inside of the restaurant, but when I queried they said they weren’t open until the evening. Please update your opening times on Google, please, restaurateurs. Grumbling, we walked back to the car, and drove at speed towards Orbetello. Shame, because the menu looked nice. All said, Porto Ercole – we will be back some day.

We drove back towards Porto Santo Stefano, but took the left instead towards Orbetello. There aren’t many towns on the coast with a medieval feel to them, but Orbetello is one of them. We parked on the eastern end of the (frankly) phallic peninsula (I almost spelled that incorrectly), here.

Looking back over the lengthy bridge towards Monte Argentario

Our primary focus was food – we’d explore a bit afterwards. We made a b-line towards the centre of town, admiring some of the streets along the way. It was so quiet, but we found one of the better reviewed places, run mom & pop style, which usually impresses in Italy anyway – Ristorante Bistrò Ale da Pasquale e Marcella.

This may or may have not contained more than I bargained for

I enjoyed my outsized clams and pasta, but occasionally had to spit out a bit of shell. We engaged with a couple of the local ladies outside while we were paying and they were surprised to hear that we were from Ireland. We said goodbye and I had not a care in the world, and so we walked through the town snapping some of the prettiness.

We’d had a full day in the heat and needed a rest. We did so back at the hotel, but when it was time to get up for dinner, we didn’t really feel like going back out again, so we thought we’d dine in the hotel. After tidying ourselves up, we went to reception and asked how we could get some aperitivi. She walked out from behind the reception desk and over to the bar, which couldn’t have been more than three meters wide, and poured us each a decent enough Aperol spritz and gave us a little bowl of mini-pretzel crispy things.

She suggested we could head down to the restaurant when we were ready – she didn’t think a booking was needed. When down there, we got a little bit of a stank-face from the lady at the door, who wasn’t totally impressed that we didn’t book.

In the dining area outside, there was nobody but us and a family of five. We took up 20% of the seating, and it remained that way until the end of our meal. We were still fullish from lunch, and so only we only had the one course… one savoury course… ok, we had two courses, if you include dessert (not pictured).

Or maybe it was this that did it to me…?

One last look around the bay from the terrace…

And then to bed! And apologies for what’s about to happen!

Next morning, we had some breakfast, and everything was fine. We’d mostly packed the previous night (force of habit), and had breakfast. It wasn’t until we were about to check out that, to coin an expression, I began to feel pressure from the rear. I rushed to do what I had to do and didn’t think much of it – perhaps just expunging the excesses of my recent couple of days.

I still didn’t think anything of it, until we started to approach the town I wanted to visit on the way home: Talamone. It’s not too far from Monte Argentario, and is a lovely little seaside village – definitely give it a visit if you’re not suffering from explosive diarrhea. I was beginning to feel extreme pressure again. There is tons of parking to be found here, and it’s only a short walk to the walls surrounding the raised town. Except I didn’t make it that far initially.

I ran across the road to Bar Il Porto, and while Niamh purchased drinks so I didn’t look like I was poop-mooching, I RAN to the bathroom behind – it was sort of an adjoined outhouse. I had to wait for a bit, giving my sphincter the workout of its life. The occupant came out a minute later and I might have broken the sound barrier as I rushed in to take his place. It was another mess, and I knew something was wrong with me. I only had the pleasure of evacuation for maybe 4 minutes before a poor woman (whom I really wanted to murder afterwards) knocked on the door to get in. I had to relinquish my throne, and scurried over to Niamh and had a drink.

We were at the bar five minutes downing our drinks, and then headed up through the Porta Garibaldi, up the steps and walked about the cute place. Moments later, I knew I had to go again. Thankfully, the town was providing many distractions.

I skipped the gelateria, instead opting to go down another set of steps to the admire the boats on display in the man-made marina. I was desperate to use the bathroom again, so I took another trip to Bar Il Porto and relieved myself posteriorly. I didn’t know how I was going to make it home – we had two hours to go in the car.

I spied several garages along the way for obviously accessible bathrooms, without having to ask for their whereabouts or a key – but no joy. I broke out into a sweat, and there it was – some sort of food poisoning that had led to stomach issues. However, I made it – against all odds – as Niamh powered us home. She stopped at the Piazza dei Martiri in Volterra, so I could scramble out with my case, and walk briskly to the apartment. How I didn’t (excuse me) shit myself royally on the stairs up I’ll never know, but I reached the apartment, shakily unlocked the doors (which I left completely open), dropped my case and bolted for the loo, where I remained for many minutes.

And so this was me for the next few days, which was unfortunate. Actually, this reminds me of the time my brother had visited us earlier in the year – something which I had forgotten. The water went in the apartment, including in the bathroom, and it took a couple of days to sort it. Nasty, nasty stuff!

I’m amazed you made it this far – but thank you! Drop a comment or question for me!

Nights in White Linen (28/06/2024)

When I’m asked why I would like to move to Italy, I dogmatically say “the weather” and “the people”, proclaiming how hard it is in Ireland (a beautiful country in many other aspects) to plan anything with friends more than 1-2 weeks in advance. But the reality is a little more complex than that. I’ll reserve some other personal reasons for another blog, but the two I will talk about here I feel are failings of Ireland, of which I am partly culpable. The second of these will lead into the lovely lifestyle part most of you are probably here for anyway!

Ireland doesn’t seem to be the country it used to be. Politics and the greedy buggers involved served to make property prices way higher than they should be. Some of this is down to the weird longing for Irish people to own a bit of land, i.e. a garden, leading to Dublin having spread out, rather than having been built skywards. The result is that Niamh and I became far removed from working colleagues and (for me) family and friends – Niamh’s family was already a ways away. In turn many of my friends scattered similarly. So, ultimately, we were less sociable in Kilcullen – the village in which we live. There have been a couple of pocketed periods where we went out with one group or another, but those fizzled out for various reasons. In Volterra, and Tuscany in general, we have found multiple people we are delighted to hang out with, and can do so with more outdoorsy ease, given the weather. Personally, I am more at my ease in Italy.

Secondly, which is leading to the lifestyle part, is that the community spirit in Italy leaves Ireland’s in the dust, as does their civic pride. With respect to the latter, of course there’s crime and grime in Italy, but there seems to be a respect for history and beauty and for other peoples’ property, so you’ll rarely find beauty-spots overly-littered or graffiti’d. I look at the unprotected fields of olives and grapes in Tuscany, and think to myself that they wouldn’t last kissing time in Ireland. It would be assumed that the contents are fair game for everyone if not fenced-off, livelihoods of the land-owners bedamned.

In Volterra, and in many similar hilltowns, there’s always something going on. There’s some artistic event, a show, a festival, and outing, a free concert and sometimes, especially during the summer, neighbourhoods in town may get together and organise dinner in the streets. The most extreme example of these nighttime meals is Siena during the Palio. However, most towns and villages get together at least once a year to celebrate together. It could be a harvest thing – a sagra, or it may coincide with Labour Day (May 1st) or a day in the religious calendar. It doesn’t matter – it’s time for a public party and the Italians are about to throw one!

Volterra has several of them that I know about: a street dinner above the ruins of the Roman Theatre, May 1st’s celebration in San Giusto at which trippa alla Volterrana (a tripe dish) is consumed in vast quantities, and a ‘white night’ dinner, which is not a normal ‘everything stays open’ white night, but a night during which the people of Volterra celebrate all things alabaster. A large dinner is held in Piazza dei Priori, and everyone is expected to be dressed in white. We haven’t attended any of these, sadly – maybe next year.

A couple of years back, Marie and Lorenzo of Authentic Tuscany invited us to a sunset dinner among the vines at the Castelvecchio winery, just outside Terricciola – one of Tuscany’s fabled ‘wine towns’. I was happy to go along, despite my initial concerns about the touristic hokeyness of it. I often have fears of looking like a tourist in Italy, which, when I think more deeply about it, is completely ridiculous. Of course I’m a tourist – you only have to look at me to know I’m far from being Italian. I should embrace the fact that there are certain things built and available specifically for tourists, and that these tourists too may also be Italian. To get off me high horse! Anyway, this dinner not only blew me away in terms of both its setting, the quality of the food and how wonderful the company was, but also with the revelation that so many tables at the dinner (which were scattered throughout the vineyard) were also Italian.

So, if you have these same hangups, let go of them – because these things are there to be enjoyed by everyone. The same goes for our next invite by Marie and Lorenzo: to a street-dinner organised by the locals. In any event, touristic hangups or not, these are not touristic events, but a way of participating in a local celebration. In fact, it’s a pleasure and an honour to be accepted on such nights, and I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Back to pre-Volterra, we’d known about this night for some time, and were put on notice to bring something with us to share. Niamh had the idea of making sausage rolls, so for the first (but maybe not last) time ever, we brought uncooked Irish produce (sausage meat and Clonakilty black pudding) and had planed to get pre-rolled puff pastry over there. We arrived in Volterra, and found out halfway through the week that not only had the menu for the night changed, but Niamh’s culinary services were no longer needed. Fortunately, she’s married to a human trashcan. Moreover, I was happy to have some pork products for lunch for several days. I have to say that the sausage meat, which I formed into patties, was freaking delicious!

The black pudding is so black! (Ripping Yarns fans, anyone?)… the sausage patty looks well done, but inside was so juicy. Making myself hungry…

On the day we just rocked up with some wines. Sadly, Lorenzo had to work that evening, so it was just just us and Marie. And six of Marie’s guests. And a hundred and twenty or so locals. We parked closer to Marie and Lorenzo’s and were welcomed into their kitchen, where Marie had ingredients separated out for a bruschetta assembly line Niamh would join later. Being a manly man, with muscles on top of muscles, I was asked to fetch six large bottles of water at the carpark we had just come from. I had a little bottle-carrier so I only had to do one trip, if I recall correctly. In many Italian towns, you’ll find old-looking fonts at which fresh, potable water will be found. Water is tested daily and is safe to drink. There are now also modern-looking taps in some towns. Sometimes water is free, sometimes it’s not. At some modern fonts you can actually get fizzy water for next to nothing (in Lajatico it’s 10c per litre I think). Sadly, I haven’t found anything like that in Volterra.

Anyway, I fetched the water, and then spent the rest of the time either filming or looking idiotic until it was time to be seated for food and merriment. By this time Fran and Nick had also turned up, so we had a good gang of people.

We sat, and for a few hours were wined, dined, met the mayor, had little rolled-up parchment containing poetry given to us, received impromptu Italian lessons and were serenaded by a local violinist. The food was nice – penne pasta with tomatoes, and cuttlefish with spinach in a broth, over toasted bread. I got an extra helping on this, solely because it looks like I have a belly big enough for it. This was a source of great amusement to Niamh, who knows I can only take so much of the texture of squid/octopus/cuttlefish before I tire of it, despite how good it tastes (and this was nice). My politeness won out, however, and I cleaned my plate while we chatted and laughed.

I can’t recall if there was a dessert, but I think not. We helped clear up and afterwards took a stroll into the main square of the town, while many were still chatting and drinking digestivi (think limoncello, amaro, grappa) at their table. Fran and Nick had left, so only about twelve of us rocked up and ambushed the poor girls working at the bar. We took some seats outside, while a duet were finishing up their act. We were joined by the lady, who was a singer, and she hung around while she and her pal played the kazoo and finally managed to convince Marie’s guest to see their act in a nearby town the next evening.

We had to watch our drinking due to tummy issues (me – occasional acid reflux) and driving home (Niamh), so we took our leave after about an hour and slept like logs when we got home.

If you follow Marie and Lorenzo’s Youtube channel, you might have already seen that they have an open invitation to guest at this dinner in 2026. I would highly recommend it if you really want to see what authentic town and village life is like in Tuscany. You can watch their video of the 2025 dinner below to see if you’d be interested (my own 2024 footage is on Youtube too, but will be linked to in a later blog), or find their contact form on the Authentic Tuscany website.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end!

A Photologue of Another Working Week (22-27/06/2024)

Let’s power through this. Although now I say that, the next one after this will have fewer photos and more words, for those of you who like a good read.

We, inevitably, returned – this time for a month-long stay – week of work, two weeks holidays, week of work. I’d put my house on the flight leaving at least an hour late, and us arriving to Volterra around the 01:00. I’d also put money on party-place Vena di Vino still hopping when we arrived. We must make a habit of going there. Rumour has it that they used to give a free bottle of wine to ladies who removed their bras. Look up, and you’ll see said garments scattered across the ceiling. I don’t think it’s still done, but I can’t be sure.

From here, we did nothing but work, eat and drink. So, let’s split up the photlogue by Food and Drink, External Views (i.e. outside the walls), Internal Views (i.e. inside the walls). I will comment on photos of which I have key memories, or I find interesting!

As you can see from above, we like to spread our business around a lot – and usually dine at a core of about 8-9 restaurants. Apart from gelato – since L’Incontro stopped selling gelato, that’s almost always L’Isola del Gusto (which it was 75% of the time before anyway!).

Next up are Volterra’s internal shots:

Migliorini – usually our place of choice for pasties. Hot chocolate not so good, unfortunately.

And finally, a set of photos taken outside the walls, or largely pointing outside the walls:

It’s about 20km to the top of that mountain on the right

And that was that. We just worked – didn’t go anywhere. We enjoyed the week nonetheless. These working weeks show us how we’d cope by just working over here should we ever decided to move (of course we’re moving!).

Another Working Week (03-08/06/2024)

I’m slowly catching up!

Much of this week was without travel, I’m afraid to say. We spent most of the daytime smartworking – the company for which we work allows us to ‘work away’ from your home or the office for up to 20 days a year. It might not sound like a heap, but I am really grateful for the benefit! Much of this week is a blur of food and walks, but I’ll jot a paragraph or two in respect of photos that stir more specific memories.

It looks messy, and it kinda is to eat, but this burger from La Sosta del Priore was damn delicious – and lunch for one of the days

Have a look at the photo on the right above. The man, in order to perform some works underneath the tiles, painstakingly removed the tiles and placed them in their correct order for re-applying later on. A day or two later – this is how things looked:

And now this year, you wouldn’t know anything had occurred!

A great job, no? The above pic is from a blast from the future (past?) in March 2025.

I did a little walking the following morning and evening:

I’m looking at the food photos and I am not entirely sure where we ate, which is unusual – I can often tell where we ate by the crockery, glassware and table-layout, let alone food. I suspect it was Antica Taverna, but I can’t be 100% sure. The quality looks good, but they’re service spag bol… the soup presentation is unfamiliar to me – at the same time, the cacio e pepe looks great!

Moving on through the week, I had a gelato before we had a larger lunch from a wonderful place run by sisters and their mother: La Carabaccia. They have a couple of set things on the menu e.g. antipasti platters, zuppa alla Volterrana (yay!) and desserts, they rotate their menu every day – they just have a couple of pasta dishes and a couple of secondi (meats or vegetarian). It’s nonna-style Tuscan cooking all the way – delicious, and all the ladies are very sweet too.

We had an early evening walk that day:

One of the best shots you can take in Volterra

And I kept up the cardio-vascular the next day – both first thing in the morning, and a quick mid-morning stroll and gelato raid!

Yes, I have Volterra wallpaper on my laptop

That evening, we decided we’d had enough of Tuscan cuisine (yes, it happens – about once every two weeks), and headed with a friend to Cecina and an Asian Fusion place called SUSHI.BA. We were still on our quest to find a decent Asian place to eat. One has since opened up in Volterra (Ristorante Kibou sushi), and both Niamh and I think it’s one of the better ones – but we don’t each much sushi – so it’s largely the stir-fry, rice, dumpling and noodle dishes we prefer. Are either as good as a Chinese restaurant back home, no. You have to go to one of two Element Restaurants for some wonderful Cantonese goodness.

Anyway, this place was ok – I really liked my beef stir fry – it was well-presented and the beef didn’t taste cheap. I have since returned, but the quality of that dish had deteriorated.

Deep-fried icecream – it’s been a while!

All-in-all, not a bad place. If I recall correctly, the spicy tuna roll was nice this time around.

The following day was work, walk and eating as usual.

Finally, thank the good Lord, we did something on our last full day. We must have felt like cooped-up chickens, because we split to the coast. Both Marisa from Tales from Tuscany and Marie and Lorenzo from Authentic Tuscany all recommended that we visit a little coastal village of Quercinella, so we did!

This is a small place with a rocky, sheltered beach, a couple of hotels and restaurants, just a little south of Livorno. It’s nice and peaceful, although it can get busy. But most of the people who land there are Italian. So, having spotted a couple of carparks, we grabbed one, but Niamh declared it slightly too far away and so we grabbed the other. If you’re lucky, you can actually find some street parking closer to the coast, or maybe the unmarked carpark will be opened.

Anyway, we got out, walked up to the busy street and crossed it, and aimed towards a suburban offshoot. We got about halfway down this, when a kindly resident told us that it was a cul-de-sac, and we should aim for the tunnel underneath the railway tracks which will bring us to the beach. So, back up we went, and walked back to the carpark and found that it did indeed snake under the tracks.

We walked under a second archway, which brought us to the lungomare (seaside promenade).

It was kinda busy. We could see the entire stretch of promenade and knew enough that we had seen it in its entirety. It might be a cosy getaway for the local Italians, but an explorer’s dream it is not. However, it intrigued us enough to make a second visit another time (with find company) and stroll along the rocky pier you can see in the centre photo above.

Italians like their skimpy bathing costumes, and both Niamh and I were in civvies and opted not to walk along the beach. I always feel a bit of a perv if I do so when I’m dressed and everyone else is nearly naked – especially since I sometimes have my phone out to take photos or video. So, really, that was enough of that! There’s a small village area to the south which we still yet haven’t walked around. Instead, we walked back towards a restaurant recommended again by both parties (Lentisco). On the way, we chose to duck into their half-closed carpark and along their outdoor space to the restaurant itself.

If there’s one thing that can be said about Lentisco, it’s that they are located like few other restaurants: on top of short cliffs, with incredible views of the coast – it must be amazing for sundown parties. Today, we would just have a little lunch. We got a seat a little away from a window, so at least one of us (Niamh) could gaze out over Mediterranean loveliness. The people were pretty nice and the good was above average. Sometimes you sacrifice quality for great location, and this was only mildly the case here.

I wanted something light, as I knew we were going to eat later to cap off our holiday, so I went for a fillet of fish with veggies in a broth. Both veggies and broth were yummy, and the fish mostly good, but it still had a fair few bones and was undercooked (as you can see in the pic) in places. They also served us “when ready”, meaning that Niamh was finished her sandwich before I got my fish. Anyway, do me a favour and go in the evening and let me know what it’s like!

On the way back, we went back the way we came, got in the car, and I assumed that rather than taking the fairly dangerous left-hand turn onto the SS1, we turned right and then took the next left back towards Lentisco – cooing at the fabulous very-neo-gothic-looking Villa Jana, thinking we’d have an easier right-hand turn when we completed our loop through the village.

We turned left before Lentisco, and saw a couple of young boys, dressed for the sea, stopping cars and trying to sell the occupants glasses of water. Cute as it was, we didn’t succumb and I took the the second left, which I immediately recognised as the pedestrian route we took, which led us back to the carpark. I felt a complete idiot, but still negotiated the tricky left-hand onto the SS1. This road does have a speed limit, but those who drive coaches and logistical transport on it do not seem to be aware. There are two pieces of good news: the first is that the far lane has a short painted merging lane you can use. Italians are used to these and so won’t panic if they see a car suddenly pull out into one in what looks like the same lane. Tourists, on the other hand, will shit their britches (excuse me), so be careful.

The other piece of good news, of which I have only become aware in the writing of this, is that if I had taken the next left on the promenade, I would have found a much safer route onto the SS1 after about a kilometer through a suburban area.

We were on our way home along the coast, when I decided to drift off somewhere else we’d never visited before: Rosignano Marittimo. It was only a fleeting visit, though. I needed both a drink and a bathroom break, so after parking, we sat for a little while in the cute Caffè Carducci, just off a small piazza.

Although we were refreshed, the weather had taken a bit of a cloudy turn over these mountains, and overall the atmosphere oppressively humid, so we only explored a few hundred meters, gave the gorgeous castle a nod and drove home! We will explore farther another time – apologies!

So, we were at the end of another holiday, and visited La Vecchia Lira to cap it all off.

You can look at the video linked in the last blog, the last couple of minutes of which cover Quercinella and Rosignano Marittimo.

Thanks for getting to the end of this one. I’m happy with the pace, and soon I’ll have caught up with 2025! Drop me a line and let me know what you think!

Viareggio, Pietrasanta, Sunsets, Art, Friends and Buti (31/05-02/06/2024)

The one good thing about saying goodbye to a guest, is that we get a chance to head north – a direction we rarely travel in beyond Pisa. We said goodbye to my brother, and I had in mind to visit once place we had been before a loooong time ago – and one new place I had read about.

We took the road to Viareggio! Our first introduction to Tuscany back in (I think) 2008, was on a Travel Department tour. One of the places they took us to was Viareggio – one of the classic seaside towns lining the Versilian coast in Tuscany.

It took us longer than expected to arrive, and we ended up parking a ways away from the promenade, here (at the time of writing this, this is temporarily closed). I’m sure you can find somewhere closer! I thought we’d enjoy a walk through the town, until we reached the promenade strip. The truth be told, however, is that in the main part of the town, once you get to a block beyond the coastal road, Viareggio becomes incredibly workaday. Little neighbourhoods in blocks, served by bars and bakeries and the occasional craft store. Not unpleasant, but nothing inspirational either.

Our walk took us the guts of 15 minutes, but sight of the promenade walk is so worth it. It’s really lovely just on the coast.

It was still early enough in the morning, and we hadn’t had breakfast yet, so we found Gran Caffè Margherita, which is a lovely café with an old-style feel, attached to a bookshop. We had a pastry and drink each.

Once done, we walked a little bit of the promenade, and then up one of the piers, stopping only momentarily (honest) to look at a couple of lady beach volleyballers being coached – they looked quite pro, from what very little I saw of them. We got to the end and took snaps. The wind was up and the sea was rough.

A nice town, but we didn’t really want to explore up the far end, and so walked back to the car. Several blocks in, we came across one of the above-mentioned craft stores – this one was more householdy. Italians always dress their stores really well, so we had a good nose in there for a little while.

One last thing about Viareggio: it hosts the largest mardi gras in Europe, with gigantic floats parading down its promenade – I haven’t been there yet during this celebration, but hope to some year.

It was still morning, and I thought seeing as we were so far north (for us!), we could visit Pietrasanta for an explore and some lunch. Pietrasanta is to marble-work and statuary as Volterra is to alabaster. I’d read an old travelogue by an American, who travelled along the Versilian coast (Hidden Tuscany by John Keahey), lauding Pietrasanta and it’s artistic inhabitants and their workshops. I was excited to maybe see live some marble being worked, so off we went. Parking was free and easy, but a little walking is required to bring you back under the train tracks via an underpass. There is one there in the carpark linked above, so don’t go to the trouble of hiking along the roads to make it to the old town, or you’ll add 10 minutes to your journey!

You come out at the train station, and just a little beyond it, around a bend, you’ll spy one of the arched entrances to the centro storico.

Not the straightest of photos I ever took!

We walked through the archway and immediately to the right were shelves of marble knick-knacks in a window. Ah cool! I thought, The first workshop! But it was no such thing, but rather a Tabaccheria! I thought that if a Tabaccheria is displaying items like this, the rest of the town must be pure gold for marble-work. Well, I soon discovered that it is, and it isn’t.

The book I mentioned above had been published back in 2014, and it would seem a lot had happened in the intervening decade. Once you entered the archway, you are practically in the main square, directly ahead with a slight left, and it is impressive. We decided an explore of the square and its church, before looking for a place for lunch.

Ugh! I hope this isn’t as crass as it looks!

After that, we hit the streets to check out the workshops of Pietrasanta. Except there weren’t any. Not on a streets, anyway. There were plenty of art stores and boutiques, all lavishly appointed – even by Italian standards, the shop-fronting and fitting was impressive for many of these places. But it wasn’t exactly what I came for – which indicates the importance of doing more relevant research to ensure that expectation-setting is performed correctly. I can’t blame Pietrasanta – I blame myself. I guess sometimes that while 1000 years doesn’t diminish architecture in Italy, a mere 10 can heavily influence local economies.

We killed another half an hour by having a refreshing drink at the bar in the main square (Bar Michelangelo), before settling on Ristorante Quarantuno for a bite. Dishes were ok – mine a little salty, Niamh’s a little soupy.

We were tempted to take the coastal route home, but instead opted for speed and were back in Volterra in time to take a nap!

That evening, we had a pizza-date in La Mangiatoia, and took a walk and had enjoyed the tramonto (sunset) in Piazzetta dei Fornelli. I had one of the newer fancy pizzas on their expanded menu – mozzerella blob with sun-dried tomatoes and anchovies. It was nice, but next time I will stick with the regular recipes.

The next day, we spent as tourists in our own adopted town. Banksy, the legendary urban artist, had an exhibition in the exhibition centre, which is worth a visit anyway as it has semi permanent showings from local artists, and Etruscan ruins in its basement.

NOTE – BANKSY ISN’T FOR EVERYONE, AND A COUPLE OF THE WORKS BELOW MAY OFFEND.

Back in Piazza dei Priori, we noted that they were getting ready for the palio di cere – Volterra’s tug-of-war competition between the neighbourhoods. We had a lightish lunch in Ristorante Etruria.

Afterwards, we went, for the first time, to the new Mauro Staccioli exhibition hall, which is in itself quite lovely. You might remember Staccioli created the geometric sculptures found around the Val di Cecina – the most famous of which are the two ‘O’s on roads just outside of Volterra.

Later that evening, we went to Torre del Porcellino for a large dinner! We over-ate, really.

You may or may not be pleased to know that we have started to eat not as voraciously in the past year.

Bring on the next day and its walk around Volterra!

Today, we were supposed to go to Lari for their cherry festival (we have since done so – check out the video here). We managed to get as far as Lari and park in a looong row of cars, just outside town. Then the heavens opened. It was like being in a carwash. We checked with friends on our WhatsApp group and were told that Vicopisano was still dry, so several cars’ worth of people hightailed it there instead.

We spent an afternoon nibbling, drinking (except for designated drivers, of course) and laughing. Before long, several hours have passed – if that makes any sense. We were getting our hunger on. Marie (of Authentic Tuscany) suggested a place she knows in the nearby village of Buti. We hadn’t been there, and food was on the menu (literally!), so we leapt at the chance and went.

It was only a short drive, and it began to drizzle a little bit – but it didn’t dampen our spirits (I apologise for these awful puns). We parked (here), and had a short walk to the main square. Marie took us to a bar first to kill a little time before the restaurant opened. Niamh and I had a crema al caffe, and marvelled at the loveliness of the place. Marie assured us that the people here were mad and loved to party. I still haven’t been back, but I don’t know why – perhaps I need some sort of sanity test. Anyway, when Enoteca Acetone opened, we bundled ourselves inside, and after aperitivi and snacks, were presented with antipasti on clotheslines (no, really!) and some wonderful pasta dishes!

And after more laughs, we trundled home. Cheers, Fran and Nick and Marie!

Thanks for reading this – I hope you enjoyed it – but please check out the video below which covers the last couple of blogs, but in video form! Enjoy that too!

Certaldo and Castagnetti Carducci Redux (29+30/05/2024)

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.

How 2024 Opened in Volterra (25-28/05/2024)

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.

The Big Bumper Book of October (19-27/10/2023)

Well, we did lots, worked lots. There were a few magnificent highlights, and all are below in this summary of most of the rest of our October stay.

Thursday, October 19th
The best thing we did this day, and indeed possibly one of the best things you can do ANY day if you’re in the area is go to Bis Osteria for dinner. We didn’t visit it during the whole of 2024, and that is a fact about which I am absolutely disgusted. It’s one of the best restaurants I know, and that night we had one of the best pastas we’d ever eaten: green lasagne sheets with mushrooms – amazing – certainly the pasta of the year for me for 2023.

Before that, we had lunch in Porgi l’Altra Pancia and looked at some classic Porsches!

I had this! With tomatoes! Am I making peace at last?

And later we drove to Colle di Val d’Elsa and headed to Bis. They remembered us from last time (we know the chef, but waiting staff knew us too – good memories). We had the fabulous food:

Friday, October 20th
We actually did a thing again this day! That evening we had dinner with local friends in La Vecchia Lira, before we all headed off to the theatre to watch a Pink Floyd tribute band. They were fabulous – more true to the album than Floyd themselves, accents aside – and it was an excellent night!

Saturday, October 21st
Today, we rested. We went to the market and for our big meal went to La Mangiatoia for pizza!

Sunday, October 22nd
It was Volterragusto – the twice-annual foodie-fest in Volterra; mostly focusing on chocolate and black truffle. A winning combination, in my book! Here are some pics from the day.

But that wasn’t the main event. Oh no! There was the matter of the second palio (competition, more or less) of the year: Palio dei Caci, where contestants from the various contrade (neighbourhoods) guide cheese wheels downhill through an obstacle course made of straw bales. And it was good fun! Interestingly, a guy from Villamagna, a small village within the comune (township) of Volterra won it – this meant that they had done the double that year, by winning both the tug-of-war palio and this one! Couple all of the action with medieval pomp and ceremony, then it makes for a fun day.

Afterwards we had a walk and a gelato and wandered until it was time to eat. We went to Ristorante Etruria, but indoors to the wonderfully frescoed area. The food was decent enough.

Monday-Wednesday, October 23rd-25th
It was a working week again, and the weather turned. We still got out for walks, gelati and local meals!

Thursday-Friday, October 26th-27th
These were our last two days in 2023. They started off with a walk…

But it ended up with a wonderful evening with Ivana and Claudia from Marcampo. They know the area so well, and choose the restaurant we ate at. They’re such lovely people too – no finer people to stay with if you’re planning on coming over. And I got a chance to practice my Italian a little – a bonus only. We drove to Agriturismo Santa Vittoria and had a little aperitivo while we waited on the ladies.

The views from here during the daytime must be amazing

I told the owner he had a beautiful place and he thanked me. Then started talking naturally, which he kept up for the entire visit there. While the ladies gave me tons of confidence with my Italian, the owner’s staccato gunfire somewhat reduced that! I just need more listening practice. Anyway, did he make up for it with the food. One of the best pastas I had this year – pici with pheasant and black truffle. Magnificent.

We left with hugs and very satisfied! Thanks, ladies.

Our last day was another working day, and the major highlight of it was the amazing sunset we had out Piazza dei Fornelli. Take a look at these beautiful colours:

Well, that was 2023! We started off 2024 in Venice, of all places, and I have already blogged and videoed that – look a few rows up on the archive page – there’s a trio of entries. I’ll clump the rest of 2024 into groups like I have done recently – with special attention given to the very cool.

Here’s a video of the last couple of weeks in Volterra. Give it a watch, and thanks as always for your support!

Mists on the Edge of the Val d’Orcia (18/10/2023)

Today, we did a thing: we invited our friend to what we term a ‘sticky day of fun’ (referring to the state we land home in, given the usually hot weather in which we explore). This day would be fun, but would be considerably less sticky – the weather wasn’t the best. However, Tuscany can be grand in all weathers and a little rain (or a lot of rain) wouldn’t spoil the day….. completely.

We took the road Siena road, going through Castel San Gimignano, Campiglia, Le Grazie and Colle di Vald’Elsa, and from there joined the motorway system all the way to our first destination: San Quirico d’Orcia. I’d been wanting to visit this little town ever since we blazed past it during our first trip to the valley, over two years previously. The journey took a little under two hours. We parked in a free carpark and took a couple of flights of steps up to the outskirts of the old town. As soon as we’d passed by a couple of buildings and a sculpture, and we passed through behind the wall into the town itself, the rain started to come down.

One of the first things Irish visitors say about Italian hilltowns, once they’ve gotten over the different aesthetics, is how clean the streets are. And we, even though we were used to hilltowns, all commented on how clean San Quirico’s streets were. They were immaculate. There were also large sculptures within the piazzette dotted around the town.

We found another gate into town at which stood a white-stoned church. Not the one above, but another smaller one. Inside was the most extraordinary sculpted relief on a lectern, which looked very Celtic in origin – it took Niamh and I by surprise.

Hunger was beginning to be a factor, but we completed our route around the town – in as much as the rain allowed. We came across gardens, squares and lovely little courtyards. The one thing I thought was lacking in the old town, were views of the actual Val d’Orcia itself. It seems to rest on a hill, which gently declines all around, and on which are build modern areas. Even when I managed to climb to a walkway atop an old wall, the view into the modern town and beyond was blocked by larger olive trees. There are some views, but they seem to be across a more level plain near the Val d’Orcia. Just an observation… not much the townsfolk can do about it.

Hunger took us, and we had a look at a couple of menus until we found one that would suit all of us, and settled on La Bottega di Ines.

We were pleased with both the food and service, and it was just a nice place to sit and relax out of the rain. Would I recommend San Quirico. Yes – it’s lovely, and it’s perfectly well-positioned to be a base of operations for exploring many Val d’Orcia sights, like the Vitaleta Chapel, the Cypress hill and our next destination – the spa hamlet of Bagno Vignoni.

It’s not often Google sends us all over the place, but we were about to experience the havoc it can occasionally wreak getting into Bagno Vignoni. This village lies just 5.5 kilometers south of San Quirico. Google took us to a dirt track to park. The so-called carpark must be for the nearby thermal river. We rechecked before we found a ridiculously obvious carpark just outside of the village.

Bagno Vignoni is pretty much there for tourists… the whole village. Buildings surround a thermal pool, which is emptied and refilled periodically. Small offshoots of roads with hotels, shops and holiday rentals spread away from this central square. All is perfect and seemingly ready-made. Normally, this might annoy me, but honestly the effect is profoundly lovely, and we swore that we’d come again in better weather to spend a couple of nights in the spa hotel. We actually have not gotten around to do this yet.

The town was surrounded by distant thick fog and mist, but rain threatened, and we only made it about two-thirds of the way around the pool before the heavens opened.

Love the view of the background tower here

I had to laugh, as I was pointing my phone everywhere, when I got closer to the row of sculpted monkeys and saw that they too were not fully present, and were too on their phones, not paying sufficient attention to their surroundings. To my credit, I started filming and taking photos less. We stopped at a shop recommended to us by our friend – one of those general Tuscan crafts stores, but sadly it was closed. Protecting our heads, we stopped under an awning and pondered our next move. The bar!

The ladies had a prosecco each, and I had a refreshing cedrata.

We had one final stop – one of the most famous hilltowns in Tuscany: Montalcino; a town famous for its incredible wines, most notable Brunello di Montalcino.

When we approached the town, we gritted our teeth when Mrs. Google seemed to take us through part of the centre of town. I was keeping an eye out for ZTL signs, but it didn’t look like to me we went through any. We wound up near the top layer of the town in a carpark right next to its magnificent fortress (more on that later).

We got out of the car and walked back down the hill more towards the centre of town. The first thing I noticed was there there seemed to an incredible number of enoteche, where you can go in and have a wine tasting, along with some nibbles to help with the flavour profile. I would have said there might be a couple of dozen in the town, maybe? I imagine most large producers have a tasting shop in Montalcino, as well a space near the vineyards.

It was a little wet, with rain spitting down every so often, and so our explore was somewhat cursory. Having said that, the town had a really positive effect on me, and I found myself falling in love with it. But we also had to do what people do when they usually come to Montalcino: wine! In our explore, we hit the main piazzetta, with its magnificently narrow council building and secular belltower, but wandered down some side streets, trying to settle on a place to stop for a half hour to try out the vino, and maybe have an afternoon pastry.

We walked into a place and were greeted by the owner, and showed into the back, where one would ordinarily be able to see a magnificent view of the valley over some of the town’s rooves. The ladies stalled, not otherwise liking the look/smell of the place and because the view was non-existent today, we walked out again. I hate doing that – especially in places that are already quite empty. I get an attack of the guilts. Instead, we walked back to the main square, into a fairly hifalutin place, where I’d say they already get their fair share of custom, despite the reviews on Google: Caffè Fiaschetteria Italiana 1888.

The enoteca was trying to be more than actually was, but the service was friendly enough – one new girl was being trained in very diligently by the other on duty, who was dressed like an old-school waiter. We asked for three Brunelli of different levels of maturity, with me getting the middle one. I came out the victor, more through sheer dumb luck than any true oenophilia. They were expensive, but I have to say I enjoyed mine.

Once done, we headed back to the car, but visited the fortress before heading home. It’s a magnificent place, and I is a wonderful venue for outdoor cinema and concerts. I didn’t take too many photos, but you can see more footage in the YouTube video below.

When it was time to go, I pulled my usual trick of setting a route home to avoid tolls and motorways, so we’d have something new to see. Unfortunately, for the first 10 or so kilometers we were taken on a white road. Not fun to drive on, but in fairness it gave us some potentially wonderful views, especially the thumbnail of the video below – which would have been nicer in better weather.

So, would I visit Montalcino again? You betchya… I’d even stay over once the weather gets finer!