Author: eoinarmstrong

2023)

Tuesday, 6th June
We promised a day on the beach to our water-friendly pal. She had been with us before back in 2019 to experience Marina di Cecina. It’s a strange, gritty strand and if I recall correctly there is a sudden dip only a few feet into the waves, which would make hydrophobes like myself too nervous. I didn’t get in that day. The benefit of Marina di Cecina, however, is that you have tons of amenities all along the strand – not just the beach clubs, but other restaurants, bars and shops a block inland.

This time we were going to Castiglione della Pescaia. This is a little town we have already visited, which is one of the few places with an old-town feel, but is also on the coast. We’d be using a Lido (beach club) for the first time ever. I booked it for us online. I’d heard that the beach was better – the sand golden. The Lido would have amenities, but it’s about a 10 or so minute walk into town from our Lido of choice (Bagno Perla) into town for a better choice of restaurant. Fortunately, we found the food at the Lido more than adequate! If there’s a downside for us, it’s that the town is about 90-100 minutes drive away. Additionally, the motorway leading from Cecina to Follonica – a good part of the trip – is not in good condition. It’s slowly being repaired, but because it’s not a tolled road, it’s not a top priority to those holding the purse strings.

From Follonica onwards, the journey is pleasant enough. Anyway, we got to the Lido, got ourselves ready and hit the beach. I nearly had my entire body on display, which is incredibly rare. I am rather pale. Not only that, I actually got in the water… up to my chest only – I have zero confidence in water unless both legs are planted firmly on sabbia ferma.

The sand may look a little dirty, but it’s still smooth and pebble-free. The sand bank also goes out 20-30 meters which is nifty. We splashed about a bit, and then took lunch at the Lido’s restaurant.

After some grub and a beer, we did the unthinkable in Italy: headed immediately back to the water. Many an Italian Mama (and if I recall correctly, many an Irish Mammy), would advise never to re-enter water after having just eaten – best to wait an hour or two. Pish and tish – in we went!

When we’d had enough, we headed into town to work up an appetite. We took our friend up to the old town of Castiglione, which is essentially converted walled fortress. It’s rather hilly, but pretty and offers some amazing views of the bay.

Ok, after walking up and down (mostly up, somehow), we had another hunger upon us. We were told by another pal that we should try burger bar Harbor Crew, so that’s just what we did. First, we hit a hotel bar just across the street. It was a local place, no frills. We yummied some light snacks and our spritzes and as soon as 18:30 struck, ran across the road to snaffle some burger. Unfortunately, this place has closed down since, because he has actually moved to Florence. Wah! The burgers are fantastic, it has to be said. I’ve been there a couple of times since (while it was in Castiglione). I think we’ll head over to Florence to re-partake later this year.

As soon as we were done there, we left for home. Part of the route home we took off the motorway, just for the sake of change.

Wednesday, 7th June
The rest of the blog is a further testament to food. We spent the next day in Volterra, and our friend spent the morning shopping and exploring again, while we lazed about in the apartment. I didn’t even go out for a walk! We met up for a single course lunch in the touristy Ristorante Etruria.

I took this shot while we both got money from the ATM in the northeast corner of the main piazza

Hmmm… maybe I had too much to eat at lunch, given that we were going to head out to eat again at our favourite chef’s place: BIS, in low-key foodie town Colle di Val d’Elsa. Alessandro used to be head chef in Del Duca in Volterra, before the managership of that restaurant changed. His cooking – from breads to desserts and everything in between is fantastic, and we always get a warm reception when he sees us. However, this time would be our first time in this new eatery.

Colle di Val d’Elsa is a large town, with a historic centre set on a knife-ridge, between Volterra and Siena. It has a nice new town as well, and one of the biggest markets I’ve ever seen every Friday.

We drove to Colle, having to pause at a stop-go system tantalisingly close to Ristorante Arnolfo, BIS’ 2-Michelin-starred parent restaurant. We haven’t eaten there yet, but look forward to doing so. We wound our way to a car park just outside the walls of the old town, and took a couple of snaps.

We had arrived too early (my fault) and so had a little walk about the old town with our friend – only as far as the bridge, though – then it was time to enter the restaurant. We were shown to our table by the very friendly staff. We saw there was a burgeoning terrace outside, with a fab-looking view:

But enough of that – it was time for food. BIS is a contemporary fine-dining restaurant, and you can have some variants on pasta meat-based dishes, but you there is also an extensive ‘nibbles’ section, which we ordered from.

The food was absolutely delicious and the portion sizes perfect. When we were on our way out, a waiter caught us and asked us if we wanted to say hello to Alessandro. So, we did! The kitchen was immaculate, and he was warm and welcoming, but there were so many dishes being worked upon, so we didn’t want to outstay our welcome. He was a busy man!

After that, we headed home, had a drink and then went to our beds! Thanks for reading this – please let me know what you think!

Palazzo Viti and Etruscan Tombs in the Rain (05/06/2023)

We picked up a friend who’d be staying with us for a few days from Pisa Airport. This was a detail I had unfortunately left out in the last blog. I honestly had forgotten, and the photos I took gave me absolutely no clue. I strongly suspect it was in the late afternoon, after we had eaten in Porgi l’Altra Pancia. We must have picked her up, and then I spared her my documenting every moment of life in Italy, and we just spent a chill evening at home. In fact, now that I have some recollection – she was quite tired and not up for doing much, so we chilled along with her.

The reason why I am now drawing this conclusion is that the day I’m now blogging begins with a walk to the Etruscan tombs north of Volterra. There’s simply no way we would have picked someone up that early in Pisa and then gone on a walk. We definitely made this trip in the early morning, in an effort to avoid overheating ourselves on the very uphill walk back.

So that’s what we did. I had been there a couple of times before, but not with anyone – so this would be a bit of fun. Our friend had recently signed on for a Celtic history course, and while the Etruscans weren’t Celts exactly, her interest in the ancient was piqued enough to join me. What sealed the deal was a chance at a distant sneak preview of the archaeological dig site of a Roman Amphitheatre just opposite the town’s modern cemetery. The cemetery itself is also worth a visit.

We had a few peeps of the of the amphitheatre from above and near eye-level and wished that the digsite would open soon for tours! We continued down the road towards the tombs, passing fully by the cemetery and through Porta Diana – the Etruscan gateway which is missing its arch, and finally around the sharp bend which led outside the town boundary. There was a new sign on the corner which seemed to point into someone’s private field, labelled “Volterra Urban Trekking”. We didn’t take that, but continued down the road towards the tombs – shooting the lovely countryside on the way.

When we got to our destination, I had planned on taking her into both tombs, but the path to one of them was horribly overgrown, and we gave it a skip, given our bare arms. Last year, it had recently been strimmed (weed-whacked), but no such luck this year. So, we went to the other one, had a look about and a read of the information on a the small nearby sign.

You still wouldn’t want to be too claustrophobic

It was fun and interesting and is to be recommended – but a word of warning here about the walk back to town, which is entirely uphill for a couple of kilometers, if your destination in Volterra is the main piazza. We took pics of the town at a distance and finally poor Porta Diana, which so few visitors ever see. Shame – the whole area is quite lovely.

We huffed and puffed our way back (especially me), and chilled for the rest of the morning. Then lunchtime came. Our friend had nipped out earlier to do a little touring and bag-shopping, so to whet our appetite we had small walk about, looking for a decent place to eat for just ourselves. Some of the following shots are wonderfully dramatic, but indicative of what was to follow!

We hit Osteria Fornelli again and I made a pig of myself by having two courses: zuppa alla Volterrana and pici cacio e pepe (with truffle). Niamh had penne alla pomarola. Thankfully, the cacio e pepe wasn’t as rich and cloying as last time and it was so yum.

After lunch, we had a peep out over the Val di Cecina. Piazzetta Fornelli has one of the best 180 degree views of the valley below – and on a clear day you can make out Sardinia. Today, however, the more we looked on, the closer rain clouds moved towards the town. We’d have to find our friend, and fast!

We gave her a call, and agreed we’d go to Palazzo Viti. She’d been here before and bought a Volterra Card, but because Palazzo Viti is privately owned, it wasn’t covered (the card is great value otherwise!). The Palazzo, which is only open seasonally, was begun to be built towards the end of the 1600’s and is still owned by the Viti family today! The family made a lot of their wealth in the alabaster trade, and the rooms convey the level of prominence of the family. If you’re here in-season, and are fascinated by stately homes and palaces, it’s a must-visit! We met our friend, who was carrying some shopping bags, and went in.

I would be saying hello to these two guys again later on after our tour.

It’s so well-kept and beautiful! We continued through the rooms.

About halfway through the tour, we heard the heavens open. And it hadn’t stopped by the time we’d finished our tour of the house. Once again, it was absolutely pelting rain in Volterra. We waited in the hallway entrance for 10-15 minutes, waiting for the torrents to cease. I tried to strike up a couple of conversations, with varying degrees of success.

The rain didn’t stop, but abated enough for us to make a run for it to our apartment entrance. We got moderately wet, as the rain was falling vertically. Otherwise, we might have been able to creep beside buildings to avoid the drops. Anyway, none of us actually died, so all was well.

We chilled until the evening, went for an aperitivo in L’Incontro and, strangely, went to Don Beta for dinner. I say ‘strangely’, as Don Beta is one of those types of restaurants we would avoid elsewhere – a touristic one, where the menu is vast. On the plus side, if you can’t decide whether you want pasta or pizza, then Don Beta is one of the places to go if are with a group who want a mix of these things. You’ll find something for everyone here. There are times that we are looking for something light, and I love the veg soup here, and it is now also the only place I know in town that does a simple spaghetti all’aglio olio and peperoncino (garlic, oil, chilli). And that’s just what I had!

I gave Campari spritzes a go for a while

I pick my days to go there, but I always enjoy what I order and the service is really fast and friendly.

I was well and truly stuffed by this point and so it was just time to go back to the apartment. I took one more final shot from our Terrace, then it was wine and bed (yes, in that order!).

Thanks for getting all the way to the end of this blog or our busy day. Let me know what you think, or if you have any questions about life in this area of Tuscany.

Tugs-of-War and Even More Rain (02/06-04/06/2023)

We were due to pick up a friend who’d be staying a a few days with us. This was also the weekend that we discovered that Tuscany had developed some sort of weird monsoon weather front. For weeks, it would be nice in the morning, but come 11 or 12 dark clouds would gather and then it would pour rain for a while, then spatter until the early evening. We’d not seen such a prolonged weather front like in Tuscany like it before.

Friday, 2nd of June
Well, we still had one working day to see off before our 2-week holiday kicked-in. I had too much cheese for breakfast – pecorino aged under walnut leaves, with black-truffle infused honey. For lunch I had yummmy tagliatelle with ragu in Porgi L’Altra Pancia – alone! Niamh had lunch back in the apartment.

However, after work I had a wee glass of Santa Lucia’s finest to start off the holiday with a bang, and said goodbye to this precipitous drop from my ‘office’ window.

So vanilla-y! Note the rain on the window.

Earlier in the day during work, I had to shut the window firmly, because the sbandieratori (flag jugglers) and their accompanying band marched through the street directly outside. The window does a fab job of muffling noise, which is a good thing, as people stay up late during the summer months outside. Anyway, that march usually means something is on, and indeed it was. Every year the various contrade (neighbourhoods) compete in a couple of palii (plural of palio). In Siena, they race horses at breakneck speed around the main square. In Volterra, we have tugs-of-war in June and, believe it or not, race wheels of cheese through an obstacle course in October.

Today, it was tug-of-war day! Teams of mixed genders from all the contrade, which includes villages within the comune of Volterra. The event was delayed by the main weather feature this year: torrential rain. After a while, however, the competition-runners thought the piazza dry enough to kick off proceedings. In my humble opinion, and I would guess the opinion of the first few teams who were placed at on the southern side of the square, it was still too wet. Anyway, they had to go ahead, and arrange their teams on either side of the – I wish I knew what it was called in Italian – but it for all the world looks like the wooden base of some medieval siege engine. It was their job to tug the base over the line on their side. If both sides failed to do this, it would be in the hands of the judges as to who made most gains during that contest.

The first teams lined up, and you could see that half of the southern team had feet on wet flagstones. The competition was swift and decisive and went to the northern team. The protestations about wet ground fell on deaf ears and the competition continued. The group did begin to dry up pretty rapidly.

In the end, the victors were Villamagna – a town across a part of the Val d’Era surrounded by spectacular views. You can find the video of our trip to Vada during the previous weekend, and the palio!

After we’d watched the planting of the winning contrade‘s flag in the, er, wooden thing, and have the winning team run a couple of the circuits of the piazza, we got up and walked to L’Incontro for a quick aperitivo. Then it was off to get our usual very warm welcome at La Mangiatoia. We both opted for pizzas and beer.

Speck and Mascarpone… ham and mushroom in the background

There’s no pizza without beer, and this year we seemed to favour north Italian beer Først, instead of Moretti. It’s nice and refreshing! Speaking of booze, we then decided to visit Pietro in Antica Velathri Cafe for some spiffy cocktails (and to practice my Italian – he’s very kind like that!).

I think Niamh had a G+T which happily changed colour based on a light in the bottom of a glass holder. I had a lovely mixture made up by Pietro on our previous visit a few months ago: frangelico, grenadine and cointreau. Very yummy indeed.

Saturday, 3rd of June
The next day, we decided to stay in Volterra and check out the marketplace. But first, a wee walk!

The mornings were the best time of day, weather-wise

After washing and re-dressing (thank goodness), we went to the market!

I think the colours of the March market were a little more vivid. What do you think? Town was getting busy and warm, and to counteract this we decided to go on a little jaunt to La Rosa after having a granita (me) and gelato (Niamh). We wanted to see if we could find the supposed new location of La Rosa’s mercato del usato (Italy’s wonderful 2nd hand bric-a-brac markets).

On the way to the car, we spotted a hen party. I thought this rather unusual for Volterra, but I’ve actually seen a couple more since. Volterra, as much as I love it, isn’t exactly party-central. It does get loud in pockets during the summer, but largely it’s quite a quiet place. But everyone’s welcome!

We went to La Rosa, and for the life of us couldn’t find the new location. The old location was firmly shut up and there was no sign of life. Google was pointing us towards the back of a warehousey-place on the opposite side of the road – and we drove around it – but no joy.

We then went into one of those ‘Chinese’ stores, which seem to be a variant on ‘pound’ or ‘dollar’ stores you’ll find elsewhere. If in Ireland, think ‘Eurosaver’ or ‘Mr. Price’. Anyway, we did have some stuff to pick up for the house… cleaning implements and sprays. We found what we needed, and then also spotted a sun-reflecting screen for a car. It’s the kind of thing you unfold against the windscreen to reflect the sun and keep your parked car relatively cool. It was only a fiver, so it went in our basket.

On checking out, we asked where the 2nd hand market was. One man in the queue behind us said it was gone, but that there was one in Capannoli – which we knew about. The Chinese lady at the register thought it was still about and maybe on the block next to her’s. We thanked everyone, and wandered out – without the sun reflector. We didn’t realise this until days later, hilariously. We had a search for the second hand market around the block suggested, but to no avail. Oh well.

It was well within the lunch hour, and not spotting what we wanted nearby, we had a look at Google maps in the car, and spotted a well-reviewed place between La Sterza and Lajatico: La Valatta – which is down in Google maps primarily as a hotel/agriturismo – and it is also just exactly that. No sooner had we selected the place and begun to leave La Rosa, it began to absolutely pelt rain. Utterly torrential, with accompanying sound and light show.

The rain didn’t let up, and when we pulled into La Valetta’s carpark, we had a 30-40 meter dash to the restaurant in the lashings of rain. We survived the run (that’s cardio for the weekend!), and walked into a completely empty restaurant. Uh-oh. I located a lone waiter and pounced, asking him if the restaurant was, in fact, open. He had to check with a colleague before confirming. We were seated and sighed in relief.

More people came in as we ate, so we weren’t entirely on our own. I have a bad habit of wanting to try a few courses in restaurants I’m eating in for the first time. So yeah, we ended up having three courses. The food here was really good, but I remember the meats being perhaps a little more gamey than you usually find in touristic towns.

I think this was beef tongue, but I am not sure

By the time we rolled out of the place, the sun had come out (sort of), and we got a good look at the place from the outside.

We drove home via Lajatico, which brought us via a pretty route and that was pretty much all she wrote for that day, except that I gave our new sexy chair a go that evening.

Sunday, 4th of June
I have to shamefacedly admit that I remember precious little about this day. There’s no doubt we had a lazy one, and ate kind of light too, with Porgi l’Altra Pancia getting our love again.

I hope you enjoyed the read – let me know what you think!

A Week of Working (29/05-01/06/2023)

This will be a blog of many photos but very few words.

We worked this week, and when that happens nothing terribly exciting or noteworthy tends to happen. I get up, I go for a walk, I shower/change, then work. In the middle of the morning I get a gelato, work, lunch, more work, quit. I think you get the picture. There is something nonetheless wonderful about working away. The weather is usually better, the food is miles better. Gelato. After work, it’s aperitivo time, maybe meet and dine out with a friend or two.

So, with this in mind, I present to you our working week, mostly in photo format.

Let’s do this a little differently, and instead of going day-by-day I’ll group the photos in to various themes and spit out the whole lot. Firstly, walking within the walls of the town!

It bucketed down one day after lunch in Osteria Fornelli

The rainy day above somewhat set some of the mood for this stay. We couldn’t stay under the arch or we would have been late for work. We had to dash and get soaked anyway!

Next – what did it look outside the walls?

At the time of writing this, this lift STILL isn’t operable – but is close to being so

Finally, the pics related to food and drink. Sometimes we ate out, a lot of the time we ate in. It was all, unsurprisingly, good!

That was the week that was in it. I hope you enjoyed the photographs!

We get back to Volterra, then split to the coast (27-28/05/2023)

I guess it was on the cards, wasn’t it? Yes, we came back – we always do. This time, it was for 4 weeks. We broke down this time between holidays and working away (‘smart-working’ as it’s known in Italy – yes, they use that English phrase!). Our first week was spent working, the next two holidaying, and we finished up by working again. I would always recommend finishing your time abroad by working, if you have that benefit as an employee, or if the work you do suits, as a self-employed person. The post-holiday blues are split between (a) returning to work, and (b) returning home. The last couple of times I did this, I barely felt any sadness at all when I flipped open the laptop and started work. It sounds counter-intuitive – but trust me: work just before you go home.

Anyway, enough pontificating. We began this (surprisingly wet – more in weeks to come) stay with the guts of a weekend – three-quarters of Saturday and a full Sunday.

We got up at sparrowfart to take the flight over, and so we were tired enough when we got to Volterra. We dropped our bags up and had a little explore and a light lunch. We bumped into our friend at Volaterra before she had to get back to some work, and we had to get back to some food.

Afterwards, we had a wander towards the panoramic viewpoint at Piazzetta dei Fornelli.

Home to rest, and then out again. We always like to call into La Taverna della Terre di Mezzo as early in the holiday as we can to say hello to Robbi and Aurora, who always treat us so well. We had a wander about Piazza XX Settembre first.

But then it was time for the main event! We ate in the Roman-era cellar – it was lovely and cool down there. The wine and food pairing was as yummy as always.

As we’d had a little bit to eat in Volaterra, we kept it to just two courses. Then, to bed – as we promised a friend we’d meet her in Chianni the next day to catch up and treat her to a little lunch.

There was a spring in my step the next morning, as it was a Fun Day Out™ day! Such was my effervescence, I headed out for a lengthyish walk. Firstly, past the main panoramic viewpoint, then on down Viale dei Ponti, past fonts and fountains and onwards and back upwards to Porta a Selci.

Instead of going through the gate, I walked towards our carpark, but carried on further ’til I hit the private carpark at the Seminario di Sant’Andrea. At least I still think it’s private – it now has a P symbol on Google maps, but I still think it’s not for use by the public. If there are any Volterrani reading this, please let me know! Anyway, I captured some less-often taken shots there.

It doesn’t look like Volterra from this angle, but it is!

I walked back up, to our carpark and entered the town at Porto Marcoli, and walked by the back of the block that faces Piazza XX Settembre.

An Ape… the Vespa’s slightly bigger brother

The morning walk and ablutions out of the way, it was time to go to Chianni!

Chianni is a cute village only about 20km away on the far side of the Val d’Era. It has a sweet centre with super views of the hills on one side, and has forested mountains to the other side. The two bad location aspects of Chianni (purely from our perspective) is that it still takes about 45 minutes to get there from Volterra. Ah, those Tuscan roads! In fairness you are driving through some lovely rolling countryside to get there. The second one… well, we’ll talk about that later.

We parked opposite the carabinieri station (there’s an unmarked (on Google) carpark there) and walked 6 or 7 minutes to the lovely little central square, where we found our friend, Marisa, already filming there. We waited until the end of her take before tapping her on the shoulder.

After hugs and pleasantry-swapping, we got to the serious business at hand: lunch! Marisa took us to Chianni Bistro, which as excellent reviews on Google. They were lovely – they sat is down and provided pedestals for the ladies’ handbags. None for my little man-bag, strangely, but hey-ho. Anyway, lunch was lovely, especially the pasta courses.

Marisa hit the winner here with gorgonzola gnocchi

After dinner we decided, what the hell… let’s drive somewhere fun. Niamh and I already had in our minds to check out the beaches around Rosignano Solvay, and ask Marisa if she’d like to come. We waited for her to collect some things from her house (which we couldn’t see at the time as she had a guest staying there), and headed out!

This brings me to the second unfortunate thing about Chianni. To be clear, Chianni is gorgeous, and the good faaaaaar outweighs the bad! If you want to get to the coast, however, you will find yourself having to undertake a bit of a dull and overly-long drive over the mountains to the east/southeast. There aren’t many views, as it’s largely forested. But when you actually get over the mountains and you are heading towards the coast, then you’ll get to see some amazing ones over the Tuscan coastal plains.

We drove through the cute little town of Castellina Marittima, and there we saw in the distance the huge towering stacks of Rosignano Solvay. Sadly we have no photos of this. The factory looms near the famous white beach. It makes soda ash, which is used in the manufacture of sodium bicarbonate and glass. So, the beach nearby is brilliant white soda-ash! As we got closer, we couldn’t decide on a car-park, plus we noticed there was a hell of a lot of traffic heading that way. Therefore, I made the executive decision to head to Vada instead. We’d been there before, and I felt that we hadn’t done it justice. There had to be more to it than just the little stretch of strand we found.

We found parking there much closer to the strand than we had before – right in a piazzetta with a couple of bars/gelaterie, and wandered to the mini-strand. Marisa has her own YouTube channel too, and I was happy to sit back and let her film, while I only took a little footage.

We hit the strand, and decided to walk over to the left, to see if we’d missed any of it. In fact, we’d missed a whole bay.

There was a lot going on – check out Marisa’s video below, mine is coming in later weeks. The beach had dozens of people, and in the background you could bunch of people kite-surfing. It was a really active place, as it turns out. Turning back towards the village after having done enough gawking (I always feel awkward snapping and taking video where I am fully clothed and the majority of the people are not), we saw there was a really cute outdoor craft market underway.

We had a good look at the life in that little mini-village, and I bought a steampunk fishy thing, made out of coastal flotsam – there was a whole stall dedicated to that! Marisa has better Italian, sounding naturalised (to me, anyway!), and was chatting away with the locals. It turns out, that rather than this market being a once-off, this was its prototype and test, in the hope that it would continue at least throughout the summer. She also chatted with some casual restaurateurs who would cook whatever fish was extracted by Vada’s fishermen same-day. It would have been tempting, but we had already eaten. Everyone was so lovely – as Italians generally are if you should genuine interest in their locality.

We took my booty back to the car, and walked back the 30 or so meters to Gelateria La Dogana for refreshment. In a rare moment, I skipped having gelato, settling instead for an ice cold diet Lemon Soda (hard to find!). The ladies enjoyed their gelato.

We decided the day wasn’t done yet, as we were having too good a time. So, we took Marisa to see Casale Marittimo. It’s my favourite village in Tuscany (so far), purely for street layout and architecture, and it usually blows guests out of their socks when they explore it.

I’ve already written a lot about Casale… you can do a search for all the blogs on this site. I think this was the only time we visited it this year, though. And it’s always fun showing people about if for the first time. It’s so layer-caked, hodge-podge and higgledy-piggledy… clean and frequently quiet. It’s a hilltown haven, only 15 minutes from the relative bustle of Cecina.

The leather worker here was sadly closed today

Marisa was delighted and was taking a lot of footage as we explored. We started at the highest part of town and worked our way down to the main square. There was more to explore on a lower level, where you can see down the coastal plains near to the Maremma. However, it was beginning to get late, and it was going to take us about an hour to get Marisa home, plus another 45 minutes to get us home.

So we headed back towards the carpark, only to pass by a bar that was closed last time we were there. However, it was open, and it was the most extraordinary mish-mashe of bar, perfumery and boutique/accessory store. We needed some refreshment, so we ducked inside and were amazed by it. It is called MADAMA caféshop, and it looks like it only opens seasonally.

The bathrooms were exquisitely decorated too!

We spent about 45 minutes there and then walked to the car and had a lovely drive back to Chianni, via Saline di Volterra and the lovely rolling hills of the Val di Cecina.

Have a look at Marisa’s video for a review of our day!

We said goodbye to Marisa and drove home. I’m almost certain that we didn’t go straight back to the apartment, but instead hung around for a free table at La Mangiatoia. It’s one of a few places in Volterra that focuses on pizza and they’re always so nice to us when we’re there. However, you cannot book a table there. You rockup, and you get a table or not – and if you don’t, you can either queue or leave. We queued, with beers, and they brough out a chair for us to use as a table for our drinks, bless them.

Yes. it’s sliced hodog – wuerstel. And it’s yum.

We were destroyed and went back to bed after getting home. Thanks for reading… please let me know if you have any questions or comments!

Spring Finale with a Coastal Trip to San Vincenzo (31/03-02/04/2023)

While not particularly verbose, this blog is chunky with photos – fair warning!

Well, they say all good Springs must come to an end (not apologising for that one), and so it was with this pre-Easter stay. This blog covers our last 2.5 days, during which we only did one new thing of note: visit a coastal town in which a local friend has a home away from home. However, on the first day – evening to be precise – something interesting happened. Read on!

Well it began one of those days I think I have described before as a ‘living’ day – a holiday, but spent as a day practicing living as an everyday citizen, rather than doing anything special. Could I tell you exactly what we did up to our dinner out? Well, I had gelato and Niamh made some cacio e pepe. So, there we go!

That evening we did go out to dinner, as we knew it was one of our last nights and we didn’t want to manually wash everything. Ok, so there was *some* recognition that we were on holiday. We went to the place beside us, Porgi l’Altra Pancia for a good dinner.

We left happy, as always. We decided to walk to burn off the calories. We walked towards the road above the Roman Theatre ruins, and it was then that we noted that there was an unusual quality to the atmosphere that night.

We saw the red light was in the direction of Piazza dei Priori, so we walked towards it, taking snaps along the way.

The cloud level had descended to just above the town itself, and so the fog bank was acting as a canvas to the medium of the city lights. I can’t say with 100% certainly that the lights were purposely switched to red because of the low cloud, but I would put good money on it that they were.

We wandered up to the square and it was magic. It was also spooky – like a movie set.

Very cool. We wondered what it was like from the main panoramic viewpoint and it got even spookier!

I’m surprised I got any sleep!

Anyway, the next day we vowed we’d get out of the apartment and try to do something new, weather permitting. But I had to take care of a couple of things beforehand. Firstly, there was the matter of my walk. I walked around the back of Piazza XX Settembre, which is something I don’t do often enough. At least some of the photos I take are from scenes rarely seen in this blog.

It was also a market day, and on top of that there was the Ladies’ Crafts market *AND* it was the spring edition of Volterragusto. More on these later and in the video faaaar below.

Goodness me! How did that sneak in there?

We left the town in the late morning and drove to San Vicenzo. We parked probably too far away from the town, and so I won’t link where we parked here – you should be able to do a better job yourself! When we got out of the car, we discovered we were on the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak. We took a little underpass to cross the tracks.

San Vincenzo is a lovely little town, with some pedestrian zones with shops, eateries and bars – and also a lovely marina promenade. Today was very quiet. Or would have been had it not been for the roaring wind. It was exceedingly blustery out – very handy if you want to cool down, but we were already in the off-season. At least it was a dry day, with a largely blue sky. I couldn’t ask for much more, given the time of year. We just took a little stroll (filmed rather than photographed – see video below), before we stopped to look for a place for lunch. Many of them were closed, but we did find a place whose food we really enjoyed: Osteria Christian’s. They had a lovely little… well, I can’t call it an amuse bouche, as it was quite large – but it was a shared place of couscous with cold veggies. It was really tasty and refreshing – I bet it would be a wonderful way to start a meal in the heat of summer.

Afterwards, we retook to the streets and had a blowy look at the strand. The wind was powerful. Clustered on the sand were little puffy balls of air, which may have once contained something, but were now empty. Maybe seed-pods of some kind – I’m not sure. You’ll see them on the video a bit below, about 5m 10s in. What are they?! I think they’re in the bottom right corner of the first pic here.

We went back up the town and then decided to take the marina promenade. It was really lovely around here, I have to say. The sky was clear blue, and because of the time of the year, there weren’t too many people around.

Upon walking back inland to return to the car, we noticed that there were about 3 or 4 gelaterie were open, and I could have gotten my fix there today instead. Not many other shops were open, however – just a couple of restaurants, bars and those gelato stores!

When we got home, rather than returning immediately to the apartment, we had a walk about the indoor Volterragusto stalls. Lots on offer here…. truffle products, beer, salumi, cheeses, wines, pasta… I bought a couple of truffle-based condiments/spreads and we each got a beer; me a stout, and Niamh an IPA. They were nice enough.

Lavender dude – we got something from him later in the year

We didn’t hang around, as we wanted to get a little rest in before heading out for a bit of food. Now, here’s a shame that’s on me: I am not 100% sure where the heck we went for food! The carbonara below very much reminds me of Torre del Porcellino‘s style, as do the tablecloths, but I didn’t think they’d have been open yet, and I could have sworn we finished off the year somehow without going into them. For no good reason – the food is nice there! Maybe I misremember, and it was indeed Torre. Now that I’ve re-looked at the video – I really *was* Torre! Lol! I think I owe Niamh some money!

Here’s a video of the day – enjoy!

Afterwards, we wrapped up the night – our final of this stay – with a stroll.

And to bed for the last time this holiday.

We did have half a day this time around, so we could walk, have lunch at Don Beta… grab a little you-know-what from L’Isola del Gusto – which was the very last thing we did that holiday.

You’ll see us again, when we came back in May/June!

From a Morning Walk to an Evening Meal (30/03/2023)

I’m expecting this to be a short one.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bumming About in Volterra and Saying Goodbye in Florence (28 & 29/03/2023)

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

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

Look at that lighting and sicken yourself with jealousy

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

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

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

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

Thankfully the food was on point more than I was!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We drove home, played each other in pool for some lesser championship and went to bed.

I hope you enjoyed this blog. Let me know what you think, or if you have any comments.

Nearly Choking to Death on Pistacchio Cream in Siena (27/03/2023)

To Siena, then, to continue our guests’ intial foray into Italy. I prefer Siena to Florence, but acknowledge that I have not explored it fully enough. We frequently end up doing the same cycle when we visit: same car park, up tons of escalators to the Basilica di San Francesco, a game of spot-the-peek-a-boobies, circular or back-and-forth around the shopping streets until we hit the Piazza del Campo, a trip around the Cathedral square, a spot of lunch, gelato and maybe on the way back stop in Cannoleria Ke Cassata to grab some arancine for a light evening snack.

We pretty much did that, but skipped Ke Cassata this time around – they may have been closed, or moved to their main shop indicated by the link above (do try them if you’re in the mood for a snack, though).

We had to get there first, and so we stopped off to ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ at the amazing countryside surrounding Staccioli’s ‘O’, just outside the town.

We didn’t walk down to the sculpture itself, because we made that mistake already in wettish weather in April 2019. Now, I know it doesn’t look wet in the above picture, but the above soil is super-loose, potentially damp (yes, it rains seasonally in Tuscany!) and you stand a chance of destroying your footwear. If you really want to ‘gram the ‘O’, do call later in the year, when the soil is far dryer. If you’re visiting before May, then you can still park near it as we did and admire the incredible views.

Anyhoo, we got to Siena, and once up and past the Basilica, we started shopping for a handbag. I can’t remember the specific brand, but I remember it being important to the ladies. We popped into one bag shop, had a quick look-about and asked the owner if he knew of a place which sold <BAG-BRAND>. He said he didn’t, so our long search came to an end. Instead, we spent 30 or so minutes in a make-up store. I can’t say I was in my element, but was happy that the ladies seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Once done, and with a growing sense of pride, we led the guests to the Piazza del Campo, all ready to show them what, in my opinion, is Italy’s greatest square. Others think of St. Peter’s in Rome or St. Mark’s in Venice, but they were designed to make you feel small and insignificant – Piazza del Campo is more secular, warm and welcoming. ”So, here we go! Ta-daaaaah…. uhh…?” Except that today, the lighting was flat for that little while we were there, and the place looked like a building site. Shit.

Ugh. You did me dirty, Siena. Can I ever forgive you?

Lunch was next on the cards, and we knew of a place at the bottom of the hill down from Siena’s Cathedral – past the catacombs. We brought the ladies to the main Cathedral square, so they could have a look at its incredible facade.

At last they were suitably impressed. We were just giving them a taster of the town, so we didn’t go inside – but in the square you can go to the ticket office to buy tickets for the catacombs and to enable you to explore the roof – definitely worth a bash if you’re in town and have some spare time. Anyway, we hunted for the restaurant, and for the life of us couldn’t find it. We instead found a place (Ristorante Osteria Bonelli). There were a couple of other groups in, so the service was a little… weird… at times – I think we had to change one of the plates. In fairness, it might have been one of the first days of the season for them. Some of the food was nice enough, though.

We successfully negotiated our payment, as a large gaggle of students kindly stepped aside to let us go first. Each one was only paying for their own food, so I’m glad we dodged that.

We decided to head back to the car, but taking a slow route. We passed by one of the steep and stepped lanes to the Piazza del Campo, and I cast a wary glance at it, having already considered it a bit of a traitor this visit. And I gasped. And took one of the best photos I’ve ever taken. Lookit! It’s like a Canaletto painting!

All was well with the world once more, until the guests spotted Siena’s branch of Nino and Friends, which is a confectioner with branches scattered throughout the regions of Tuscany and Campania – with stores also in Venice and Taormina (Sicily). They’re are instantly recognisable, with their chocolate ‘waterfalls’ in the shop windows. Now, I don’t have a general problem with Nino and Friends. Their products are good, and you’ll have a fun time with the salespeople there, most of whom, I am convinced, popped out of the womb being able to smooth-talk the Inuit into buying ice. Anyway, our interaction went something like follows (I have taken some artistic license – also, apologies – I have no idea this will read on a mobile phone!):

I ALMOST DIED, a drama

Cast of Characters
HAPLESS IDIOT: An overweight middle-aged man, with pattern baldness, Irish
WIFE: HAPLESS IDIOT’s long-suffering wife, Irish
FRIEND: A friend of WIFE for many years. Irish, but having lived in Scotland for many years
TEENAGER: The daughter of FRIEND, current champion of the universe in 8-ball pool on the XBox, very definitely Scottish
SALESMAN: The salesman in a confectioner’s shop, very definitely Italian

EXT. STREET IN SIENA, TUSCANY – DAY
It’s bustling in the streets with the sounds of many accents and languages mixing in an excited babble. HAPLESS IDIOT is filming a sweeping shot on is iPhone, while WIFE, FRIEND and TEENAGER look excitedly towards a store.

TEENAGER
Ooh, look – a sweetie shop!

WIFE and FRIEND (together, longingly)
Chocolate… waterfall…

TEENAGER, WIFE and FRIEND walk into the shop, as if spellbound. HAPLESS IDIOT finishes his sweeping shot, spins around some more looking for the three ladies who have seemingly vanished into thin air. He then spots them in the store, and spends the next half-minute trying to turn off his phone, muttering curses under his breath. HAPLESS IDIOT then walks into the shop.

INT. NINO AND FRIENDS, A CONFECTIONARY STORE, SIENA, TUSCANY – DAY

SALESMAN (seeing HAPLESS IDIOT and indicating TEENAGER)
…and we can try some. Ah! Is this the Pappa?

HAPLESS IDIOT (incredulously, indicating TEENAGER)
Of her?! Have you seen her? She’s gorgeous.

SALESMAN gives HAPLESS IDIOT a quick appraising look up and down.

SALESMAN
Ah, yes – perhaps not.

Quick cut to to HAPLESS IDIOT, frowning.

Cut back to SALESMAN producing a tray of several types of spherical candies.

SALESMAN (indicating a pile of yellow candies)
So, maybe we start with this one.

Everyone takes a candy, places in their mouth and bites down.

FRIEND
Gosh, there’s quite a bit of booze in that, isn’t there?

TEENAGER (puzzled look on her face)
What is it?

WIFE
Ah, Limoncello!

HAPLESS IDIOT
Yummo!

SALESMAN
Yes, Limoncello. Nice, huh? Try this one.

SALESMAN proffers another corner of the try. All 4 take a sample and bite down. The 3 adults look a little more disappointed with it.

SALESMAN
This one – just lemon, no alcohol.

TEENAGER
Yum!

There is a beat.

FRIEND
Do you have any more with booze?

SALESMAN looks thoughtful, before reaching towards sample bottles of liquour.

SALESMAN
These are cream liquours. Like limoncello, but creamy. Maybe you
like to try melon?

SALESMAN pours pours out samples of the creamy orange liquour into 4 tiny paper cups. (Screenwriter’s note – due to my upcoming trauma, I can’t remember if TEENAGER partook in these samples, but for the sake of added comedy value and given her Scottish heritage, I am assuming she did. When in Rome, etc.). All 4 grab a cup and sip the liquid back. There are murmurs of appreciation from all 4.

HAPLESS IDIOT
Wow! It really tastes like melon!

SALESMAN
Yes. It is made from melon.

HAPLESS IDIOT
Yeah.

SALESMAN
Yes.

There is another beat.

SALESMAN (excitedly)
Pistacchio! Let us try pistacchio!

The process begins again. The SALESMAN fills the same 4 tiny paper cups with a creamy green liquid. Again, the cups are raised, but the faces are different after the first sip.

WIFE
I like pistacchio, but I don’t like this.

FRIEND
Yes, it’s not great is it?

TEENAGER
…

HAPLESS IDIOT
I prefer melon.

SALESMAN
You like pistacchio! Un attimo. Eh, moment, please!

SALESMAN dashes off for a moment, while the 4 take a casual look at the goods in the shop. SALESMAN returns quickly with a short, wide jar of something.

SALESMAN
Crema di pistacchio! Very delicious. Like Nutella, you spread it, but it’s pistacchio.

HAPLESS IDIOT
So, it’s pistacchio, then.

SALESMAN
Yes.

HAPLESS IDIOT
Yeah.

WIFE
Yes, we’ll try some.

SALESMAN gets 4 little tasting sticks and opens the jar. One by one, he places a generous topping on the green cream onto each stick, offers it to the ladies first, before ending up with HAPLESS IDIOT. Each person tries it and indicates through sounds of approval how yummy it is.

HAPLESS IDIOT
Wow! That’s delicious! I really…

There is a gagging sound, as the cream slides down HAPLESS IDIOT’s throat, and gets caught there, seemingly blocking his airway. He is still breathing, but his larynx feels like it has just been sandblasted, and breaths come in gasps. His voice turns into Brando’s Godfather’s.

SALESMAN
Sir, are you alright!

HAPLESS IDIOT (in Godfather voice)
I’ll be ok in a minute.

Tears are streaming down HAPLESS IDIOT’s face while he simultaneously coughs as he fights for breath. SALESMAN grabs a fresh mini paper cup and adds creamy meloncello. FRIEND and TEENAGER have grabbed a few more limoncello candies from the sample tray while SALESMAN is distracted. SALESMAN hands the cup to HAPLESS IDIOT who knocks it back between gasps. It does not have the desired immediate effect.

HAPLESS IDIOT (in Godfather voice)
Need… water…

HAPLESS IDIOT turns away from SALESMAN, and is quickly joined by FRIEND and TEENAGER, leaving WIFE standing by SALESMAN. Quick cut to WIFE looking thoughtfully at the jar, and back again to the other 3, who are standing in a row. HAPLESS IDIOT fumbles for a bottle of water in his manbag while FRIEND and TEENAGER are popping limoncello candies. HAPLESS IDIOT finds the water and unscrews the cap, while looking at FRIEND and TEENAGER. He seems FRIEND and TEENAGER red-faced and shaking with laughter, tears also streaking down their face – but not in sympathy. Oh no.

TEENAGER
We’re walkin’ oota here pished!

Cut to a close up of SALESMAN and WIFE. Coarse coughing and hacking and squeaks of feminine laughter can bear heard in the background. WIFE hands the jar to the SALESMAN.

WIFE
I’ll take one of these.

Cut closer to WIFE, who is now uplit from below, giving her a sinister appearance.

WIFE (sotto voce)
Yes, that ought to be enough.

FADE OUT

THE END

I hope you enjoyed that. I certainly didn’t.

We walked out of the store with some sweets and a jar of death-cream in the end. In fairness, this was an unfortunate fluke – their pistacchio cream is absolutely delish. But our taste for sweet treats didn’t end there. Oh no! We passed by a very tourist-choked gelateria. I had a fair idea that it was not going to be the best, but I also didn’t want to argue, as I thought any gelato would soothe my throat. The gelato was piled high in troughs – almost always a bad sign. I got a couple of flavours, and it was incredibly sweet. Too sweet, in fact. For the first time ever I didn’t finish off a helping of gelato, but chucked about a third of it in the bin.

We got back to the car, and I felt that we had enough time to have a quick tour of the nearby tiny walled village of Monteriggione. We just missed grabbing a free carpark spot. We didn’t spend too long there, as we also missed being able to walk the walls. Sure, any one of Volterra’s panoramic views beats those!

You can trot it from end-to-end in 30 seconds, but it’s so lovely in the sunshine, that’s it’s really worth the visit! There was a brief(ish) stop in a jewellers; little knick-knacks were bought. Sadly, the Pratesi store there wasn’t open yet.

Home for some much-needed relaxation.

Later that evening, we had a little bit of hunger on us, and so I was sent forth on a quest for pizza we could share. I went to La Mangiatoia and the chef there was working on a larger order (I opted for a burger and fries instead of pizza), so I made ours and sat down to have a beer and a chat to kill the time. They’re so nice in there.

Wearing my jacket. It can get chilly in Tuscany!

Afterwards, we relaxed and before bed I was once again soundly thrashed by TEENAGER in pool.

She has the socks of a baby angel, but the eyes of a ravenous hawk

Cheerio for now – I hope you enjoyed this read. Let me know what you think!

A Double-Tour of Volterra (26/03/2023)

It was to be our guests’ first full day in Volterra. So, rather than head out to show them the wider sights of Tuscany, it only seemed fair to show off our lovely town.

Firstly, I got up that morning and had a walk about, marvelling at how green the land is around this time of year.

Via Portal all’Arco looking unusually good this morning

It was deliciously fresh that morning, and this doesn’t sound too farty, a boon for the soul, as you look at the light cascading off the hills, and capturing the pale brickwork of the buildings.

I took myself towards the residential area near the football stadium. I worried a couple of cats, and got caught in a cul-de-sac. Going past the stadium itself, I walked as far as the entrance to Park Hotel le Fonti. We stayed there for our second ever Volterra stay in June 2018, over a year before I started this blog. We found the place a little careworn, but the room pleasant. They had a pool on a plaza which overlooked the Val di Cecina/Val d’Era (latter as you looked farther north. The views were stunning.

The most major problem with the hotel was also its location – it was a cruel walk up to the town, and if you had mobility, heart or pulmonary issues it would have been an extremely difficult feat to get to the town itself. But we managed, and in the evening we remembered the stunning smell of honeysuckle and the playful darting and weaving of fireflies.

Sadly, I have since learned that the hotel closed down, which is a great shame. I hope they find a new buyer who can do justice to the location’s potential (start by offering minibuses to the town!).

I climbed back up towards Porta all’Arco, via the lovely Chiesa di Sant’ Alessandro. There a lady stopped me to beg for money. She seemed to me to be quite well-dressed, and looked comfortable – so I was surprised. I dropped her a coin and went on my way. I heard a few months later on my return that she passed away. You just never know what’s going on with people. I have also been told that there are a number of people in town who were originally held in the Psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Volterra, and have been accosted by an older gentleman from time to time. Bless them. It’s hard to imagine the atrocious conditions they may have had to put up with.

Later that morning, we took our guests around Volterra.

A few years ago, Volterra’s cathedral reopened after having been under renovation for a few years before that. We were actually there for the reopening (see towards the end of this blog). Some time back, they started charging into the Cathedral and the nearby baptistry. I will neither support nor condone this. If you want to see Volterra’s Cathedral, then pop in on a Sunday during a mass. Niamh’s friend wanted to see the inside (the outside is rather austere). We found out that tickets were not on sale just inside the door like they used to be, but rather at the nearby exhibition centre. It turns out that they were charging the same price for the exhibition centre, but now including the Cathedral and baptistry. You still had to buy a ticket for them, but at least my righteous indignation was somewhat quelled.

We first went into the exhibition centre and had a wander around the temporary alabaster exhibit, before checking out the more permanent local art in the rooms upstairs.

What a fab surprise that awaited us after checking out the art. They had opened a new panoramic viewing balcony in the centre! I was able to grab a couple of never-before-seen (by me) shots.

Then it was off to the religious buildings – starting with the baptistry.

If you visit many of the larger towns with historical religious squares in Italy (e.g. Pisa, Florence, Volterra – ahem), you will quickly note that the baptistry is often on its own, separate to its accompanying Cathedral. This is because, back in the day, you weren’t allowed to enter a place of Christian consecrated worship unless you were yourself a Christian. So, you got baptised in the separate building and then were allowed into the Cathedral. Anyway, you can see Volterra’s baptistry above. It only requires a short visit, before you can head off to the Cathedral.

Forgive me if I’ve recounted this before, but Volterra’s Cathedral is somewhat unusual, in that it is attached to the more secular Palazzo dei Priori. This is because, when the town’s ruler (only for a period of 6 months, I think) was elected, they and their family had to spend their entire tenure within the Palazzo, lest they be bribed, murdered, tickled etc. But they also still had to attend mass, and did so via a chamber which joined both buildings. There you go. You can learn a thing or two on this blog.

The Cathedral’s exterior very much belies the interior, which is rather more swanky.

Along with yesterday’s visit to Pisa, I recorded some video of Today’s visits. Have a look below!

We didn’t do too much of note for the rest of the day. We had lunch at Terre di Mezzo, a gelato from L’Isola del Gusto (che sorpresa!) and I marvelled at the quality of the Sky app on my new XBox (hint: it’s very good!).