Category: Uncategorized

2023)

So blown away by the Val di Cornia last time we visited (only a few days previously), that we said we’d have to return as soon as possible. And that’s just what we did as soon as our half week of work was over. There was at least one town I wanted to return to – and that was Monteverdi Marittimo. Return to, the more observant of you may ask. Well, yes – sort of. Unfortunately, I failed to blog that we had driven through the town last time we were here. It looked really nice, and there were people out and about and sitting in the small piazza in benches, just taking in the magnificent views. I think it was in the accompanying video, but I’d forgotten about it in the blog. Anyway, it seemed so nice that we wanted to give it a go, and stop there.

Along the way, we’d stop at a nice village, and a further surprise awaited us in the form of a town we found so lovely, that we considered it might be a Casale Marittimo beater! There’s a video of our day near the bottom, so be sure to check that out.

But first – I had a wee walk that morning. Enjoy the photos.

Righto! It was time to go and explore. Of course, to explore one must load up on calories, so that’s what we did, courtesy of L’Isola del Gusto!

A little coffee milkshake to get me going!

We wanted to hit Monteverdi Marittimo for lunch and be hungry with it, so we had a little time to kill. On the way, therefore, we would stop off at the previously unexplored village of Canneto – the old portion of which is shaped like a dagger in its sheath. We parked here, so it was only a few steps from town. There was a bar nearby, along with signs to wine and oil-tasting.

It’s a small place, so we had a wander around it’s walls and then inside – and went to the church there too. The bells went off and kept on going at one stage, bless them. It had great views of the valley on the north side, and was just so peaceful. As well as the little bottega, there was a pizzeria there – seems to get good reviews on Google – but it wasn’t open when we were there, and we simply weren’t hungry enough.

It was warm and breezy, and although I can’t see us visiting again too soon during the day time – it might be a nice place to go to for an evening meal.

It was time to press on to our main target of the day: Monteverdi Marittimo. We travelled on roads that were fairly familiar to us from our trip a few days ago, but the weather was nicer, and the colour of the sky contrasted nicely with the forested hills. When we’d driven through the town last time, we saw that there was parking right next to the Carabinieri station. Across the street, the viewpoint overlooked a footie pitch, before the vista disappeared into distant haze.

It was a short walk into town (a couple of hundred meters. We had a patter about the central area of the town, and up a bit of a slope to a small area consisting of a couple of tiny piazzette and roads leading down to what looked like a residential area. In truth, at the time we were a little disappointed as the town seemed to promise more.

We thought we had explored a lot of the nice area of town, and were hungry by now. We had a choice between a place which had better reviews, but didn’t seem to have outside seating – and a place which had nice seating with views into the valley. We opted for the latter (Bar Sport). No lights were on in the place, so I had to wander in and ask if they were open. They must have been opening just then, because we got a friendly nod. A few other people started wandering in too – cyclists mostly, so that was a good sign. It was fairly blustery out by now, so we had to clip down our tablecloth. I went for a 2-course, double primi meal (both soups and pastas feature as first courses on Italian menus).

After the meal was done, we had thought to head out and spend the afternoon exploring at random. However, just below the dining area a little street ran parallel, and contained a couple of food-related shops, so we walked there and headed to the right. It was then that we realised, as we ambled along, looking down the lanes to the left that led to spectacular views, that we almost did Monteverdi Marittimo a disservice.

We spent the next 30 minutes exploring the truly gorgeous residential part of town. Here was where the real beauty lay in Monteverdi Marittimo. Pristine streets and steep lanes led downwards towards shallow walls where you could get some amazing views of the forested valleys.

We were well chuffed with ourselves for having taken that little tour (the fact that I accidentally stood on a cat’s tail notwithstanding). We walked back to the car, and took a look at the map to see where we could go next. I spotted the town of Sassetta which we had skipped last time out, so we made our way towards that. It was a little bit of a squiggly drive. Due to its location on a spur in a valley, there seems to be only three ways in/out of the town. We took one of them in, and I gasped as we passed by a knife-edge of land on which some houses lay, and behind it forest-covered hills. It gave us the perfect parallax effect – everything seemed so unreal-looking. The rest of the town could be seen in the background a ways to the right. We parked on the edge of the main town in a little triangle with having a drink in mind.

We stopped at a small bar/gelateria – the guy was clearly closing down for riposo, and apologised, but pointed out that there was bar in a small square not too far from where we were. We ordered and sat, and were amused by how some worker guys who were having pizza there were feeding the piazza’s resident cat.

A look ahead to the amenities side of town

Once we’d watered and bathroomed, we had a choice to keep on the main road to explore the main part, or be drawn instead to the archway which led to a more residential part. We decided upon the latter and what a series of view awaited us there. We were both entranced by the narrow steep lanes, each house a little different, each decorated with miniature sculptures or flowers and potted plants. The town was mostly made of grey stone, rather than the sandy tufa we’re more used to, but there was pink stone set into houses and steps. Not painted pink, but a natural pink – not much of it, but enough to make the place characterful.

Some of the houses were built on a knife-edge and afforded the owners spectacular view either onto the neighbouring forested hills or the adjoining hilly valleys. We were really taken in, and wondered what kind of prices property would attract here.

After 15-20 minutes of being slack-jawed – I don’t think the above photos do it justice – we climbed back up to the amenities side of town – and that had its merits too.

They have a butchers, grocers, post office, pharmacy… we spotted some walks leading from the village we hadn’t the time to check. But we did walk down about 200 meters to have a look at the vista at a large new building made to look like an old building… or was it vice-versa. There was a fab view over the tree-covered mountains.

We walked back to, and then beyond, the car – as we wanted to take more distant shots of the town, because the vistas really blew us away.

So is it a Casale Marittimo-beater? I think they’re equally lovely, but Casale has it beaten due to its relative ease of access, closeness to the sea and nearness to Cecina and all its amenities. Sassetta is probably better as a chill-zone – somewhere to bury yourself into another life. I’ve also been told that Sassetta has thermal pools and spas – so we might duck back for another look, as that might seriously be in its favour.

Here’s the video of our day out!

That evening, we had one of our infrequent visits to Il Sacco Fiorentino – we tried going there a few times, but frequently found it closed. Anyway, I had one of the most unusual things I’ve ever had in a Volterran restaurant: Curry noodles with chicken and veg. Hear me out – sometimes you just need a different type of flavour-set! These went down a treat… they weren’t hot, but the flavour was great. Nice to see someone trying something different during the tourist season. There is a Pokebowl place on our street, and some places do sushi during the winter months.

We polished off the day with a stroll about the town.

I hope you enjoyed the read – all 3 villages are worth the trip if you’re in the area!

Friends in Vicopisano and More Smartworking (11/06-14/06)

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

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

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

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

15th century architecture versus 19th and 20th in mere metres

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

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

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

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

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

It’s possible to have just one course in Italy!

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

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

This pizza was die würstel. Ha! Sorry again.

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

The entrance to the ex-psychiatric hospital

And now the food and drink-related pics!

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

And that was that. I hope you enjoyed the read and eye-candy. Let me know what you think.

The Marvellous Val di Cornia/Valle del Diavolo (09/06-10/06/2023)

Friday, June 9th
After our last day out, we had to bring our little friend to the airport. We enjoy having guests, so it’s always a bit sad to have to say goodbye. We headed back home, though, to chill. We just had one of those days where we see what it’s like just to simply live in Italy, rather than simply being extended tourists. We still did treat ourselves by eating out in the evening, after having aperitivi.

I am reluctant to name the restaurant, as we have the one or two reasonable meals there, but they were super-off this time around.

Saturday, June 10th
Time for a walk? It was a bit grey out, as it had been yesterday, so I kept it shortish, but still got a decent workout. I headed straight out of the Porta Fiorentina, and down to the Doccia free carpark, but there were the makings of a funfair there – including a big dodgems setup. I think I remember seeing this before in June, 2018 – so maybe this is an annual thing.

We had planned to go to shopping to CoOp that day, and were at the top of Via Gramsci when the heavens began to open. We tried to wait it out in the little chapel there, and then something happened: be both lost our tempers – simultaneously. We were both sick of the constant rainy, grey weather (we come from Ireland, remember – Italy is our escape from all that!). All we were short of doing was shouting and shaking our fists at the heavens – we’d had enough. I admit it sounds like we’re being melodramatic and a little spoiled, and it’s true to an extent – but an important thing to remember is that because of the bad weather Northern Italy had experienced in May and June in 2023, wine and olive oil production was devastated throughout. It was a very unusually poor stretch of weather.

Screw it. We weren’t going shopping. We weren’t even going to stick around in Volterra for another few hours of rain. Opening the iLMeteo app on my phone, we had a look at the animated rain radar and I spotted that it seemed to be projecting to be a little clearer nearer where the Colline Metallifere (Metalliferous Hills, yes – a blandly-named mountain range!) meets the sea – near the small area much more magnificently known as the Val di Cornia, and the even more wonderfully named Valle del Diavolo.

We walked briskly to the car and headed as quickly as we could and rocketed southwest. Those of you who know Tuscan roads will know that was something of a lie. We squirmed our way south on the winding roads from Volterra to Saline, where we made a right turn south towards our destination. As we wended our way, down the Val di Cecina, sometimes beside the titular river, the clouds thinned and thickened. I was hoping that as soon as we crested the first series of mountains we’d be good, but it seemed to take us ages to do that.

We past Castelnuovo Val di Cecina and rain was pelting down. I remember at one point, as we approached the Valle del Diavolo and its unmistakable steam-stacks and silver piping, the rain was coming down in floods. We past Larderello – with its huge stacks and vowed that one day we’d go to its geothermal museum. We seriously thought about heading back as we turned our heads towards Volterra and saw the butte relatively cloud-free. But we soldiered onwards and upwards – there was a few minutes where the rain fell in such volume that it really felt like being inside a carwash.

Once we were over the first main set of hills, though, we could see patches of blue here and there in the near distance. Our first port-of-call was Monterotondo Marittimo. We drove past a sign which indicated that this place was one of the most virtuous towns in Italy – and blazed through a speed warning. Thankfully, we weren’t find, and we were on our guard afterwards. We parked… had a brief walk – then parked again, this time a little closer to the old town. The carpark you’ll see us pull into in the video below was not the one we settled on – which was here.

Anyway, we got out and had a little explore. It was a nice wee town, but quiet. We wanted to try to find somewhere to grab a little food, but there was absolutely no open bar or restaurant to be found. In fairness to the place, it is small, it was the weekend, it’s not a touristy town and it was during riposo. If you ever find yourself driving near it – maybe give it a little more love. As I said, it’s cute, and there are some nice views over the forested valleys. Here are some pics!

Imagine what it could be like on a clear day!

We were still hungry, and we drove down to the newer part of town. It had begun to rain, the only open bar by a piazzetta was packed with sheltering locals – so we chose to move onto the next town: Sassa Pisano.

This is a small village which is known also right in the middle of the geothermal zone. So right-in-the-middle, if fact, that there are open smoking natural fumaroles and pits around which you can hike. So much of the area is steamy! We reached the village and parked in a tiny section of tarmac by the tourist office, got out and explored – there is a larger carpark at the eastern end of town, though. There are some things to note about this visit:

The tourist office we walked past had a family of four all dressed in medieval peasantry. We should have gone in to inquire, but we didn’t. We were too hungry.
The town had really just one main street. It was cute, and today it had a mini-mini market of about 4-5 canopy-covered stalls. It was raining again, and the stall owners, seeing our arrival, went back to their stalls, breaking off conversations with locals, hoping that we’d buy a few knick-knacks or food. We did neither, and I always feel bad about that.
The only place to eat a savory meal was closed. We stopped off at a bar, and shared a deliciously gooey-centered pastry, served to us by a nice young lady who took occasional smoke breaks out on the tiny terrace.
There seemed to be some sort of UNESCO-based visit that day, which we missed, and a promise of some entertainment later that evening.
To my chagrin, I didn’t take enough photos of the place. And I’m sorry about that, people of Sasso Pisano – I’ll do you better next time, plus explore you a little better. I did take a little video footage, which you can see in the video below.

We left the town, slightly less hungry, with clouds dispersing. We just made it outside of the town again, and stopped briefly at one of the fumaroles from which you can take hikes. The place was strangely beautiful, if stark – and maybe one day we’ll return to take one of those hikes. But that day, we neither had a footwear, nor the weather – for by the time we’d gotten back to the car it had begun to spit rain again. Time to move on!

The little hill-village of Lustignano looked like it had some promising weather, so we selected the shortest route in Google (does anyone else remember when you could elect to ignore ‘unpaved’ routes in Google?) and went on our merry way. There were two peculiar things about this journey:

a) Rather that take us winding around the valley’s hills, it took us deeper into the valley itself, which is unusual; and
b) It led to an effective dead-end when we reached a break in the road, which had a stream running across it. Now, it was no torrent, and in fact may well have been shallow – but it for all the world looked like that an earthquake had split the road over two levels, with the left-hand section of the road split suddenly and being about half a meter lower than the right-hand side. There was what looks like rebar sticking up through the water. Now, our car could probably have made it over the stream, but I was too jittery about the opaque muddy water hiding other rebar beneath its surface and doing all sorts of damage to our rental, so we reversed and chose a different route.

So we ended up doing the hugging-the-hills drive instead, which was pleasant enough in these more forested areas. We were tempted to stop in Serrazzano, which had a larger new town with a small old town appended to it, but we had our hearts set on Lustignano and so we went!

We drove up to the village itself, as a carpark wasn’t readily apparent. We passed by a lovely soccer pitch and then wound about its few rows. The only parking obvious to us was on the street. We managed to squeeze into a space on the side of a road, opposite an open bar. We thought we’d work up a sweat by exploring the place first. Once you get to an outside wall, you were guaranteed a decent view into the valleys surrounding the butte on which Lustignano lies.

The village was absolutely lovely:

And inside the village itself was so gorgeous. It’s an extremely quiet place, so if you’re looking for a chillzone – this could be it. Having said that, I saw posters about town showing the summer programme, and it seemed packed! This is one of the things the Italians are wonderful at – creating a sense of community, especially out in the sticks. There was another little bar opened below the town, and a couple of people were setting up for something outside – pretty sure it was well ahead of time. This is always the problem with exploring in the middle of riposo, as we were doing – you might miss the real life in a town.

After we’d finished exploring, we walked back to the car, and to the small social club/bar opposite. There were three ladies inside – one middle-aged, tending the bar, and two older ladies – who were chatting away happily. We greeted them, and went to the freezer and picked ourselves out some ice-cream. We paid, nodded our thanks and scoffed them in the car. I guess I didn’t feel my Italian was at a high enough level to converse. Another minor regret. Anyway – time was burning, and we wanted to check out one last town: Castagneto Carducci.

On the map, it looked like a larger village, again on a hill – and it turned out to be that, and a lot more. It took a bit of a drive, 40 minutes on a very wobbly route. We very nearly let the villages of Canneto and Sassetta distract us from our goal, but continued on rather than stopping. The last stages to it involved only a modest climb in the car – and I noted we were surrounded by wonderful views again. I also noticed that properties in the area were a little less isolated and very attractive. There be money here!

We parked in a long noodle of a carpark on the east side of town. I noted that the parking was chargeable for most of the day (08:00-24:00), and that for me was clue enough that Castagneto Carducci may, in fact, be a bitt more touristy than I’d thought. Once out of the car, we headed north, uphill, towards what looked like the main part of town. We stopped at a corner on which was a sculpture of a red frame, designed to enhance your view looking back over the valley to the east.

Once I’d papped and videoed what I’d wanted, we headed into the town itself. We were soon hit with our first choice: to left, and check out an place which seemed to sell olive oil, or head straight along a row of buildings that looked a bit more non-descript. While I am glad we went left, I must advise you to go straight if you are interested in a shorter explore, and want to get to the main drag. The town is relatively close to Bolgheri, and so is known for its wine production, but is also known for its oil.

Anyway, we had an explore and thought we’d soon come across the main shopping drag, but there was no sign of it. There were lovely views into the valley, atmospheric laneways which sloped steeply downwards (from our perspective), and a fantastic church, which sat at the top of a double-ramp and looked like it once might have been part of a fortress.

No matter how hard we searched and how many residential laneways we wriggled through, there was no finding anywhere that even looked like a shop! I kept checking the online map and we just weren’t getting any closer to the places marked as shops. Maybe the cellular here was unreliable, or maybe it was me! Eventually, we found a road heading downwards, a junction of which had a statue of Giosuè Carducci, the poet for which the town is named.

We turned left and stopped. Here it was! Just a little way down the hill, we could see the telltale sign of those burgundy awnings for which Tuscan-based stores are famous. The closer we got, the more we got to see, that not only was this the main shopping drag, but Castagneto Carducci was pretty lively and touristy! I had no idea that it would ever be to this extent and I was pretty delighted to find some life, given the lack in the previous three places. All had their charms, but some human voices were welcome at this stage.

We dipped into a couple of arts and home stores to look for lights/lamp fixtures for Niamh. We didn’t quite find what we wanted, but noted that the shops were beautifully appointed and chic. The drag continued, and it was bar after restaurant after bar – all opened around 18:00 – most restaurants wouldn’t reopen for dinner in Volterra until 19:00-19:30.

We got to the bottom of the road, and were enthralled by the little piazza it opened onto. Beyond the square, we walked around the walls and had our breaths taken completely away by the incredible panoramic views of the coastal plains from Versilia to the Maremma. Amazing. There was a restaurant there with views looking out over the coast, and I have made a mental note to return to Castagneto Carducci to eat at a table with a view in that restaurant. It just made an incredible impression on us.

Take a look at our video below, which summarised our visits to the four towns.

We headed back towards the car, but not before stopping at one of the bars for 20-30 minutes for a gelato and a refreshing drink, and a bathroom break of course. We had considered eating elsewhere in the town, but by then we had our hearts on Asian-style food and thought we’d head to Cecina to see if could eat at Sushi Queen, which disappointed us last time by not having its opening times updated.

We drove around Castagneto Carducci on squiggly narrow roads that took us towards the coast. This whole area was wonderful – we will be visiting again. Once on the motorway, we drove to Cecina, parked in our usual place near the train station, and walked to Sushi Queen, which Google said (like last time) would be open by 19:30. But it wasn’t. They announced to us that it wouldn’t be opened until 20:00. Seriously! Just update your opening hours on Google! So, once again we said thank you to Sushi Giapponese Tokyo for providing us with some food.

After we had stuffed our greedy faces, we had the 40 or so minute drive back to Volterra and I’m pretty sure we collapsed into bed. Thanks for making it to the end. Let me know what you thought of our busy day out!

Leonardo da Wherenow? (08/06/2023)

Yay! It was time for another Day Of Fun™! Due to our friend’s love of history, and that fact that we hadn’t been to it in ages, we decided to drive out to the village of Vinci. Yes, that place, where your man is from – Frank… nah, just kidding, Leonardo, of course.. While perhaps not quite from the village, it is said that he lived in a house up in the hills nearby. Scholars (and charlatans, probably), can’t be 100% precise where he lived, but they have all settled on a particular house, based on his writings and some drawings of the nearby landscape. We had been to the village before, seen the museum and even eaten there – but this was before I started blogging or vlogging. So, this is effectively net new to you guys.

What isn’t net new, is that I went on a lovely walk. This was going to be (mostly) a lovely day, so the colours are lush and were not unwelcome. Enjoy!

As you can see, I kept it inside the walls this time around. I then to it to the top of the walls to have a look at the beautiful countryside surrounding the town.

After breakfasting and abluting we walked to the car, and drove the hour or so there. There’s handy parking, but it’s at the bottom of the town and it’s a mild uphill walk through the new part of town before you hit the museum ticket office.

There were only a couple of small groups ahead of us. While we waited, we marveled at the little birds who had nested in the ticket office. Anyway, when we go to the front, he completely blanked my wonderful “Tre studenti, per favore.” and paid complete attention to Niamh and my friend, who were obviously the adults in the group. We got our tix (which incidentally cover entry to Leonardo’s childhood home outside the town) and headed up the ramp immediately outside, into the old town.

I assure you that there actually some people there! One of the great things about having a car at your disposal is that you get to visit tons of places most tourists will never see – even one as culturally significant as Vinci. We walked through the old town’s laneways, had a look at Leonardo’s possible place of baptism, and admired some modern sculpture, before entering the exhibitions themselves. A couple of things to note here: firstly, these exhibitions relate to his engineering and anatomical studies and feats, not his art – and second, I don’t have many photos, as I was taking video at the time.

Ok, there is also a third thing: it was mercilessly hot in the building. They only had air-conditioning turned on in one room, in which we sat down for a little while.

The museum itself is fascinating, and contains many miniatures and working models of his machines. I lamented how he had to turn to making war machines to satisfy his benefactors and make a living. One curious thing – they had a huge model of the wings for humans, spread across the ceiling of one of the rooms. When we were reviewing the photos after, the ladies were astonished – neither of them had seen it!

We were hungry, and when looking for a place to eat, we came across a little piazzetta in which there were statues of Leonardo da Vinci and Qi Baishi (Chinese painter) by a Japanese sculptor. I have no idea why I have no photos nor video of these, as they were quite lovely. Such is life. Anyway, we were hungry and spotted a couple of snacky-restaurants below. Now, usually I’d run away from these types of places in obviously touristy areas, but I wasn’t getting the ‘we’re here to fleece you’ vibe from it, so we gave it a bash.

And I’m glad we did! The food was above average, but the people serving were so chatty and lovely – I live for these kinds of random interactions. We were just talking about where we came from, and if we’d visited here or there – nothing World-changing, but just… nice!

Before heading back to the car to try to find Leonardo’s gaff, we first entered a tiny souvenir place where I desperately tried to find some t-shirts that fit me – some of the designs were cheesy but fun. Sadly, most shops in Italy don’t cater for the larger gentleman. I lost 22.5 kg (50 lbs) when I was very ill with generalised anxiety disorder. Now that I’m (mostly) out of that, I’ve since put that and more back on – I need to lose weight. But even when I was at my skinniest, buying clothes in Italy was a huge challenge! I bought one anyway as a ‘promise’ to myself to fit into it.

Then we drove up the steep and wriggling road to where Leonardo’s house is said to be. Parking is easy, and there thankfully was a refreshments van there too, which we made use of on the way back.

We walked across the narrow road, and through a small olive grove until we reached the complex, of which Leonardo’s birth home is a part. A nice young man took our tickets and we entered the building. It’s not particularly big – just a few rooms. The room to the right contains a little diorama indicating Leonardo’s travels and other memorabilia. The room to the left had the most interesting thing: a projected mini-documentary where a lone actor playing Leonardo tells his life story, but through his love of his mother. This is definitely worth catching. Italian and English versions play alternately, and there is another room in the modern part of the complex, which it also plays it on a small TV – I’d catch the more immersive version in his house, if I were you. I didn’t take many photos, because I was taking video instead (see below).

If I ever publish a travel book, this will be on its back cover

We strolled around outside after, taking photos and video. Then we walked back to the car, got ourselves some refreshments back at the van (it was a hot old day!) and drove home.

Except we didn’t get as far as the apartment, did we?

Espresso martini at Antica Velathri Café!

And we didn’t quite stop at Antica Velathri Café. It was golden hour, so we raided Piazzetta Fornelli to check out the sunset. We met another friend there, and took photos of each other in between sips of aperitivi.

We were getting hungry (what else is new?), and thought we’d give one of our favourite places a bash: La Taverna della Terra di Mezzo. We just love Robbi and Aurora, the owner and waitress respectively – and the food is good – especially the meats. So that’s just what we had: a big, flip-off Florentine steak.

You don’t get to dictate how a Florentine steak is cooked!

We were finishing up our meal when we heard a bit of a cacophony approaching Via Gramsci (where the restaurant lies). It turns out it was the feast of Saint Clement and Giusto – so there was a protracted procession of the town’s finest, chanting and holding candles while responding to a cleric on a loudhailer. You can catch this in the video just below:

And that was our day! I hope you enjoyed the read. Give me a shout with any comments/queries!

A Day at the Beach and a Stunning Meal (06 & 07/06/2023)

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.