We crashed after bringing our guest to the airport, and then lazed about the apartment, screenwatching. We headed out to Il Pozzo degli Etruschi for some lunch. We were sat down the back, which we’d never been before, and so saw that they had a covered Etruscan well!
I had pici with lamb sauce, and Niamh had a boar chop with baked rosemary potatoes, with a side of grilled veggies.
A small thunderstorm forced us back to the apartment, where I stayed for a little sleep. I got up around 17:00 and headed out to the town’s pinacoteca (art gallery). It’s €8 for an adult to visit and allows entrance to the art museum and the neighbouring alabaster museum, which I visited first. I think this museum is also covered by the Volterra Card, which you can buy for €16, which allowed entrance to many of the main attractions over a 3 day period.
As I said in one of my introductory posts, Volterra is the European centre for alabaster art, and has been for millenia, on and off. The Etruscans carved it, which you can see in their funerary urns. The museum here, has small mixture over a few floors of new and old pieces, spanning the near 3,000 years alabaster has been worked here.
At the top, is a reconstruction of a medieval alabaster workshop, along with a couple of nice views of the town below – including a little peek at the Roman ruins.
You can access the art gallery from the mezzanine below the top floor of the alabaster museum. This takes you to the floor which houses the museum’s masterpiece: Rosso Fiorentino’s Deposition from the Cross.
The red-haired, lamenting figure in the bottom right is often though to be the painter himself (‘Rosso’ being a nickname). It’s interesting, though, that there is evidence that Judas Iscariot also had red hair, so the figure acts as a handy double. It’s a pre-Renaissance piece, which is commonly believed to be one of the best early examples of Mannerism, which led to adoption of the style in Renaissance works.
Most of the artworks on display are pre-Renaissance, ranging from mid 1200’s to late 1400’s, and thematically are religious in nature – inevitably, really – they were the ones with the money to commission the pieces.
There are also a couple some classic Renaissance works.
And this fresco by Daniele da Volterra (Daniele Ricciarelle), which was painted for the Medici family in the mid 1500’s. The family crest is one of the main eye-catcher’s of the scene!
You can also make out the coat-of-arms of Volterra on the left-hand side – the shield-mounted dragon.
There is also another room with works by a collection of Volterran artists, with works ranging from Renaissance to mid-1700’s.
I think it’s a worthwhile visit, if you have a passing interest in historical art, whether you like the theme or not.
On the way home, I stopped off in La Sosta del Priore and grabbed a couple of sausage and onion sambos for us. We stayed in and screenwatched for the rest of the evening. Talk about settling in! I went to bed early, as I knew I wanted to get this blog written before we (hopefully) head to Florence in the morning. We have two routes open to us: a slightly quicker route, two-thirds of which is on dual-carriageway, or a route through some wonderful countryside. Hmmmmm…
Hopefully, we’ll park successfully, learn how to use the tram and tell you folks all about it tomorrow.
A short one today. I didn’t get up to much beyond writing and eating. During our cookery course a couple of days ago, we booked a table in the restaurant the instructor’s family owns. We toddled up there at around 13:00, and we sat in their lovely terrace at the back.
They were having a busy service, and as we had all the time in the world, we were prepared to wait without any fuss. We got our wine (‘Marcampo’, 50/50 merlot/sangiovese), and a nice little bruschettini with finely diced tomato on top. I usually shy away from ‘obvious’ tomatoes, but gave this a bash – it was lovely. I’d had it before, when we visited last time.
We ordered, and while the food was slow to come, we didn’t mind – we had time, and the staff who knew us, also knew we had time! They brought out their restaurant-baked breads for us to nibble on while we waited.
The starters came. The ladies had salads (Niamh the Caprese, our guest a salad with crispy bacon and cheese). I had a carbonara with grated black truffle, which was excellent!
Myself and Niamh swapped main courses when compared to the last time we ate here: this time she had the beef cheek, and I the fish. Our guest also had the fish. I really liked it, but I think I preferred the beef.
Between courses, we engaged in conversation with the mamma and the daughter (our cooking instructor), who are both lovely, welcoming people.
Pigs that we are, we also had a dessert! I had what I had last time – twirled 70% chocolate mousse – Niamh had a coffee mousse with cherry sorbet, and our guest had a fruit plate. I loved mine, and had a taste of Niamh’s mousse, which was amazing. I don’t do the fruit thing, but I was told it was nice.
When finished, we were given a selection of petit fours, and a glass of extremely potent limoncello. The latter is made by the matriarch of the family, and uses lemons straight from the Amalfi coast. It was nice, a little thick – and easily the most buckling limoncello I’ve ever had!
We paid the bill, and there were hugs exchanged, and afterwards had every intention of going to the pinacoteca (art gallery), but changed our minds on the way. The ladies stayed out and about for a walk, while I went back to the apartment for a bit of a snooze and some screen-watching. I took this little curiousity on the way there – I don’t know what it is… an accident, or a weird art installation, but the colours contrast wonderfully.
Nothing done again last night, and this morning I didn’t go out for a walk (again!). We had to get up at 04:30 to bring our guest back to the airport. We went straight to bed when we got home, and to be honest, I’m still a little tired.
Don’t think we have plans today, but there are rumblings about us attempting to go to Florence tomorrow morning, so fingers crossed!
After the previous day’s fun and excitement, we took things handy yesterday. There were still a couple of sights our guest hadn’t seen, so another explore was on the cards.
Niamh and our guest went out ahead of me, as it took me a loooong time to put together blog yesterday. I showered and headed out. I don’t often take shots of the town outside of early morning.
After a little walk – through tons of schoolchildren and their parents – Volterra is a lived-in town, and younger kids were being picked up from school – we went to Fornelli for lunch. This was the first time we’d eaten there this journey. It was expensive for lunch, but we knew it would be. The food was fabulous, though.
Our guest had some pork which looked to have been sealed in the pan, then finished off in the oven, with potato, apple sauce and jus. Niamh had a chicken salad, and I had a crisp lasagne, which looked more like a large oven-baked raviolo – it was stuffed witha white cinta senese (pork from a type of pig bred near Siena) sauce, and was amazing.
The ladies went on to do a bit of shopping, while I stopped off at L’Isola del Gusto to grab some gelato to have with the chocolate soufflés we were given when we completed the cooking course. I then settled in to watch some screen for the afternoon – I should have been writing, but that’s me all over.
An hour later, I heard the sbandiertori drums roll up our street towards the main square. I’d seen the show a good few times already this year, so I skipped it, but it was new to our guest. Turns out there may have been heralding the arrival of classic Ferraris, which then remained parked in Piazza dei Priori.
Later in the afternoon, Niamh and I went out to get some petrol for the car, and stopped off at the CoOp for some food shopping.
That evening the ladies had cold cuts – I craved something even slightly oriental, and had Teriyaki quick noodles. Sorry, not sorry. We then had the soufleés. They didn’t turn out well, due to oven issues… still it was the damn nicest chocolate sauce I’d ever had with that gelato!
More screen watching, followed by bed. No walk this morning, as the sky-god looked angry. It doesn’t look too bad now, but I really have to get some writing done. We are going to Del Duca for lunch today, so I have that definitely to look forward to!
We got up, went to the car, and travelled to Podere Marcampo, about 5.5km outside town, as we had a cooking class booked for much of the day. We arrived early, and had a little explore of the outside of the property.
The podere (farm) owners also run Del Duca restaurant in the heart of town. The class was led by the somelier of the restaurant, who herself is a pretty good cook. We were brought inside to their private quarters, and given a small cookbook and apron each (all of which we could take home with us). It was explained to us that we would be making 5 things:
Crusty, rustic bread;
A soufflé of zucchini (courgette);
Filled pasta with tomato sauce;
Stuffed guinea fowl breast;
Chocolate soufflé
The class itself was about 3 hours long, and I immediately wondered whether we’d be able to accomplish everything within the alotted time. Towards the end of the class the instructor told us that they used to do one course after another, which led to time issues, but she had the timing now down to a fine art. A little of the pre-measuring and prep had already been done, and ingredients gathered (all local, most 0km). We would be doing a lot of the prep work, but largely observing during the actual cooking. This was fine by me.
The timetable, then, was a solid 3 hours, with only a short break about 80% of the way through to try their own vermintino (white wine variety), wild boar salami and capocollo (cured pork, a cut from the back of the neck). The meats were sensational, and cured by the patriarch of the family.
For the zucchini soufflé, a full medium red onion was sliced and fried in a lot of extra-virgin olive oil to soften them. This took about 10-15 minutes, during which time we sliced the zucchini and prepped the bread dough from scratch. Unlike traditional Tuscan bread, we would be using salt – which is my preference. It was my first attempt at making bread, and… yeah… it was a mediocre effort.
The dough was left to prove, and then we went back to the kitchen to deposit the zucchini slices into the onions, after the instructor had demonstrated that the onions had sufficiently softened. One thing of note, was that I don’t think salt was used to extract the moisture from the onions, but water was squirted in every now and again. Once the zucchini was in, then she used a mixture of salt and pepper (which they keep together in a single container to ensure consistency in seasoning).
We went back out to make dough and filling for our ravioli. It was an egg-pasta, and we made it from scratch, making use of an electric pasta maker (but only to flatten dough into sheets – we didn’t use any of the cutters). The filling was the instructor’s nonna’s recipe – sweet ricotta with cinnamon and marjoram. Niamh mixed that up – and we could have happily spent the afternoon eating that alone. I noted that they had bought the ricotta, and left it drain for the guts of a day before using it. An egg and a tablespoon of parmesan were used to bind.
The instructor’s mamma came in and demonstrated how to make various pasta shapes (largely using my dough!). It’s easy when you know how. We then made our own ravioli. Not bad for our first attempts. Once they were done and floured, we went back out to the kitchen to drain and coarsely mash the courgette – which we could have eaten as was!
Our dough had proved, and we shaped it without further kneading, floured it and put in the oven. Then the instructor set about making the tomato sauce. This was all down to the quality of the ingredients. They used their own small (pre-chopped) tomatoes, and aromatics, which cooked down quickly. While they cooked, we had some salumi and white wine, and then were brought out to butterfly our guinea-fowl breasts (which had the skin on) and stuff them with sausage and wrap them in pancetta. We then made a clever use of a two-tiered, tapered plumbing pipe to force the breasts into a net, ready for sealing.
The tomato sauce was ready, and we used a winding sluicer to smoothen the consistency of the sauce, and to ensure that no tomato skin was included. We had a taste of the sauce, and I almost fell over it was so good.
The bread was also fully baked, and was left outside to cool. Spinach was boiled for a minute, before being doused in cold water and drained, so it would keep its colour.
We then observed as the guinea-fowl was sealed in a pan – with olive oil enfused with garlic (which was removed when the enfusion was complete). Aromatics, olives and white wine were added (the latter of which added serious steam!). After about 5 minutes, the meat was taken out and left to breathe for a bit, while the sauce left in the pan cooked down and thickened. It smelled yum.
While we were doing other prep, mamma had melted chocolate (70% Ecuadorian, I think) and butter (they use French butter, not Italian – Italian butter is a little lacking, sadly, but their cheese is killer!). In went flour and sugar to the mix, and then egg yolks were added too. The egg whites were vigorously whipped by our guest, until very stiff (enough to keep the whisk upright) in and then gently folded into the mix by Niamh. I could cheerfully have buried my face in the mixing bowl when all was done.
While this was going on, I buttered and floured (semola flour only – so it wouldn’t join the mix, nor add its flavour to it) some aluminium cups. We filled the cups with the mix when done – they would eventually be cooked in a Bain Marie (Bagna Maria in Italian, believe it or not) for 5-6 minutes.
Anyway, that was the end of the course. We had prepped way more than we’d eat, so a lot of it would be used by the restaurant staff to feed themselves. We were ushered out to the outdoor seating area while all our work was being cooked.
We ate Niamh’s bread (lovely!), before our first course came out. Each savoury course was complemented by one of their own red wines.
The first course was the zucchini soufflé, drizzled with a little olive oil. Those of you who know me know that I’m not a fan of veg which goes a little ‘mushy’, preferring instead root and floret veg, served with a little crunch. However, this dish was stunning. Our instructor said that we should try it with potato and turnip, if I didn’t like zucchini – but I don’t have to; it was just beautiful!
The next was our own ravioli with the tomato sauce. I usually skip tomato sauce-based dishes, but again I was shown up as a fool, as this was amazing. The sweet pasta filling went perfectly with the almost sour tomato sauce, which had hints of all the aromatics and garlic – it was an intensely rich sauce.
Our third course arrived (again with another wine) – the guinea-fowl breast, sliced. I’d never had it before, and I hate to say it, but it tasted like chicken! It was perfectly moist, and the sauce was fab. The bird went well with both stuffing and coating and I could have had two of them!
Finally, we had the chocolate bomb soufflé, which was served with a bitter orange marmalade. It was perfectly melty in the middle. We made 15 of them, and might have yummied down 2 or 3 each had we been let.
What an amazing meal, in a wonderful, bucolic surroundings… in 30 degree heat! The temperature didn’t really bother us, though. After we’d settled and were ready to go, we were given a brief tour of their wine plant and cellar below.
They grow a variety of grapes for their wines, but chiefly grow merlot and sangiovese for their reds. Their merlot harvest would be taking place tomorrow (today as I’m typing this – good luck, guys!), with the sangiovese harvest occuring in early October. A culinary aside: they were expecting 20 people to assist with the harvest, and so they had browned quartered duck, and were slow-cooking it in a vat of tomato sauce to feed them tomorrow!
Upon leaving, we were given some of our bread and soufflés, along with a plate of freshly-picked figs Niamh and our guest had tried (and loved!).
All-in-all, it was an amazing day out, and highly recommended if you’re in the area. Being an agritourismo, they offer B&B and have a lovely pool – which they again invited us to use when we wanted. One might balk at the price of €150 per person for the class, but that includes manual, apron, all the ingredients, 4 glasses of wine and a 5-course meal (including the salumi course). We all thought it brilliant value by the end of the instruction. Well done to our hosts! As Niamh said, it was one of our best days here ever.
We were told that a kids fair was on in the main and cathedral squares. It turned out to be a normal Saturday market, with more candy stalls for the kids. Nice and colourful, and with some shopping to interest the adult partaker.
We stayed in the whole evening. I had nothing else to eat for pretty much the rest of the day (save for a granita on my way back to the apartment after visiting the fair).
This morning, I took a ciruitous route past the witches rock and was a sweaty mess by the time I got home.
I might visit the pinacoteca today (the art gallery). I’ll let you know if I do!
Not a bad title for a novel! Anyway – this post is a little media-rich – so beware.
It was more of an eventful night than day… I sat in and wrote a bit (maybe 600 words), and Niamh went out to mooch around town with our guests. They went to the market, bought goodies and then went to lunch in I Ponti. I’d never eaten there before. They had a selection of panini and antipasti, and the reports were good! Niamh also saw a waiter there who used to work in Da Beppino – he always recognised us. A lot of waiters seem to circulate in Volterra from season to season.
I had a veg soup in a carton by Knorr. This may sound blech, but as far as packaged soups go, don’t compare to what we get at home… it wasn’t bad at all!
We crashed and screen-watched in the afternoon, and had the last of the beef ragu that I made, with added oompf by Niamh. It was nice and tasty!
A little after 21:00, a few of us ventured out to sample what the Red Night (La Notte Rossa) had to offer.
If the Medieval Festival appealed to the child in me, the Red Night appeals to the creative adult. Throughout the town, there were art installations, gentle jazz/world bands and many of the museums were open free of charge until midnight. As well as that, some of the town’s more well-to-do families opened their palazzi to the public – which is something they’d never do, except on nights like this.
Firstly, we entered the main square (Piazza dei Priori), to a little bit of magic!
The walls of the buildings were lit up red and indigo, and a video of local hilltowns was being projected onto Palazzo dei Priori. A band played soft jazz, while a young man used aerosol paints to create a stylised profile. Just wonderful. If I’d been here before on such a night, I might have stayed here and chilled with some wine or cocktails.
We instead moved on to have a look at the first palazzo, which was somewhere definitely lived in. It was beautifully decorated and furnished, and a couple of ladies with a piano and melodica were performing some Italian jazz numbers in one of the rooms.
Another couple of places had also opened, revealing lovely, intimate gardens.
After exploring there and listening to a little music, we went to the Porta San Felice – where the crossroads of steps was all lit up with lamps, the oils of which were gently perfurmed. It looked so gorgeous.
We had another final little explore together, before we broke company in Volterra’s sweet little theatre.
The other two went home, while I walked the town myself, taking snaps. I went past Palazzo Viti, but it was only open to organised, pre-booked tours – as were a couple of other places, and I didn’t want to blow the whole night in Volterra’s wonderful pinacoteca (art gallery), where tons of renaissance and pre-renaissance goodies are on display – I will go back there another time and pay.
After a quick stop at a small exhibition by the astronimical observatory near Volterra, I walked to the prison, to see if there was anything else happening on the other side of town. About three-quarters of the way there, I remembered they’d opened part of the prison – but they were closing up by the time I got there. Fortunately, the lady told me that they were opening tomorrow (Sunday) from midday to six o’clock. My Italian comprehension is improving all the time!
Fortunately, another building was open for the night – it seemed to be a dance school. Behind it, though, was one of the creepiest gardens you’ll ever walk in at night. I loved it!
On the way home, I stopped off at a cute little model railway. I skipped the Guarnacci Etruscan Museum (I’ll document that some other day), and the Sacred Arts Museum – I already blogged a visit to that place here. A nice band of aul’ fellahs was playing on Gramsci – so I stayed to listen to one number and then headed for home.
The crossroads of Gramsci/Matteotti (the latter being the road our apartment is on) was the busiest I’ve seen it. Being on your own, though, is not so much fun, so I headed off and my head hit the pillow around 11:25…
…only to be woken up about an hour later by the most tremendous salvo of fireworks I’ve ever heard. It sounded like they let them off in the square or the park, and had them explode right over our apartment. Our windows where humming with the noise, and flashes of colour burst through every few seconds. The last time they let off fireworks here, they lasted about 30 seconds, so I didn’t bother getting dressed this time. I missed a 10-minute display. Typical. Maybe next year!
This morning, we had to drop one of our guests off at Pisa Airport. We had a now obligatory stop at the bell tower (nope – I refuse to post photos this time!). On the way to lunch at La Pace, we had a lovely encounter with local artists who painted one of the pieces of art on display in our living room. They are very enthusiastic, and our guest bought themselves a nice piece to take home. We then had a wonderful lunch in La Pace – boar and pasta – quelle surprise!
As the restaurant is right next to the prison (housed in a fortress enhanced by the Medici in the 16th century), I took the opportunity to take the open prison walk. It turns out, you only walk one of the walls, into a small garden area, where you can buy a ticket for a guided tour (Italian only) of one of the main towers of the medieval fortress. YASSS!
I only understood about 25% of what was being said e.g. one of the 5m diameter rooms housed 12 guards… fun times! You could take photographs freely, except through two windows, which looked out onto the recreation area for the prisoners. A bundle of them were there kicking a ball around, or playing bowls. I’m not sure I like the idea of us spying on them like that, but if some of the entrance fee (€5) goes towards their benefit, then it lessens the guilt a little.
Then I went home, and typed up this blog! You are fully up-to-date. There will most likely be no blog tomorrow, as there will be flip-all to report!
We have two guests with us for a short while, so we decided to take them to Lari. We had been there before, but the Martelli pasta factory tours were closed in August (when many Italians go on holiday). We wandered up to the carpark, only to see that they’d strung some brollies over Gramsci. Tonight is Volterra’s culture night (La Notte Rossa), where there are a ton of acts playing around the city, and many of the major attractions are open for free from 21:00 to 24:00. Why do they call it The Red Night? They light up the city with red lamps – like they do near Christmas. It will be a late night, but I’m looking forward to it. Below is a pic of one of our favourite restaurateurs, from La Terre di Mezzo – getting ready for the festivities.
We went to Lari by way of La Sterza, and Terriciola. Why Google Maps changed our route to take is through Terriciola, rather than go around it is a mystery. We were rewarded with a different set of sights this time around, as we were driven through village after village, past vineyards and olive groves. It was pretty cool… except maybe for the driver, who insisted we travel a different route going home! The roads were quite narrow in parts and can’t have been fun to navigate.
We parked near the old town, with about a 250m walk uphill to the archway which leads into the main area. It was a warm day, and the climb was understandably a little draining. There was an organised tour group ahead of us, but we only had to wait about 15 minutes for the next opening. This afforded us a mooch around the town for a bit, including a trip to a jewellers who could only give us a price for an 18-carat bracelet after he’d weighed it. I’d never seen that before! When the price was given, we excused ourselves and left.
A large group of people had gathered from Ireland (including a pair of people other than ourselves), Germany, the US, the Netherlands and Switzerland to go in. The tour was only about 15 minutes long, but you got to go into the areas where pasta (specifically spaghetti here – the rest of the pastas are made in the castle in the middle of the town) is dried and cut – and you were given a small sample of pre-cut pasta. Martelli pasta is cut with bronze dies, which give it a very rough texture. As the pasta is only made from durum wheat and water, there isn’t a flavour difference, but the sauce sticks beautifully to the pasta in the pan during the final stages of cooking.
The dude that came out to deliver the tour (in English) was dressed in video-game racial stereotype overalls, but he knew his stuff and was friendly. The main area was really warm… maybe 35-36 celsius, and I wondered how hot it could get in August-heat!
Afterwards, we had a lunch with Martelli pasta. We had done so before in the same restaurant, but the only new dish was the one I got – maccheroni with a tuscan ragu.
Our guests were a little tired, so we forewent trips to other towns, and headed home – capturing some lovely scenery on the way. We had an obligatory stop at the ‘O’ on the road just past Volterra, on the way to Siena.
Apologies… you can see reflections in some of the photos. On the way back to apartment, we grabbed some gelati, because we could! We pretty much stayed in for the rest of the day, except when I nipped out to grab a little shopping, and Niamh went out to get takeaway pizza for herself and the other ladies.
I’ve ceased being a fan of pizza at night (acid stomach), and instead got something even more trashy, but strangely nice for a change – a fishburger. The fish was flaky inside the rough crumb, so it wasn’t the worst thing at all – I might try the burger in the same place (Attutapizza) some other time.
Afterwards, we watched Wine Country on Netflix, which was mis-labelled as a comedy. Ah, I’m being unfair – it wasn’t a bad flick (although I left about 10 mins before the end). The Napa Valley looks a bit like Tuscany, so that was a plus – and the characters in it were amiable enough.
Anyhoo, this morning I got up earlier than usual, and compounded by the fact that it is later in the year, the town was a little darker than usual. I found a new part of the route (well… Niamh had gone that way before me), which made the walk a little more interesting. I also captured a wide shot of Volterra’s buildings I’d never been able to capture before. It almost looks like another town from that angle.
That new angle!
The guests are having a mooch about town today, so I will use some of this day to put a hole in my writing project. I hope to stay out much of the night to capture as much as I can on La Notte Rossa too, so I’m really looking forward to that!
We are bringing one of the guests to the airport tomorrow mid-morning, but I hope to have a blog up before we go tomorrow.
In the small hours of last Monday morning I received a call so alien in nature, that I found it difficult to associate its content with reality. It was like I was involved in the rehearsal of a play, or performing a reading of a movie script.
The previous Saturday night, a friend of mine for 30 years, who’d just turned 49 less than a month previously, went to bed and didn’t wake up. I look at photos of him and I still can’t connect the face with what’s happened – like I’ll go back to work after this sojourn in Italy, and arrange a lunch on Dublin’s north side somewhere with him.
Anyway. You’ll be missed, Mick. Just do us a favour: get us a good seat at Morton’s, and eyes off the lounge shtraff. I saw them first. RIP.
We lazed about in the morning. For lunch, I put together a selection of meats and some cheese we had in the fridge. Niamh tried out a couple of slices from one of the pizza al taglio (pizza by the slice) places. She gave me a bit of a ham and mushroom slice – I found it pretty insipid, to be honest. Niamh seemed happy with them, though.
After Niamh had a nap (and I ‘rested my eyes’), walk to the car and drove to La Rosa, to a discount department store called Magazzini Mangini. Niamh wanted some extra bed clothes, and more pillow cases besides. I just wanted out of the apartment! We got some nice stuff there, and then (of course) went around to see what else might we need. I’m kinda glad we did now.
The black puffer jacket I bought in Volterra last year, has a lot of frayed threads, and it probably won’t be too long before it starts unravelling. In addition, I have a heavy red overcoat, which acts as my walking winter duvet. It’s not very good at keeping out the rain, and has a large rip in the inner lining in one of the sleeves. I got a replacement for both coats, and will probably leave the black one behind in the apartment when we leave.
We stopped off in Conad in Volterra on the way home, to pick up some bits and pieces, including the rest of the ingredients Niamh needed to make a chicken curry.
After another couple of hours of screen-watching, we had the aforementioned curry. I love Italian food, make no mistake, but you need a break from having the same flavour palette over and over again. When we were in Hong Kong, we went to an Italian for lunch one afternoon! So a curry was just the thing, and it was fantastic!
We slept the sleep of the just after that (and a couple of glasses of wine each!).
This morning, I took a walk past the Cathedral (among other places). Niamh told me that they had removed the scaffolding, and looked like they were in the process of tidying up and getting ready to ship the construction gear away. It could only mean that the Cathedral will open soon – it’s one of the few places we haven’t seen yet.
No mad plans today, although it’s our last day before guests arrive, so we might get something done. A lot depends on our property manager being able to contact the furniture delivery folks – apparently it’s proving tricky. Fun times!
Due to unforeseen circumstances, I was not in a position to be able to write anything yesterday, so I’m back with a bang today. As well as being cooped up in the apartment for the weekend, we just needed to clear our heads and get out for a while. Niamh suggested going to La Rosa to check out a cheap department store there. Turns out it’s closed on Mondays (new opening hours), and so we sat thumb-twiddling looking for things to do next.
We decided to go travelling!
Terricciola was not too far from La Rosa, and we’d driven past it before on the way to Lari. Parking was handy enough, and was only about 100m away from the older part of town. It’s a nice looking place, but given that this is September, and it’s not a major tourist destination, it was as quiet as a mouse. We found only two food places open – an antipasto and wine store, and a bread baker (panificio).
Once we were finished there, we caught the bug and scoured Google Maps for other places to go. I spotted Castelalfi, but dropped it in favour of Castelfiorentino. I happened to note, though, that the route suggested took us through Castelalfi anyway, and we stopped there too.
What I was not prepared for was what Castelalfi was. I knew it looked to be only a couple of streets, but the carpark was three-quarters full, and the town began with a couple of hotels.
It turns out that Castelalfi is a manufactured resort village. It may well have been converted from a previously existing town, but most of the buildings are apartments for holidaymakers. There were a few shops and a couple of eateries (only one of which was open yesterday). Don’t get me wrong, it was a gorgeous, pristine (not one speck of trash found) place, surrounded by lush countryside, and a wonderful view onto a golf course. But it just lacked a little character as a result – it isn’t a ‘lived-in’ place. Oh, if you like swanning by the pool or golfing, then I probably couldn’t recommend a better venue, though! It is lovely, but what the hell do you do if you have no transport and are stuck in Castelalfi?! Admire the views, I suppose…
They have a restaurant at the top of the area that looks pretty amazing – but it would want to be for the prices! Anyway, it was closed. All-in-all, we saw a sum total of about 9 people in Castelalfi, half of whom were booted and suited for a conference in one of the hotels.
We ended up skipping Castelfiorentino in the end, and instead backtracked to a small hilltop village called Montefoscoli. It is almost the diametric opposite of Castelalfi. It is very much a lived-in town, which I suspect gets very little in the way of tourist traffic. Regardless, it had lovely, if occasionally shabby, clustered buildings and a higgledy-piggledy layout that reminded me of the back end of Amalfi town, or Atrani. It was their market day, and four stalls were decked out with simple goods. Niamh and I stopped to grab some sweeties, as we hadn’t had lunch, and were a little on the hungry side.
Down one road, a table was laid out, with half-empty bottles of water, which suggested we missed a mini street-party. There were also some fab views to be seen from here. A lovely, gentle place.
Google took us down another back road we hadn’t been on before to get home. I love it when this happens, and in this case, we saw some amazing scenery, which, it turns out, is only about 20 minutes drive from Volterra! The pics don’t really do it justice – it’s a case of visiting the place, really.
We chilled for a while at home, before heading out to a place we’d only been to once before: La Vecchia Lira. The owner is sound, and very enthusiastic. We both had pasta primi – Niamh had amazing ravioli, while my pici with Chianini beef ragu was pretty good. For meats, Niamh had sliced steak, with a side of grilled veggies, and I had a really well put-together plate of pork medallions with a vin santo jelly, vin santo sauce, almonds and raspberry pulp, served with perfectly seasoned spinach. We liked the food enough to each have a tirimasu afterwards!
We went straight home again after that (we eat quite late in Italy, and were finished around 21:15 there).
This morning, I got up slightly earlier and went on a walk. It was great to clear the cobwebs, but I finished off with the 200 steps at La Docciola, which damn near killed me!
No plans today – except maybe to ask our property manager to phone the furniture place to drag a date for delivery of our stuff out of them. The service from them (the furniture people, not the property managers) has been a little incompetent. Hopefully, we get the stuff before more guests arrive on Thursday!
We went to the butchers and the market yesterday, to pick up some chicken for the next couple of days’ dinners, and some bits and bobs for lunch. At one of the rotisserie vans, we got a roasted chicken, some chicken kebabs and mixed battered veggies – we had the latter two for lunch. The kebabs were nice, but the jury’s still out on the veggies. They were nicer when we had them from the Neopolitan streetfood store in town.
I wrote a few hundred words in the morning and afternoon, finishing off a tricky chapter, so yay!
While we vegetated for the afternoon, I occasionally heard some cheers coming from Piazza dei Priori (the main square). I immediately assumed that the motorbikes were finishing their run there and were being cheered on by some folks. I went out to have a nose, but nope. It was a wedding. Feeling a little disappointed (not for them; for me), I went to the view point to see if they were finishing there too. Again, nope – but I heard them racing somewhere – the engines of these bikes are loud. I squinted at the road leading from Saline to Volterra, and saw that it was lined with alternating red and white barriers along the bends. And finally, I saw them racing – but barely. They went behind a treeline, and then disappeared, not coming anywhere near Volterra itself. I couldn’t see where the finish line was, so for all intents and purposes, they could simply have fallen into a black hole.
Can you see them?
On the plus side, it might mean that the roads aren’t as closed as we had previously thought.
I had set a reminder for myself to check out some musical event being held in the Museum of Sacred Art, but I got there too early, and I suspect it might have been for kids. So, I went home and grabbed a coffee milkshake from L’Isola del Gusto.
Later, Niamh reheated the rotisserie chicken, cooked up the veggies we bought at the Saturday market and had put together a lovely little gravy. We’ve been craving white meat, I guess – and a decent break from pasta dishes. It may look pretty average, but it was delicious!
During the evening I heard the strains of a live band playing in the square, while I was enjoying a beer. I went to check it out that night, but I was too late: they’d almost completely packed everything away by the time I got there.
There is a huge difference in Volterra between Saturdays in August and Saturdays in September. It was eerily quiet.
I was a hairsbreadth away from getting up at 05:00 to look for a blanket to spread over my legs, such is the sudden change in temperature! There was no rubbish collection today, and the sky looked a bit bleak, so I took advantage of that, and stayed in bed rather than going for a walk. I still got up at 07:40, though.
Instead, Niamh went out and had a cheery jog by the cemetary! She got caught in a shower too, unfortunately, but she struggled though it – fair play to her, and took a few pics.
No plans today – but with the road seemingly only blocked in one direction, we might be able to do something.
Our Man In Volterra 