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!

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. There seemed to be some sort of UNESCO-based visit that day, which we missed, and a promise of some entertainment later that evening.
5. 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!