Gah! I know! It’s been another awfully long time since the last blog. Sorry about that. I was enjoying myself working and holidaying in Volterra for a couple of weeks. On the plus side, it means plenty more content on the way… at some stage.

First things first – I got out on a walk this morning – all the way down to the bus car park. The views from there are lovely. In fact, if you hiked for 3 minutes, you’d be in the middle of the countryside.

The countryside beckoned, but I was unsure of the trail and I didn’t have hiking boots on. I wonder how many use this trail, and if it goes far.

Niamh had wanted to go to the mercato dell’usato (2nd hand market) in Capannoli for while to see if we could find a little table or even stool on which we could place drinks/food etc. while sitting. It was closed for riposo, so we decided to make a drive of it, rather than going directly.

So, we decided to head out of town and make for a village in Volterra’s comune we’d never been to before: Villamagna. From there, we’d go to Legoli via a curiosity in the countryside: Triangolo Verde. I may have mentioned before, but the comune of Peccioli has made itself relatively weathly by creating a facility which handles much of Tuscany’s non-recyclable waste, and from that to energy production. The villiage itself is an outdoor art museum, and there are some curiosities in the area, not least of which are the ‘Peccioli Giants’, which represent the power of Peccioli coming from the earth. There is one squatting (a man, quite naked and anatomically accurate) over a building a little way outside the main part of town, and another visible from a modern terrace on one side of the old town, and there are a couple more in Trinagolo Verde. Now, I wasn’t too sure what this place was, other than the home of a couple of these giants – but we’d find out. But first, the drive!

We headed east, past Staccioli’s red ‘Ring’ and took a left at Roncolla, taking a looong route to the village. I’d read in Facebook posts that the inhabitants of Villamagna (who won the last tug-of-war palio, if memory serves me correctly) knew how to have a better time at night than the Volterrans. I wouldn’t get a chance to try that theory out this time, as it was shortly after lunch. Well… it was quiet. In fairness, it was riposo and those that weren’t resting or lunching were working. We stopped briefly so I could grab some video footage (more on that later) and a couple of snaps of the countryside.

We took a route out of town along a road that topped a gentle ridge. It got narrower and narrower. We had to slow down to overtake a couple of young ladies on horseback. On either side of us, though, were some of the loveliest views of the Val d’Era. At one point it became too much, and we stopped a couple of hundred meters from a lone farming hamlet, one chimney of which was streaming pale smoke into the hazy sky. In the distance, a double lake shone like a jewel in the rolling green hills. Tuscany (sadly) isn’t known for its lakes, so these were eye-catching.

We found ourselves a little way outside Legoli at a closed automatic gate – the gate to Triangolo Verde. In front of a gate a huge shaggy dog lay in the sun. When our car approached, it slowly got up and ambled away, just outside of reach. I got out, and buzzed the intercom at the gate. I explained in broken Italian, and then broken English that we would like to come inside if it was open. The nice man inside the intercom said yes, and after registering us (names, addresses) pressed something to make the gate slide open. I raced back to the car, and we followed a curving path downwards towards a building, past an open air circular theatre and a place where we could park.

We got out and were very nearly blown over by the wind. But sure enough, there were two of the Peccioli Giants waiting for us to pose beside. The welcome centre (which is what I assme the building was, as well as perhaps being a bar) was closed, as were were out of season. In the distance some heavy bull-dozing-like machinery were busy doing something. It looked like they were operating near layered stone, and we thought that this place was a quarry of some kind. I was taking video, so there aren’t many photos. When I zoomed in at the machinery, it seemed that it was mostly bulldozing, and there were small flocks of birds everywhere the vehicles were working. Then it hit me: this was a landfill area – this must be one of the places in the comune of Peccioli where the trash is kept – the unburnable stuff maybe? Please correct me if I’m wrong!

Only in Italy, can you go to a dump and find sculptures of birds, giant humans, massive colourful art installations and an outdoor mini arena where events take place!

The sculptures are very impressive. That’s all I have to say about that.

We headed back out. Pressed the red button to open the gate, and I took a couple of of photos of the landscape on the far side of the ridge.

We got back in the car and decided to make more of a bee-line towards Capannoli. We drove through Legoli – considered stopping for a moment when we saw a couple of men setting up seating outside a bar – but carried on. We got through Legoli, but then Google threw us for a literal loop and took us away from Capannoli and back towards Legoli. We caught it early enough and chose out own route (following signposts) to Capannoli, until Google righted itself and chose the correct way.

We got there eventually, and just after opening time, except that it wasn’t. Because the thing closes on Tuesdays – this was *not* in Google. We instead made straight for La Rosa, to Biscottini. We spotted a little stool-like thing, but didn’t buy it (we went back for it another day though!). It’s an interesting store though – all sorts of house decorating stuff in it. Once done there, we went shoe-shopping – at the outlet store there – the one with the enormous boot outside – you can’t miss it! From there, it was across the road to the bar for gelato – and very good gelato it was too!

We got home and chilled before heading to L’Incontro for aperitivi and L’Antica Taverna for dinner. It was a nice enough meal.

It was chill-time again, then bed… but as an extra, here is a video of the day’s action!

Thanks for reading – let me know what you think, or if you have any questions about the area!