Tag: dining

2021)

There’s a bit of write-y stuff in this one, but there are photos and a video below – I promise!

The town of Castiglione della Pescaia is one of those rare coastal places which has an old-town feel to it. This is because there was a profusion of dwellings settled nearby a large fortress, protecting them from potential raiders. The possibility of Saracen (and others) attacks was so high, that people tended to settle on hills inland, rather than risk slaughter. Perfectly understandable. Tuscan towns with an old-charm feel are incredibly rare in Tuscany, with many places with beaches having become more settled in post-war Europe. So, it’s always cool to find something that matches the tastes of the culture-vulture, the history-hound and the beach-baby. The foodie? Well… see below…

But first, bathroom remodelling! After our failed attempt to engage the builder, our appointment was properly set up for this morning. Our nice lady from Milianti (estate agents and property managers), Alice, arrived early, and although she’s young and slender she commented that climbing the 76 steps to our apartment whilst wearing a face-mask was tricky! A few minutes later, there was another ring at the door, and we let two gentlemen in: one was the builder, the other was an older man. This latter guy turned out to be the consulting geometra. What is a geometra? They are essentially internal building surveyors. One of their responsibilities is carrying out technical reviews of buildings for extensions and changes etc. We took them through the changes we want, with Alice translating all the way. All was tickety-boo.

Once gone, we headed out and took our 8 minute walk to the carpark, to our little stick-shift Fiat 500. Definitely one of our favourite rides we’ve rented since coming here. We stuck on Missus Google, and headed down SS68 towards Siena.

I don’t have any photos of the journey, because I was filming! You can catch the video towards the end of the blog. We decided to head the ‘country’ route, rather than along the coast. That made the journey very long, but it was interesting to see new towns appear on the signposts. I love to explore, so even new signposts alone sometimes give me an endorphin rush.

We passed tantalisingly close to Casole d’Elsa. We have visited it a few times (blogged about it once), and it’s a lovely little borgo, but we had a schedule! We blasted past it. Other highlights include also blasting past the Instagrammable Ponte della Pia. We didn’t stop. You can hear me squeal about it in the video below. We drove through the lovely Rosia, and shortly afterwards the 12 year-old in me was pleased by seeing signs for a town called ‘Orgia’ (literally ‘orgy’ in Italian). I imagine the property prices there are quite steep, but the people fit and healthy. Just outside Rosia, we were stopped for the third time this year, by a randomly parked police checkpoint. Once they found out we were tourists, they waved us on – but we found it prudent to carry identification documents with us at all times just in case. Just past Siena earlier in the year, they had us pulled over checking passports and licenses for a good 15 minutes.

When we were in the latter stages of the journey, on the multi-laned SS223, we flew past another hilltown. I checked my phone, and I’m pretty certain it was Civitella Marittima – one on my list to visit… but we ploughed-on!

If there’s one thing I really enjoyed about the journey, it was it showed us how hugely varied the countryside is in Tuscany. From the typical undulating hills and olive groves and vineyards, to winding valley roads with streams. Sometimes, yellow-golden, sometimes grass-green. Here and there farmhouses dotted throughout, with the occasional castello or hamlet crowning a lonely hilltop. It is beautiful land.

We knew we were getting close to the coast when we started seeing the coastal pines (I think they’re sometimes called Stone Pines) – tall trees topped with wide, flat foliage. They began to line to roads, once we left the highways.

I think that the journey took us a good two hours. Blame me… I just wanted to see more of the countryside. It took us 20 minutes less on the route home. Anyway, we got handy parking here, and had a quick stroll by the marina before heading up into the town itself.

It was close to lunchtime, so we just wanted to explore a little before having food. We strolled up the what we considered to be the main tourist drag, checking out some restaurants and a gelateria (for later!) on the way.

Now for some much-needed controversy. I have often considered my blog to be something of a hagiography of Italy, so a little criticism is overdue. For a while, I have been exploring the Italian coast on Google Maps (yes, I have a sickness). So far, I have gone from the French border, and have just past Naples. It takes a long time! Anyway – one of the chief observations I have made is that generally, restaurants in touristy coastal towns are poorer than you will find a little inland – especially those along promenades. There are, of course, exceptions – but many… hmmm… I would say most, would seem to rely on seasonal, transient trade. My chief point is: do your research on Tripadvisor, Google etc. before selecting a place to eat, if you have a definite preference of quality over location.

Despite the time of year, there were still a few restaurants still open. We went to Pane e Vino on Corso della Libertà. It was open and seemed to be getting favourable reviews. We were shown to our outdoor table and were attended very quickly and enthusiastically. We needed the bathroom, and apart from a little lighting issue, all was good – the bathroom was nice and clean. We had a little struggle with the menu, as we aren’t huge seafood fans – mostly whitefish, salmon and mussels – I sometimes eat tinned mackerel too. Although, one of the nicest things I have eaten – in fact the very first thing I ever ate in Volterra – was an amuse bouche in Del Duca, of which anchovies were a part. I also kept hearing how anchovies in Italy were way better than they are elsewhere. Anyway, we found stuff we thought would be interesting and ordered. The results were…. mixed. The ingredients were cooked well, and some of the ideas novel, but in the main, they just missed the mark – one in particular was frankly bizarre. I laud restaurants for trying to experiment, and I think these guys were trying to do that – so, hats off on that front. One thing that bugged me outright, was that I had wanted a fritto misto, but didn’t see it on the menu. Nonetheless, a couple of parties came in after us and were served plates of it. Grrr! Off-menu items annoy me. Anyway – back to what we *did* get:

The staff were lovely I have to say, and attentive, but we left in something of an unsatisfied daze. If you love seafood, good presentation and experimentation (and what looked like amazing fritti misti – grrr!) then this place could be for you. I have to stress again, that the cooking was good. And Niamh’s coffee was great too.

Once we were done eating, we decided to delay our gelato fix until we were done exploring the old fortress part of town. What a lovely place it was. And hilly. Also, cats – cats everywhere! On our way we passed by an Irish bar – Tinakilly Pub. At first I thought that was a bit of a spurious name, as Irish town/townland names often derive from an Irish name that actually means something. However, I see that there is a Tinakilly House Hotel just a little over an hour from us – so it’s the real deal! Tinakilly is derived from the Irish words ‘Ti’ (house), ‘na’ (of/of the) and ‘Coille’ (woods) – so ‘House of the Woods’. There you go – very interesting! Of course, having blown a paragraph on that, I now have to tell you that we didn’t go in.

Steps and slopes – wonderful views everywhere

We briefly and indadvertently walked outside town through a porta at the top end. Beyond it was a carpark and what looked like a school, plus a hint of the bay view to come.

Not a bad view, but the best was yet to come!

Next, we returned back into the town, and found a church. It was nice and cool inside, but not as decorated as many you’d find. There was another cat guarding the door.

Upon leaving the church, we walked uphill past some lovely houses – passing by yet another cat – an enourmous fluffy lad, and then looked left. Wow. The view of the gently curving bay was amazing. I think you could also make out Monte Argentario farther along the horizon. The closer mountain I think is the Parco Rgionale della Maremma.

We walked over the hill to the other side of the village, and down to another porta in the fortress walls. We jostled for our space with some other tourists there to get our shot by it. There wasn’t much beyond that porta, so we headed all the way back town to the newer part of town. It was gelato time! We grabbed some yumminess from Bar Gelateria Angolo Gelato and sat on a bench around the corner in the shade.

We headed back to the car after our gelato and, driving past the cemetary we saw earlier behind the church, opted to go home via the more coastal route. It was a good bit quicker. I was too slow to grab a shot of Follonica and its bay as we crested a hill to look down upon it. It was a gorgeous sight. Follonica itself looks to be an interesting place to stop for a modern beach-city – I have read that it’s promenade is nice (remember the tip about restaurants, though!). We skirted around the outside of the town, through its more suburban areas, and shortly after there joined the multi-laned E80. We turned off just before Cecina, and headed through Saline di Volterra back to our home-from-home.

You can watch a video of that part of our day here:

I took a couple of shots of Volterra on our way back from the car to the apartment. I do this because all too often I only catch some shots during my morning walk when the light favours some scenes, but not others.

We weren’t quite done with the day yet, though.

We wanted some way to help celebrate my writing competition win (see last week’s blog), and it was going to be our last night for this trip. We decided pizza and beer was in order. We headed out later than usual and were very lucky to find La Mangiatoia still open – they closed shortly after we left. Many Italians eat very late when compared to the Irish – often at 21:00 or 22:00 – but La Mangiatoia looked like it was closing around the 22:00 mark. They looked a little worried when we ordered, but brightened up when we selected pizza – I presume we’d be told that a lot of the stuff was off the menu otherwise. I like their pizza – it’s second only to Pizzeria Ombra della Sera. The didn’t have any Moretti left, so we had one of their own beers. I wish I had taken a photo of it – it wasn’t bad at all!

Once done, we had a walk to the Piazza dei Priori, and then thought… No! We’re not done yet!

I wanted something sweet, but already had a gelato that day – so we went to Antica Velathri Café and had a couple of cocktails (ok, I had an amaro). But then I saw a homemade panacotta on their menu, with a variety of different sauces. I think I grabbed one with a chocolate sauce, or it might have been caramel… I do remember it being eye-rollingly delicious, though!

And then we were fit for our beds. Thanks for reading – I really hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a comment below – I’d love to hear from you!

The Vicopisano Market (10/10/2021)

I didn’t go for a walk that morning, as I knew we were heading off early to travel. I did take a pic from the terrace, and one on our way to the car, though.

We’d been following people from Vicopisano on Instagram for a while (Authentic Tuscany – check them out). It seemed like a nice town, but what really clinched the deal was the collectors’ and antiques market they hold the second Sunday of every month. We’d passed it by on the way to Montecatini Terme in August too (and yes, it still galls me that I lost the video footage of that trip), and there were a couple of historical features that certainly looked worth checking out.

We set Mrs. Google to the carpark that looked most promising, and got underway. The trip is about 54km and took a little over an hour. I didn’t take any photos, because I was filiming! You can scroll further down the page to check out the video of the journey and the market itself.

We arrived around 11-11:30 and found that it was only a short stroll to the market itself. And what a market! I’d heard that Arezzo had the biggest regular antiques fair in Tuscany, which is probably true – in that it is strictly antiques. But Vicopisano’s market is absolutely enormous, and so lively. I’m struggling to think of anything that wasn’t for sale! There were books/comics, toys, old wireless radios, furniture, crockery (including very fancy dinner sets), cutlery, wonderful stalls with gramaphones (being demonstrated), clothes, weapons, musical instruments, old bikes, alabaster and terracotta-ware, mirrors, glasses, genuine war memorabilia. The market wrapped around Piazza Cavalca – a large square just west of the oldest parts of the town, and snaked its way along multiple adjoining streets. We really couldn’t get over the size of it. It was so huge, that while we didn’t buy anything (we came close), we still spend a good 60-70 minutes simply strolling through it while stopping only briefly to check out a few stalls of interest.

One of my favourite photos of this holiday

One of the best things about Italian markets (I think I’ve noted this before), is how lively they can be – the excited chatter of Tuscan accents buzzed about us and really added to the overall atmosphere. I really couldn’t recommend this enough! There was one stall in particular that grabbed me. A man was demonstrating a gramaphone, and despite the age of the technology, the massive horn was blaring out the old tune ‘Roses of Picardy’. You can check it out in the video towards the end of this blog.

It was time for lunch, though, and perhaps we were a bit optimistic in thinking we could walk-in just about anywhere – especially during the pandemic. I saw the reviews for Ristomacelleria Testi seemed to be quite good on Google, so I chanced my arm. They looked like they were opening, and I approached who I assumed was the manager/owner, who was on the phone. I waited until he finished, and said to me ‘Dimmi!’. So I asked him in Italian if there was a table for two available now. Unfortunately, there wasn’t. In hindsight, that was probably just as well, as we were going to go out to eat at Terra di Mezzo in Volterra later that evening, so something smaller would have been better. We walked past that restaurant again after we’d explored the old town, and the smell coming from it was amazing (definitely for meat lovers!) – so one day we’ll return with a booking!

Instead, we went to Le Belle Torri, and ate inside. Our waitress was so enthusiastic and friendly, so in the end our choice was right for that reason too. We had a pizza each – they were pretty nice, and just what we needed.

They look a little dry, but weren’t – they tasted nicer than they looked for sure.

We had a ramble through the old town of Vicopisano afterwards, hoping to maybe catch an attraction or two, like the Palazzo Pretorio and the recently re-opened Rocca buttress for walking over – part of the fortifications created by Brunelleschi (yes, the same lad who fashioned the dome of the cathedral in Florence).

So we walked through the town, and were delighted by its old charm. It seemed to be built on terraces, and towers dotted the views throughout. At one point I thought that it might even rival San Gimignano for its towers, but that was just my over-active imagination. But just look at the pretty:

We walked to the Rocca and found it closed to public tours. On our way back we passed by a large group of Italians outside the gate, and assumed that they had organised a special private tour. It was Sunday, and we probably should have realised that many places stood a good chance of being shut, just slightly the wrong side of the tourist season. Onwards we went to Palazzo Pretorio (pausing to let a massive 4×4 perform a complicated 17-point turn), and saw that it too had closed just after lunch on Sundays. D’oh! I had a little explore of its courtyard, and then we had a look at a sequence of switch-backing steps leading all the way down to the river. A little disappointed (as much in our lack of preparation as well as ill luck), and wandered through the more residential area of the old town.

By the time we’d gotten back to the newer part of town, I was pleasantly surprised at how the two seemed to successfully mingle. The blend is very subtly balanced. The old with the new – the border isn’t hugely evident. We entered a bar to grab a coffee/hot chocolate, but for some reason we lost confidence on the protocol on grabbing a table. Some tables seemed to be for dining – or maybe all of them, but we weren’t sure. We chickened out, sadly, and went for one final stroll past the restaurant in which we had failed to secure a lunchtime seat – the smell of grilled meat was wonderful – even after having eaten. We walked past Le Belle Torri, and saw a gate beyond which were other gravelled-and-green-area seats and a couple of other establishments. It was a lovely little mini-park. What a fine little town this is! We wandered up and down it for a few minutes before heading back to the car.

I have to say, we didn’t do Vicopisano full photographic justice, as we missed the ‘classic’ shot of the tower with sloping battlement – but it’s best captured a little way out of town. Maybe next time.

Should you wish to make Vicopisano your base, rather than Volterra, then please out these excellent people – Authentic Tuscany!

That mini park – the cafe was mad busy so we didn’t indulge here either

Here is the video of our journey to, and exploration of, Vicopisano:

A little while after we had returned to Ireland, and I had published the above video, Vicopisano was awarded the Bandiera Arancione (orange flag) from the Italian Touring Club – basically a recommendation to visit one of the finer towns in Italy. I’m pretty sure it was coincidence! *wink* To be honest, I was amazed it wasn’t already on their list.

But the day wasn’t over. When we got home, we found we had a fondness of our own little town, and had a little walk before heading back to the apartment.

The alabaster exhibit outside Osteria Fornelli

Later that evening, we went to one of our favourite places for food: La Taverna della Terra di Mezzo. We were welcomed warmly, as always, and then had a three-course dinner.

Via Gramsci, on our way to the restaurant

Afterwards Robbi, the owner, handed us a bottle of dessert wine – an almond variety. We haven’t tried it yet, but I look forward to the day we can crack it open.

Before I go… a quick art update! You may remember a few blogs ago that we bought a little original painting from a lovely old gent in Montecatini Alto, just outside the funicular station. I promised I’d post a pic of it next time I got over (and remembered!), and so here it is!

Simple and sweet… he charged me €20, I gave him €30. The pic is about te size of my hand with the fingers extended, if I recall correctly. The money was worth the conversation with him alone.

Well that’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Please leave a like and a comment or question. Thanks!

Long and Lovely Lunch at Terra di Mezzo (05/08/2021)

As it was just after our first night, we had no trash to take down, so I could afford to take my time. I still had to move the car by 08:00, though. I grabbed my phone, grip and mic and headed to the carpark.

I got in and drove down to the free carpark, at Docciola. At that hour, I found a spot with no hassle. However, the downside of that carpark is that you have to climb up a couple of hundred steps to get back into town. When there, I walked along Via Gramsci, and stopped off at Pasticceria Migliorini for some pasticcini for breakfast. Italians’ breakfasts are usually sweet, so I just wanted to fit in.

I have a little video about my little walk here:

Once done, I yummied down the pasticcini, had a shower and headed out to meet Alice from our estate agents, who have a great property management service. We gave them a gift of a ton of drink-themed chocolate, and we were given a quick tour of their new office; a great upgrade from their previous one! Very nice indeed.

We had to renew our parking permit, so Alice brought us to the municipal police station in Torre di Porcellino. We waited in line here while the queue slowly moved along.

There are worse places in the world to be stuck in a queue!

While we waited, I ran to a tabacchi to buy stamps to affix to the permit… a sort of mini-tax to be affixed to the permit itself.

It was finally our turn, and we were served by a dapper young gent in civilian clothes. For some reason, and we’re still not sure why, our permit was downgraded from ‘R’ (pretty much full resident’s permit – you can park almost everywhere, and drive through town on designated roads), to ‘F’, which allows us park in 3 areas – and we’d have to ask for permission to drive through town. Now, it annoyed me, but in practical terms it didn’t really impact us, as we were still able to park in our usual carpark.

Anyway, next year, we’ll see if we can get upgraded again… but maybe not get so upset if we can’t pull it off.

One of the traditions Niamh and I have is to try to have our first major meal in La Taverna di Terra di Mezzo – largely down to the time we were welcomed back by them at the beginning of our second ever visit to Volterra. So, we went there for lunch! And we weren’t disappointed.

Via Gramsci – where the restaurant lies.

The food was amazing! We also doused ourselves in the house red and white. When all was done, Aurora opened a bottle of limoncello, and left it and three glasses with us! We weren’t abusive, and just had maybe five shots between the three of us. I ended up leaving satisfied and perhaps just a little tipsy!

The lunch took over 2.5 hours…. but I loved every minute of it. Afterwards, to burn off the calories (and some boooze), we had a stroll around the town a little. This was cool, as I so rarely take photos of it at this time… most of mine are taken in the morning. Anyway, here’s a selection!

Vicolo delle Prigioni – La Sosta del Priori there to both the left and right

We chilled for a little while, before inexplicably getting a little hungry again! So I said I’d pop out to Ombra della Sera pizzeria and grab a couple of pizzas to share. But on the way, sure I had to stop off in L’Antica Velathri Cafe for a quick aperitivo!

I love this place – the owner is great and always helps with my Italian!

I ordered at the pizzeria, and was told it was a 20 minute wait, so I had a quick stroll.

I collected a veggie pizza and a 4-cheese…. I love Ombra’s 4-cheese!

And then to bed! Or maybe some time out on the terrace, then some TV, then bed!

Thanks for reading!

Volterra’s Art Museum

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 Little R and R

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!

Terricciola, Castelalfi and Montefoscoli

Warning: this post is photo-heavy!

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!

Ciao for now!

All is Quiet in Peccioli

Our guest wanted to assist us with getting some sort of environmental solution in, other than having to rely on fans. Niamh looked up mobile air-conditioning units in Comet, and then we went off to their branch in Pontedera to see what we could get. I’d previously remembered it as a bit of a dull drive, but as we went along this time, I found it quite pleasant. The second half of it is rather flat, but there are still hillside villages dotted about to go ‘oooh’ and ‘ahhh’ at.

We got there, and found they only had units which needed to be fixed to the wall, and were very expensive. No sign of any of the products on the website. I asked one of the store’s assistants, and she confirmed that they no longer had any of that stock. In addition, she said that there was no other large domestic electrical retailer around, unless we wanted to see if the CoOp had anything. It wasn’t a wasted journey, though, as Niamh grabbed a pasta-hanger, an egg brush and a fancy food processor.

Driving to the CoOp took all of a minute as it’s not too far at all from the Comet. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything there either, but we did get some plums and felt padding for our chair in the sitting room. No more groaning as we pull it into position! I also took this photo, which proves I am 47, going on 8.

On the way back, we decided to stop off at Peccioli. We’d driven by the old town a couple of dozen times now, and never visited it. The bell-tower in the distance always intrigued us, as it looked almost Moorish from a distance. We were also hungry enough to have a two-course lunch, and were on the hunt for a good, sit-down restaurant.

Peccioli was, unfortunately, as shut as it was pretty. There were a couple of bars open and I did see an enoteca, but it was advertising pizza and cold platters, so we didn’t bother going in. I suspect it was called Il Grano E L’Uva, and if so, going by the TripAdvisor page, it looks like we might have missed out! The town probably doesn’t get a lot of tourist traffic, and is probably busier from June through August. I know it had a Moon festival sometime in July. So we left hungry, but still impressed with this nice little village.

We high-tailed it home to Volterra, parked in a pay-spot just outside our gate (residents get two free hours parking in pay-spots), and went to Il Pozzo degli Etruschi for food. Strangely, they didn’t have wild boar sauce to go with the pappardelle our guest wanted (they had dove sauce, which I ordered!), nor did they have the boar cutlets Niamh wanted. She opted instead for a Chianina beef sauce (yummy) and our guest went for spag-bol. Niamh also got grilled veggies, while I went for steamed. We all seemed quite happy after the meal.

I must have been exhaling in that photo! 😦

Our guest and I grabbed the shopping from the car and carried it back up to the apartment. Niamh took the car to our residents car park, but unfortunately our luck had finally run out – she had to wait 10 minutes or so for someone to pull-out so she could park. Meanwhile, I was happy watching telly.

We stayed in for the rest of the day – we were all a little bushed. Our guest and I did go out at around 19:45 for sandwiches from La Sosta del Priore. When I say ‘sandwiches’, I also include burgers in that definition. As always, they were delicious.

We sat back and watched a couple of episodes of Conan Without Borders on Netflix and hit the sack.

Our walk this morning took us down to the stairs at Docciola, and up past view looking down at the hospital/asylum area – then up to the prison gate and past the entrances to the park (which was closed, unfortunately). We spent a couple more minutes at the panoramic viewpoint taking snaps before heading to the pasticceria. If ‘C’ can be short for ‘Cream’, then my breakfast this morning consisted of plenty of vitamin C!

No travel plans today. Niamh is going to have a crack at making pasta, and I will make a ragu to go with it (hopefully lamb). We also have to see about getting a frame for that art I bought, seeing if the other picture we were getting framed is ready, and hanging up as much as we can!

There will also be no blog tomorrow, as we have to go to Pisa to drop my brother off at the airport for his flight home. Another guest that will be missed!

Cheers!

Volterra AD1398 Festival, Day 1, Part 2

We felt it had cooled down sufficiently to go back outside. In addition, we really wanted to attend the combat competition and the falconry exhibition. We headed towards the main square (Piazza dei Priori), and found we had managed to catch the end of the medieval dance lesson activity. We grabbed good seats at the top of the bleecher’s and started watching.

It looked like great fun, but with my coordination I could forget trying it. It would take about 5 pints of Moretti before I’d give it a go. You can watch some of it here:

The Master of Ceremonies began announcing the commencement of the combat competition. He was the same guy who ran the opening ceremony, and his speeches rhymed and were delivered with tremendous skill. I realised yesterday that he is riffing his speeches – most of it was off-the-cuff, making it hugely impressive. What a talent to have! He was interrupted a couple of times by drummers, church bells and stilt performers, but handled it with grace and humour.

Here’s a quick video of those stilt performers!

The men representing Volterra’s 8 contrade (town districts) were introduced to the crowd, and kids lined up to grab (I think) stickers with the contrada emblems printed on them. They were paired off and fought each other.

I’m not 100% sure of the rules, but it looked like you scored a point if you hit the armoured part of the head, or the heavily padded torso, and it was the best of 3. You face disqualification if you hit an illegal area (e.g. the face – as one combatant did with a pike – no injury was caused, but he was still disqualified).

While they fought, the drummers thundered out a tattoo, which added to the urgency and excitement of the bouts.

It was effectively a knockout competition, and eventually the two finalists fought, but it was the best of three matches, each match having different weapon-sets (pikes, sword and buckler, club and shield). It was a close competition, but eventually the favourite of the ladies in the crowd, representing Cingiale (the Boar) had his hand raised.

We also caught some action on video, here:

After we’d recovered from that, we made our way (slowly – it was very crowded), to the park to check out the falconry exhibition. It was a fabulous location to have it, as there is a natural hollow in the green around which people can sit and observe – and a few hundred did just that!

It began a bit poorly, as the first falcon they released didn’t want to play the humans’ little game, despite the promise of food, and the handler’s whooping and crying. So they let him alone and loose for a while, and tried a second bird, who duly obliged by wheeling and skimming, sometimes inches, over the heads of the excited audience. Fun for adults and kids alike! Eventually, he was done, and was rewarded by his master with a few tidbits.

It was only then that the other fellah got a little bit jealous of all the attention and food, and began to perform for us. He wheeled overhead, much higher than the other, and flitted from tree to tree. At one point, however, the handler threw a morsel high into the air, and the bird swooped and, with a barely perceptable pause, caught the food mid-flight. Amazing to see.

I also got some video of the second, more compliant, bird here:

After that excitement, it was time to eat! We went to the Torre del Porcellino, and opted to eat inside, on the basis that we thought it had air conditioning. We were right: it did, but only for about 2 tables – we were sat at the back and began to stick to the furniture. The food was fab, though! Niamh had spinach and ricotta ravioli in a tomato sauce, and I had similar, but mine was stuffed with pecorino cheese and served in a mushroom brodo (broth). We both had the same main course: stewed beef cheek with red and white cabbage, and we got a couple of sides. Always delicious food there, but damn it was too hot!

We went back to the apartment then.

As it was also the last night of the arts festival in the Roman amphiteatre, I wanted to check it out, so I headed out alone. On the way I snuck in some gelato from L’isola del Gusto, of course! Even at 10:45 they had queues 7-8 people deep.

I can’t quite describe what the act in the amphiteatre was – it seemed to be some spoken word between jazzy piano numbers. Not my thing, although the pianist was very talented.

I didn’t hang around for long, but instead checked out the Festival in both the square and the park, getting a good walk into the bargain.

The stalls in town were lit up, some with candles, and looked lovely.

You heard the piazza before you saw it, as it was jammed with people, looking at the jester group perform acrobatics and fire-tricks.

All-in-all, it was a brilliant day, and we will have a guest with us next week to go through the whole thing again. I honestly can’t wait.

I surprised myself this morning, by being wide awake well in time for dropping the trash downstairs and going for a walk.

It was a great deal quieter than it was yesterday!

We have no real plans today, and so might end-up taking a break from the blog tomorrow, but you never know.

I hope you enjoyed the read!

Bibbona, Bolgheri and Prepping for the Medieval Festival

Erratum: Volterra has 8 contrade, not 6. Always double-checks facts using multiple sites. *Sigh*

We took the Lancia POS southwest along the SR68 (and its many hairpin turns immediately after Volterra), and cut off after Casino di Terra towards Bibbona. We passed tantilisingly close to Casale Marittimo, my favourite hilltop village, passed some nice scenery, until we found handy parking, just outside the town’s Zona Traffica Limita (or ZTL – the area which, if you pass its boundaries without licensed permission, will ensure you are fined a three figure sum).

It was a sleepy, pleasant place – probably affected by the August holiday, as we arrived there around 12:15. We wandered around the old part of town, which is almost all residential and took some snaps.

It was a cloudier day yesterday, with high humidity, and so it was draining to be out in for a good length of time.

We were hungry, but the only place open in Bibbona was a family pizza place, so we took off for Bolgheri. It’s only about a 6km drive, and I’d sussed out where to park, so it should be a cinch, right? Oy… We got there and found car-parks rammed. We had to drive the guts of a kilometer around the town, and park in an overgrown sports field, just beside the town cemetary. I couldn’t believe it. Bolgheri has a beautiful looking frontage – an arched entrance, which forms part of a well-kept castle. I knew it was famous for its wine, and Niamh knew about Acqua di Bolgheri, an eau de toilette linked with the town. But was I missing anything else? Well, we’d see. But first – food!

We strolled past the first restaurant and headed down the street until we hit Enoteca Tognoni. I stuck my head in and saw that it, too, was jam-packed. A group of four got a table ahead of us, and so we thought we’d try our luck. We got in! They put us at a table with 6 other people. They had used low-dividers to split out large tables for multiple smaller parties. And it really worked! They had no printed menu, and so brought the blackboard in from outside. Niamh opted for ravioli and I went for tagliolini with wild pigeon sauce. With a tourist-driven place like this, they probably could have thrown out any sub-par crap on the table, but they didn’t. Both our dishes were superb – so it’s a high recommendation from me, should you wish to brave the parking!

Lunch complete, we set about exploring the town. And this is where my puzzlement came to the fore. Sure, it’s a pretty enough place – but it’s a small, more or less unwalled village, of three parallel, short asphalt streets. If it weren’t for the castle frontage, or the many cute arts & crafts stores and eatieries you would wonder how it gets the number of tourists it does. The stores were pretty, and the quality of products very high (which was reflected in the prices!) – so maybe that was it. Dolly-up your shops to get the visitors. Maybe the real heros of the piece are the people who make the products, and the people who market the town! I don’t wish to belittle it – and it’s definitely worth a visit… but I feel that’s because it’s so close to other towns in the area (Bibbona, Casale Marittimo), which are sufficient to make it a fun day out. Just go early in the morning, late in the evening, or maybe an hour after lunch. Arriving in time for lunch was a mistake on our part.

One other good reason to visit: Bolgheri Ti Amo/Caffe della Posta – a café and gelateria. The gelato here was fantastic – take a bow, guys!

Here are some snaps of Bolgheri.

One of the highlights (see photo directly above) of Bolgheri is a 4km of perfectly straight, cypress-lined road. It’s impressive. We drove back and I took some distance-shots of Casale Marittimo and Volterra. We’ll go to Casale when we have guests with us.

As we approached Volterra, it began to spit rain – but it didn’t last long. We chilled and Niamh cooked what was left of the mushrooms, panchetta and cream with bucatini. I ran out to get some peas, so we’d have some freshness to cut through the richness of the other ingredients. The result was better than the previous dish – it was really lovely!

We stayed at home all evening – sorry!

I got up this morning, and decided to keep my walk about town, specifically to check out the preparations that were being made for the medieval festival held this and the next weekends. Some props were out and looked impressive. I also took snaps of what I think are some of the contrada flags. A contrada is a district within Italian towns.

You might have heard of the Palio of Siena – the twice-annual horserace? Well Siena is split into 17 contrade (plural of contrada). 10 of these contrade are represented in the horserace, but the representative of the contrada is actually the horse, not the horse and rider together. There is a fab documentary on Il Palio – check it out. Anyway, the horse wins it – whether it is riderless or not – and the winning contrada goes a bit mad in celebration.

Volterra has a similar competition between the contrade, of which it has 8 (there used to be 12 or so 800 years ago). It’s not a horserace – although it has its own Palio in October (racing a cheese-wheel through an obstacle course down one of Volterra’s many sloped streets). We’ll sadly miss this – might have been a laugh.

Instead, there are flag waving/tossing and crossbow competitions to decide the winning contrada. In addition, many of the townsfolk dress up in medieval gear and there are stalls featuring medieval skills (e.g. blacksmithing) and food & drink. You have to change your Euros for a special currency upon arrival. We have limited experience of what happens, as it’s our first time here, but we’re excited to check it out!

You can see in some of the lower pics that they are putting together some of the props to give the town even more of a middle-ages feel to it. Exciting 🙂

As I concentrated on the town, I didn’t check out what natural marvels were awaiting outside. Niamh fortunately did, and captured Volterra on the edge of a layer of cloud. Pretty spectacular!

No mad plans today, except to maybe go to the local Co-Op supermarket. I have been tasked with cooking too.

See you in the next one!

Of Markets and Mazzolla

Niamh asked me to get her a nice pastry on the way back from my walk yesterday. I succumbed and got one each for us from Pasticceria Migliorini.

The one on the left (mine) is a traditional Sicilian pastry, most of you I’m sure will have heard of: a cannolo. The shell-like one on the right with a layered pastry, is called a sfogliatella, and is more native to Campania (where Naples is) than Tuscany. Both were yum!

After brekkie, we tidied ourselves up and went to the market held in Volterra every Saturday. Usually, it’s held in both the main piazza and the cathedral square – but as restaurants have outdoor seating, coupled with the setup they had to do for a silent disco, they moved it to the main car-park beside the Roman ruins. You can buy all-sorts of knick-knacks there, from kitchen and electrical applicances to clothes, household goods and all sorts of food. We walked out with a couple of decent pillows (the ones we had were cheap and way too soft), a salt grinder, grapes and rosmarino (rosemary) and basilico (basil) plants. On the way back, we passed a lady playing a hammered dulcimer – lovely!

This is the sixth time we’ve been in Volterra, and ever since the first, I’ve been meaning to eat in a place called Trattoria Albana, located in a small hamlet about 8km from Volterra called Mazzolla. Niamh told me that Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan shot there for their Trip to Italy series, which I didn’t know before yesterday.

We wandered to the car, and drove there. It’s not too bad a drive, just a bit wiggly when you get off the main road. We parked handily, and got out of the car. It must have been 32 or 33 celsius, and the cicadas were so loud that you had to be next to a person to understand what they were saying.

Peek-a-boo – I see Volterra in the distance
Another distant shot of Volterra

A lot of the grass is dead this time of the year, but here and there off the road, you can spot little oases, where farmhouses are surrounded by their patch of green and cypress trees.

We decided to be a little piggish and had two courses. Niamh had a caprese salad, while I went (yet again) for a zuppa alla Volterrana – it’s the chief way I get my veggies over here! To follow, Niamh had pici all’aglione (traditional thick noodes in a tomato and garlic sauce), and I had papardelle al cinghiale (wide noodles with a boar sauce). Both were good, but while Niamh raved about her pasta, mine was no better than a couple of places I’d had similar back in Volterra – still tasty, mind you. I would eat there again – as I heard their desserts are also nice – we skipped them this time around.

We toyed with the idea of going into Colle di Val d’Elsa afterwards, but figured that the shops we would like to visit would be closed for the afternoon break – a factor non-Italians often fail to take into consideration when visiting a place. Many businesses, outside of restaurants, are often closed between 13:00 and 16:00. Sundays are also problematic, with many functional business not opening at all. Anyway, it was also murderously hot, so we went home, stopped off for a bit of gelato/sorbet and vegetated for a while – at one stage going for a snooze.

Niamh wanted to make a curry that evening, so I hopped out to the shops to get her some rice. She’d gotten chicken breasts and veggies the previous day, and we packed some herbs, spices and powders we figured we’d have difficulty getting in Italy, without a trip to the larger cities. The rice I got was vacuum-packed, and so felt like a brick, more than a pack of loose grains we’re used to back home. Seriously, you could have bludgeoned someone to death with… rice!

We didn’t have dinner ’til quite late. It was very tasty indeed.

We wanted to check out the silent disco, and so waited ’til a little after 22:00 to venture out for a short stroll. We looked at the party – strictly for the young ‘uns, and passed by the Roman amphiteatre, where they were holding an award ceremony.

I had difficulty sleeping, as we have to keep the window open for airflow purposes – there was a lot of activity near us ’til about 3 am. The fan we bought is good, but blows a little unevenly. We might have to look at getting a portable cooling unit, anyway – as we will have guests at some stage, and will have to start sleeping with our door closed (nobody wants to see the eldritch horrors that lie within!).

This morning, lack of sleep aside, I felt good, and took on a walk of a decent length (about 4.5km, up and down hills galore!).