Tag: exploring

2023)

Oh my God, I am a full year behind on these things now. I can’t make any promises to catch up, as I fear they will be empty. I really enjoy writing them and uploading the photos, but I’ve been busy in work, and with other writing projects. I’ll keep up as best as I can – I promise!

Friday, June 16th
We had a quiet couple of days, but on the Friday, we did go to Colle di Val d’Elsa for one of the largest markets I’ve seen (it’s on every Friday, I think).

I think there was a Sicilian stall there, at which we bought some fab dried pasta. We had our friend with us, and stopped in a fab pasticceria, Bar Pasticceria Garibaldi. We had a lovely pastry and refreshing drink, and then walked about town, admiring the stalls. We stopped off at La Selleria, where I bought a riding hat that looked like a baseball cap. I spent too much money on that, but it’s a lovely store! The hat was made by Stetson, so do I get to call myself a cowboy now? Maybe not.

Before we were ready to go, we went to the Conad supermarket so our friend could get a little shopping in. We did a little ourselves and drove back to Volterra.

That evening, we went to La Vecchia Lira for a nice, big dinner. Massimo, the owner, brought over a black truffle the size of a newborn’s head. The food was especially good!

Afterwards, we had a stroll in the near-parts of town to burn off a calorie or two.

Saturday, 17th June
I could add narrative to the pictures below, but I won’t. Instead, I might add an inline comment or two. The truth is, I don’t remember much about this day. The next day was more interesting.

Sunday, 18th June
After having such rock and roll days so far during the weekend, it was time to slow down and visit one of Tuscany’s larger towns – one we hadn’t visited before – Arezzo!

Arezzo is famous for its gorgeous central piazza, and the huge antiques market that occurs there monthly. We would miss the market date, but at least we’d have a perfectly unobscured view of the piazza! Wouldn’t we?

It’s about a two hour drive from Volterra to Arezzo, and we left mid-to-late morning so we could grab lunch there. But were we going to have pasta all’aglione? Heck, naw. We were on an Oriental kick, and we’d spotted a place we wanted to try, not too far from the train station: Ristorante Giapponese Tao. Now, when you order food in a Japanese/Chinese place, you are handed a large menu, on which each dish is numbered. You get a slip of paper, where you note the number of the dish you want and how many of said dish you want. There is no strict order of arrival for the plates – what ever is ready will arrive – I’ve often been given a plate of fried rice to begin my meal, while stir-fries and spring rolls may arrive later. Also, the portions are rather small, but inexpensive. Usually.

So, we inadvertently ordered a metric ton of food.

We were halfway through our dishes, full, and realised that there were more on the way – we realised we’d messed-up. We asked for about a third of our overall order to be bagged for take-away, and with our tails between our legs, headed back to the car to deposit the grub – which wasn’t bad, by the way.

We walked gingerly, with swaying bellies, up to Arezzo’s old town, from the carpark. It was a very hilly affair!

As usual for hilltows, the residential parts were quite quiet. We wound our way to a very large piazza (Piazza della Libertà), only a few blocks northwest from the more famous Piazza Grande – our original aim. We had overshot, but that was ok as we had calories to burn!

We only stuck around here for a few minutes before asking Missus Google to take us to the main attraction. It was a little downhill from where we were, so that was ok. It was also certainly beginning to get a little busier. One thing we did notice is that although Arezzo’s old town doesn’t seem to be massive, it does have a big modern town surrounding it – and so it would be a good place for shopping, should you desire (a little foreshadowing!).

Then we turned down a road and got a first distant glance of the main square, and walked towards and…. ah crap! Every year, a great many Italian towns host a medieval festival. Some are spectacular shows, and some are a little more interactive. Volterra’s one is fab – it’s both large and interactive, and has some shows too. Here are some blogs on Volterra’s.

Anyway, Arezzo have a show in the main square – but no ordinary show, no sir. Theirs is a full-on jousting competition – knights in armour, horses, lances – the works. Theirs had been held just the previous day, and so we did not get any unobstructed views of the square due to work vehicles, sand everywhere, barriers and a massive gantry for the audience. Still, I have to say the square is a bit special. One side of it is fully lined with a lovely arcade of bars and restaurants. The different heights of the buildings, coupled with the rounded apse of the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pieve add to its extraordinary charm.

We took a bundle of snaps, spent 15 minutes queueing in a souvenir store to buy a couple of knick-knacks and then stopped off at one of the bars in the arcade for a drink and to use the facilities. Then, we had a look at our watches. It was a going to be a long drive back, as I was at the wheel and I often like to turn off motorways and instead have Google take us on country routes. So, fully knowing there was a bunch more to see in Arezzo, we had to say goodbye.

On the way back to the car, we paused a while to watch a little medieval parade pass by – you can see this in the video below. We also paused for 15 or so minutes to check out an OVS – they’re a clothes shop brand in many malls and large towns here. The we took some shots and went home – took us 2.5 hours and we were exhausted.

Check out the video below.

We didn’t eat anything else for the rest of the day after gorging on lunch earlier, so chilltime and bedtime.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed the blog – let me know what you think!

Venice Day 3 (14/04/2024)

See here for Part 2.

For our last full day, we’d be heading to Burano, rather than the business of Murano. The sun was blazing again, and we had a perfect day out. We hit the north side of the city to board at the Fontane Nove stops, and got the number 12 to the islands. I was told that you buy tickets aboard, but nobody came to check or ask us, so we rode over free-of-charge. This trip took maybe 40-50 minutes. To compensate, there were ticket machines at the Burano dock so we bought return tickets there – our consciences remained intact.

We stopped off at a bar near the jetty and bought a bottle of water each, and then proceeded into the town. There are places you go to which the camera doesn’t do any justice. The panoramic views surrounding Volterra is an example, and another one is Burano. We simply couldn’t get over how beautiful it is. The blue skies really brought out the best in the multicoloured buildings lining the streets. Everywhere you looked gave you potential for taking a postcard shot. Even the crowds, not that it was packed, couldn’t detract too much from its loveliness.

We stopped off briefly for gelato – which was pretty tasty, and explored a bit more. If there’s one slightly negative thing I want to say is that there’s a lack of rubbish bins, until you hit the periphery of the island. But it’s a small thing – hold onto your trash for a little while until you locate one. Pretty little lanes and streets were everywhere, and Burano being famous for its lace, had its fair share of fabric shops.

Soon, it was lunch time, and we found a place that had just opened for the day – Ristorante Riva Rosa (Rosa featured a lot in this mini-break!). We luckily got a seat outside and ordered drinks, and then a couple of courses. I tried a fancy version of the creamed cod, with what looked and felt like prawn crackers tinted by squid ink. They were yum – I had to get past that first mouthful again, but it was lovely after. Niamh had scallops in shells – which she enjoyed. After, I had spaghetti alla vongole (clams)… this time they were little lads and all of them in their shells, so I removed them all before tucking in. I’m not sure if you do it piecemeal or all at once. Let me know in the comments. Anyway, I was pleased that dish was still pleasantly warm by the time I’d finished my surgery. It tasted… nice… creamy. I’m not 100% sure clams are the thing for me, though. Niamh had more scallops for seconds, this time with gnocchi – not easy to see in these photos! We really enjoyed the food.

We explored the island a little more afterwards, noting that it, too, had a leaning belltower. Niamh popped into one of the lace stores and bought herself a scarf. We pondered what to do next. On our way in, we had seen a long wooden bridge span Burano and the island of Mazzorbo. So, we took the bridge over there, and it was like a little oasis of peace and quiet. We hardly saw another soul. There are a couple of nice restaurants near the dock, but there’s not much else. However, it’s not the point – the point is to be able to break away from the crowd elsewhere. There’s not any photos of Mazzorbo, for some reason, but there’s some footage in the video below.

We had debated about going on to Torcello and Murano on the way back, but instead we’d leave them for a subsequent visit. We caught the vaporetto from Mazzorbo – note that if you do this you will most likely be standing all the way home to Venice. The stewards opening and closing the gates on the craft can be quite authoritarian, so get quickly on, and quickly off when you need to. When we stopped towards the end of the ride home at Murano. A couple must have dilly-dallied around whether to disembark. The lady in charge of the gates was halfway through closing them, and absolutely refused to let them off – they were on a strict deadline.

It gets busy – maybe get a seat at the terminus instead!

We got back and made a move back towards the hotel. Rather than taking the main roads, we snuck about narrower streets and alleys, and eventually came across a little square, with a path in and path out opposite. In this square, there was a gorgeous looking, ivy-covered restaurant, a bar which was also serving nibbles, this particular neighbourhood’s well and the well’s cat. It was idyllic. We ordered spritzes at the bar and got chatting to a lovely Welsh couple, who were operating under the same open-ended itinerary and timeline we were. Soon, another couple of tables were grabbed by other British couples. We ordered another spritz and a plate of gyoza, of all things. They were tasty enough. The waiter explained where all the produce came from, including the soy sauce, which I found a little amusing.

The cat then provided a lot of ooh’s and aah’s from passing tourists, some of whom stopped to take a photo, when it jumped on top of the well and started cleaning itself. But soon it was time to move on, and we walked back to the hotel and rested a while.

Later that evening, we sought a place to go for dinner. Instead of taking a recommendation, we had a stroll about town, looking for nice, intimate locations. We’d found a couple, but found the menu wasn’t quite to our taste. In the end, we threw caution to the wind and shattered all five of our own rules, and found ourselves in Al Teatro Goldoni. A tourist restaurant. When I looked at the menu, I realised I’d been craving two things: veggies – I’d had so little of them thus far in Venice, and a deep-fried, breaded ‘thing’, be it fish, pork or chicken. I satisfied one craving with a soup that I would swear came out of a Knorr carton, with added chilli oil… still… it sorta did the trick. Niamh, on the other hand, ordered a beef carpaccio, and in fairness to the restaurant, it was really nice – the beef was tender and melty and flavour balance good. My cutlet was nice – maybe a tiny bit dry, but I threw it into me along with the fries. Niamh had a veggie pizza which was less of a roaring success. So, a mixed bag, but a little better than I was expecting.

Another stroll, and back to the hotel for our final night’s sleep, which was perfect! Our flight was in the early afternoon, so we were able to get up at a normal hour, and have some breakfast and a stroll before checking out. Very lengthy video of our stay below!

So, where does that leave Venice for me? I think it’s a magnificent place, but I get a little sad now when I see people flitting from attraction to attraction, heedless of the fact that their every move is slowly eroding away the stones, the buildings, the culture and pebble by pebble the history of the place. It seems like there’s an enormous grab for tick-box experiences in exchange for cash, with the natives slowly being pushed out and into neighbouring Marghera, or nearby towns such as Treviso and Padua. What happens when the damage becomes too much? With the Acqua Alta flooding on the rise, and footfall set to increase with the potential re-arrival of the cruise ships, the city is in danger of being slowly whittled away. Personally, I found I really enjoyed the quieter zones when we came across them, and dining in areas not particularly frequented by tourists.

Where does the crunch point come? Is there a percentage of the buildings which can be sacrificed to keep the tourist dollar coming in? Maybe some Venetians would disagree, but I would like to see Venice become an actual lived-in city, with affordable property pricing, perhaps protected in favour of inhabitants of, say, the Veneto. Turn it back into a functional town – there are very few stores for the inhabitants themselves – more real commerce and less tourist tat. Let’s see real life amid the sprawling alleys and beautiful nooks and breathtaking bridged junctions on the canals. Maybe, when all is balanced, Venice visits will be limited to not the wealthy few, but the lucky few.

Venice Day 2 (13/04/2024)

Part 1 here.

Day 2, which was Niamh’s birthday, was really excellent throughout. We walked our feet off, but we had a wonderful tour of the Doge’s palace and amazing food.

I had a horrible time of it during Covid – most of us did in fairness – and so, like many, my mental health deteriorated catastrophically. While I was building myself back up, I loved to watch travel videos, which included a type of long format video in which the host takes you on a live explore. One of these channels on YouTube is I Love You Venice. It’s less active now than it used to be, as guides are now active again post-Covid. Anyway, one of the hosts was Igor Scomparin (note that the link may fail at first, but try it again in your browser and it should be ok). I always loved his upbeat style and his knowledge of Venice is superb, so as part of Niamh’s birthday present, I organised a skip-the-line-tour of the Doge’s Palace and Cathedral for a few hours that morning.

First, we asked the receptionist to turn our room temperature to 20 celsius, and then – breakfast – we made use of our voucher and had pastries and hot drinks next door to the hotel. Really delicious, I have to say – no complaints there – and there were a good few locals present too, which is always a good sign. We had a small walkabout, and then met Igor just off the hotel lobby. He showed us exactly how close we were to St. Mark’s square – much closet than any route we had previously taken had suggested. We were a little early, so we learned a little history in the southeast plaza. Igor showed us a few graffiti on columns supporting the arcades of the building opposite.

Then it was our time to fly past the baffled people in the queue and entered the palace courtyard. I won’t harp on about the place, suffice to say that it’s incredible. The artwork, stairways, ceilings and art are out of this world and are a must-see. The floors and arcades are uneven in places due to age and subsidence. Unfortunately, I was asked to stop filming by one of the attendants at one stage, which was a pity – I saw others film unpunished, so footage (at the end of Part 3) is limited. Also housed here is one of the most impressive displays of medieval armaments I’ve ever seen. The Doge’s Palace is amazing, and there are other ways you can skip the queue by ordering tickets online. You can google them easily.

Afterwards, we had a quickish stop at the cathedral – I’ve wanted to see the mosaiced Christ, as I have wanted to see the versions in Cefalù and Ravenna. The cathedral itself looks a little eastern orthodox – unusual for this far north in Italy, I would have thought. There were golden mosaics everywhere – it was incredible. The Christ at the back of the Cathedral is a stupendous work. However, it was then that I began to notice things. It was pointed out that the floor was uneven, and parts of it actually were in small waves. So few were looking anywhere else but up. I began to realise that people were here for the sake of being here, and mentally box-ticking, while the cathedral was dying in front of their eyes. And that we were part of the problem. This was confirmed by the sadness I felt when Igor told me that the Venice council were thinking of allowing Cruise Ships back. He told us that although 50,000 people were registered to live in Venice, only 36,000 did so, and yet the number of visitors a year is 36 million. That is insane. What made me saddest of all, however, is that he said he was once asked by a tourist what time Venice closed at… as if it was Disneyland.

After that I tried to make a concerted effort to be more aware of my surroundings as I walked. Acknowledge each water cistern I passed, and noted whether or not it had a little cat-bowl carved nearby for the cats who used to keep the rat population under control. Looking out for a little more graffiti. Checking out the interior of smaller restaurants as we passed by them, and even trying to listen in on a conversation or two.

Anyway – I can’t recommend Igor highly enough for a tour. I’ll leave his details in the description box below – do consider him if you want a special tour to yourselves. At the end of the tour, we asked him for a recommendation for somewhere to go for lunch, and he gave us criteria selection, and we finally settled on Osteria Oliva Nera, which served good food, and was in a quiet neighbourhood. And the selection was bang-on! Although when we got there we asked to be seated outside. The larger table near us was chosen by what seemed to be another Irish family… the irony. Anyway, we both had deep-fried stuffed zucchini flowers, Niamh followed that up with lasagne while I had the best pasta dish I would have in Venice – bigoli pasta with anchovies in an onion sauce. Amazing. The locale was so lovely too – a quiet junction near actual functional shops for locals and another restaurant.

All done, we used the facilities, paid and we started making our way towards the Cannaregio district (or sestiero as they’re called in Venice), to check out the Jewish quarter. We were about a quarter of the way there when I saw in Google that the little island was closed, so with expectations properly set, we ambled our way there. We hit the main street and started walking. We soon tired of that, as there were people everywhere (yes, we are part of the problem), and tried to make our way there through back alleys or walking alongside canals. The latter is rarely available – and we found that exploring alleys was fun and led us to some wonderful views, but they often led us to dead-ends, and so we were inexorably drawn back to the main Corso. At least we got a glimpse of Venice’s leaning tower!

Out of pure coincidence, I checked the map to see if I could find the famous Libreria Acqua Alta. I was hoping to see if I could employ the doctrine of mindful tourism here, but my God it was arguably one of the most disappointing things we did in Venice. Now, this is no discredit to the owners and runners of the bookshop. Had Venice been a normal, functional city serving its population, it would still be no doubt frequented as a nice quirky bookshop with a decent stock of new and antiquarian volumes. What actually greeted us were two circular queues – one to enter and leave by (separate doors), and then at the bottom of the shop, past the mini gondola filled with books, is another circle where you got to climb the steps made of books and take a photo as quickly as possible, and climb down the other side. Always on the move. Never have I felt more like a shepherded animal. Finally, you can exit through a door if you don’t have anything to buy, or go up to the cash desk if you do. I marvel at those who had actual book purchases, because if there’s one thing you need in a bookshop when you’re browsing it’s time – and you simply had none. We were walking out, when a group of tourists who entered through the exit were given out to and made go back around to the front door. And in fairness, the owners have to do this. There is not much space there, and the bookshop would fill up extremely quickly otherwise. Anyway – it wasn’t a great experience.

There’s much more in the video in Part 3

Afterwards, we stopped in a large square, which contained the old famous hospital Saints Giovanni e Paolo. One of the Rosa Salva bars associated with our hotel, for which we had a discounting voucher – but this one also had artisanal gelato, so we indulged, and it was really nice – and needed. When done we trudged onwards. I would say we made it to within 5 or 6 blocks of the closed ghetto when we released that we were both footsore. We made our way back. It took a long time, but it was enjoyable exploring more nooks and crannies, even if some of them were rammed with people.

One of those secluded squares worth seeking out

We got back to the hotel and aahhh’d in satisfaction at the coolness of the room, and had an hour’s rest before we headed out for Niamh’s birthday celebration meal at our sommelier friend’s recommendation: Osteria Da Carla. It was only a short walk. It’s a nice, intimate place, with excellent food.

We had an aperitivo each and both ordered a glass of wine. For starters, Niamh had tortelloni (cappellacci as they were called on the menu) stuffed with rabbit, and I had deep fried sardines. Afterwards, I had linguine with clams and bottarga – the clams were already out of their shells so I could have at them immediately. It was a beautiful plate of pasta, but I think I would give the nod just about to the anchovy dish I had earlier. Niamh’s, however, was a pure winner – Iberico pork fillet wrapped in bacon. Perfectly cooked, a little pink in the middle and tender. Desserts… Niamh had fancy tiramisu and I had a wonderfully inventive home-made cream egg, where the white was ricotta and the yellow pureed mango – delish. A lovely place all in all for a fine meal in a romantic environment.

Afterwards, we had a little walk about town, stopping off in Il Salotto di San Marco for another drink (see Part 1). There was a table of 6 next to us, and the kitchen/bar had prepared squid ink risotto. We were the only other people there (the place is tiny), so rather than see us go without food, they gave us a half-plate between us to try. This is a wonderful example of Italian hospitality! We chatted briefly with the locals, and it was just one of those special moments.

and that squid ink risotto I mentioned earlier. Anyway – and so to bed. I tell you, getting up with that 20c setting was a great deal chillier than we expected, so we asked them tap it up to 22c for our last night – would it be the goldilocks temperature we needed? We’d see.

Part 3 here!

Venice Day 1 (12/04/2024)

Sorry about the long break, but I’ve been a busy bunny. Anyway, here is a break from the current timeline to something more recent: our 3-day trip to Venice.

We are part of the problem. Of course we know this. It would be hypocritical of us to deny that and yet take part in what is assuredly a slow degradation of a proud and beautiful city. And this is why I left Venice with a tinge of sadness, but with a bittersweet longing for return.

First things first… why Venice and not Volterra? Well it was a significant birthday for Niamh, and she shopped around for the holiday and chose Venice as her destination. We had been there for about 7 hours in 2010, and watching live walks in it during the pandemic whetted our appetites, particularly those uploaded by the YouTube channel ‘I Love You Venice’.

We flew Ryanair, but didn’t opt for FastTrack. We had regretted that at first, as the queue snaked back all the way to its opening, but it actually moved quite nicely and we were only in it for maybe 15 minutes. There was a slight delay to takeoff, which was made-up during flight time, and when we landed… ahhh, the temperatures. It was 22-23, whereas Ireland hadn’t gotten higher than 14 and was still frequently in single digits. I was feeling the jacket I was wearing.

Anyway, we navigated our way past the first vaporetto ticket booth to the docks, where the booth was empty. We bought tickets for the vaporetto, went to dock 12, and then queued… and queued… and queued. A larger vaporetto was boarded by the waiting in the dock next to ours, and they too seemed to be going to Rialto, so I was beginning to get squirmy. The vaporetto filled and left. Then a few minutes later, a smaller version came to our dock and our queue started moving – but it took two further boats to enable us to get on board. All part of the process, I guess. In fairness, they weren’t long in coming. We boarded and had to wrestle our handheld luggage down the stairs. I stupidly chose a row of seats beside a life preserver, so I had nowhere to put my case, save between my legs for the hourlong ride.

Ten minutes in, I realised that at times we were banking a lot. It was due to the fact that there are actual lanes demarked in the bay and traffic rules to be obeyed. I guess it makes total sense, given the amount of water craft in the area. We breezed past a few islands, only making a stop at one, I think, before making it to the grand canal. We had our first wow moments there. The weather was perfect – the best weekend they’d had to date that year – and everywhere you turned was a Canaletto painting. It’s a remarkable-looking place. We hit our stop at Rialto bridge, and set about finding our hotel.

There were plenty of people about, but crowds were not the foremost thing on our mind. We were keen on finding our place, dumping our bags, finding a light bite and going on an explore. I have heard many people in videos say “don’t bother with Google maps”. Maybe this was down to their provider. We only had occasional signal issues, with our location darting about the map as a result, but by and large, we found Maps to be reasonably useable under Vodafone (not sponsored). We found our hotel (me noting a couple of gelaterie on the way) without much fuss in less then 10 minutes. We stayed in the Rosa Salva, a small boutique hotel not too far from St. Mark’s Square, on a quiet enough laneway. Note, that everything we mention by name will have a link to it in the description box below. This hotel is associated with a small chain of pasticcierie and gelaterie in Venice. There was no breakfast, but we had some free food and drink in the room fridge and a discount voucher for their stores – one of which was right next door!

Anyway, once we’d checked-in, we ran out and came across a really cute little cichetteria – Il Salotto di San Marco – and stopped for a drink and those little tasty Venetian morsels. I tried the famed creamed cod. Atfter my first bite, I had regretted all my life’s decisions up to the point they took me up to that very moment and caused me to put this substance in my mouth. It was terribly fishy, even to the point of it being ammonic. I took a second bite, and then it didn’t seem quite so bad – and the 3^rd and 4^th were actually quite pleasant. Give it a go – but push past that first mouthful! I had a fancy version of it again in Burano, but more on that later.

We had a wander and of course Venice blew our minds. Let me get one thing straight: Venice is an explorer’s dream. There’s always an excitement of reaching another junction, which involved a canal, and you just knew that all 360 degrees would be Instagrammable. Wander down narrow laneways, away from the main arteries, and if you’re lucky you’ll find a secluded square with a bar or restaurant with few tourists, and surprisingly low prices.

Then there are the main Corso on the way to Canereggio, the grand canal walks and, God help us all, the Rialto bridge. We had a gelato on the southeast side of the bridge (meh), and then, girding our loins, crossed the bridge. We hit the Rialto bridge once during this stay (well, twice – we had to cross back), and avoided it for the rest of the trip. It was teeming, and even then it wasn’t high season. I shudder to think what it’s like then. It’s really the only way to cross the grand canal, unless you hire a traghetto. Actually, if you do hire a traghetto, you also get the gondola experience for about €2 per person – albeit for a much shorter duration – it just ferries you across the canal.

We hit the grand canal walkways a bit, checking out the bridge in profile. Look, it’s gorgeous from that angle, and a must-see when you’re in Venice. In fact, I’d find it difficult to believe that any visitor, particularly a first-time one, never went near it. Then it was off to the piazza at the far end of the fish market for a sit-down drink. The market was being hosed down, and the drinks were fine – the smell of fish assailed our nostrils from time to time – not necessarily a good companion to Aperol!

We went back to the hotel to have a bit of a rest. On the way back, we stopped off at an off-the-beaten-track Carnavale mask maker. Niamh picked one out to add to our mask collection in Volterra. We had begun gung-ho, with plans to stay out ‘til dinner time – but the early start got the better of us, and we headed back up. The room was warm, and we actually didn’t ask the receptionist to reduce the heat until the next day. In fact, it was the best spell of weather Venice had so far this year – there was a mini heat-wave over much of Italy that weekend – so we were very lucky.

We had gotten a recommendation for a restaurant from a sommelier, and walked out to walk in that evening… more than a bit naively… but when we found it, it was booked out. We managed to book it for the next night, which was Niamh’s birthday – so it all worked out beautifully! Anyway, there were a couple of other places nearby… and this takes me to a little tips section on selecting restaurants in Venice (and in much of Italy, to be honest), if you’re a foodie… If you’re happy to chuck any old muck into you (no judgement, honest), then you can ignore them:

Generally, don’t go for ‘does-it-all’ restaurants unless you have a family with you. If you want a chance at good pizza, go to a pizzeria, if you want good pasta and mains, go to a regular restaurant.
A menu with 200 things on it. Sometimes they can surprise you, but quality is inevitably going to suffer here.
A menu in the window translated into 5 languages
A menu in the window with photos that are supposed to represent the food on the menu
Restaurants which have people hired specifically to entice you into the restaurant. Yuck. I hate this.

Go for smaller, family-run places – if you can find a hand-written menu of the day, then you’ve probably hit the jackpot if you’re after local specialities.

All that said, we broke one of these rules and went to Il Calice, a pizzeria with a small menu with other plates. They had some really lovely looking pizza-by-the-slice squares, but we weren’t in the mood for pizza and so opted to go upstairs to the café-style restaurant and ordered from the menu instead. We had a fab salumi plate to share, with a delicious chunky piccalilli. So far, so good. Sadly, the pasta dishes weren’t great. Niamh had a pasta amatriciana and I had gnocchi in a white ragu. Niamh’s pasta was undercooked, but the sauce wasn’t bad. My gnocchi were definitely overcooked, and while the sauce was ok, it was very soupy. In fact, had it been served as a soup, I wouldn’t have minded.

After the meal, we wound our way to St. Mark’s square though the little local maze and sat opposite the Doge’s Palace and people watched. Of course we had to dodge the rose sellers, and the hawkers of those helicopter kids toys thingies.

When we’d had enough, we walked along the grand canal and, quite by accident, found Harry’s Bar – the birthplace of beef carpaccio and the Bellini cocktail. We had to do the touristy thing – it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience… yes, we paid €22 per teeny Bellini. Peaches were not yet in season, but it was fresh pulp nonetheless… however, to me, it tasked a little like cardboard box. They were serving food there that did smell quite yummy, though. We were fed enough, though, and instead headed back to the hotel as we knew we’d have a day of being on our feet tomorrow.

Part 2 here!

Return to Val di Cornia – Did We Find a Casole Marittimo Beater? (15/06/2023)

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

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

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

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

A little coffee milkshake to get me going!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A look ahead to the amenities side of town

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s the video of our day out!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Imagine what it could be like on a clear day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The village was absolutely lovely:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, 6th June
We promised a day on the beach to our water-friendly pal. She had been with us before back in 2019 to experience Marina di Cecina. It’s a strange, gritty strand and if I recall correctly there is a sudden dip only a few feet into the waves, which would make hydrophobes like myself too nervous. I didn’t get in that day. The benefit of Marina di Cecina, however, is that you have tons of amenities all along the strand – not just the beach clubs, but other restaurants, bars and shops a block inland.

This time we were going to Castiglione della Pescaia. This is a little town we have already visited, which is one of the few places with an old-town feel, but is also on the coast. We’d be using a Lido (beach club) for the first time ever. I booked it for us online. I’d heard that the beach was better – the sand golden. The Lido would have amenities, but it’s about a 10 or so minute walk into town from our Lido of choice (Bagno Perla) into town for a better choice of restaurant. Fortunately, we found the food at the Lido more than adequate! If there’s a downside for us, it’s that the town is about 90-100 minutes drive away. Additionally, the motorway leading from Cecina to Follonica – a good part of the trip – is not in good condition. It’s slowly being repaired, but because it’s not a tolled road, it’s not a top priority to those holding the purse strings.

From Follonica onwards, the journey is pleasant enough. Anyway, we got to the Lido, got ourselves ready and hit the beach. I nearly had my entire body on display, which is incredibly rare. I am rather pale. Not only that, I actually got in the water… up to my chest only – I have zero confidence in water unless both legs are planted firmly on sabbia ferma.

The sand may look a little dirty, but it’s still smooth and pebble-free. The sand bank also goes out 20-30 meters which is nifty. We splashed about a bit, and then took lunch at the Lido’s restaurant.

After some grub and a beer, we did the unthinkable in Italy: headed immediately back to the water. Many an Italian Mama (and if I recall correctly, many an Irish Mammy), would advise never to re-enter water after having just eaten – best to wait an hour or two. Pish and tish – in we went!

When we’d had enough, we headed into town to work up an appetite. We took our friend up to the old town of Castiglione, which is essentially converted walled fortress. It’s rather hilly, but pretty and offers some amazing views of the bay.

Ok, after walking up and down (mostly up, somehow), we had another hunger upon us. We were told by another pal that we should try burger bar Harbor Crew, so that’s just what we did. First, we hit a hotel bar just across the street. It was a local place, no frills. We yummied some light snacks and our spritzes and as soon as 18:30 struck, ran across the road to snaffle some burger. Unfortunately, this place has closed down since, because he has actually moved to Florence. Wah! The burgers are fantastic, it has to be said. I’ve been there a couple of times since (while it was in Castiglione). I think we’ll head over to Florence to re-partake later this year.

As soon as we were done there, we left for home. Part of the route home we took off the motorway, just for the sake of change.

Wednesday, 7th June
The rest of the blog is a further testament to food. We spent the next day in Volterra, and our friend spent the morning shopping and exploring again, while we lazed about in the apartment. I didn’t even go out for a walk! We met up for a single course lunch in the touristy Ristorante Etruria.

I took this shot while we both got money from the ATM in the northeast corner of the main piazza

Hmmm… maybe I had too much to eat at lunch, given that we were going to head out to eat again at our favourite chef’s place: BIS, in low-key foodie town Colle di Val d’Elsa. Alessandro used to be head chef in Del Duca in Volterra, before the managership of that restaurant changed. His cooking – from breads to desserts and everything in between is fantastic, and we always get a warm reception when he sees us. However, this time would be our first time in this new eatery.

Colle di Val d’Elsa is a large town, with a historic centre set on a knife-ridge, between Volterra and Siena. It has a nice new town as well, and one of the biggest markets I’ve ever seen every Friday.

We drove to Colle, having to pause at a stop-go system tantalisingly close to Ristorante Arnolfo, BIS’ 2-Michelin-starred parent restaurant. We haven’t eaten there yet, but look forward to doing so. We wound our way to a car park just outside the walls of the old town, and took a couple of snaps.

We had arrived too early (my fault) and so had a little walk about the old town with our friend – only as far as the bridge, though – then it was time to enter the restaurant. We were shown to our table by the very friendly staff. We saw there was a burgeoning terrace outside, with a fab-looking view:

But enough of that – it was time for food. BIS is a contemporary fine-dining restaurant, and you can have some variants on pasta meat-based dishes, but you there is also an extensive ‘nibbles’ section, which we ordered from.

The food was absolutely delicious and the portion sizes perfect. When we were on our way out, a waiter caught us and asked us if we wanted to say hello to Alessandro. So, we did! The kitchen was immaculate, and he was warm and welcoming, but there were so many dishes being worked upon, so we didn’t want to outstay our welcome. He was a busy man!

After that, we headed home, had a drink and then went to our beds! Thanks for reading this – please let me know what you think!

Palazzo Viti and Etruscan Tombs in the Rain (05/06/2023)

We picked up a friend who’d be staying with us for a few days from Pisa Airport. This was a detail I had unfortunately left out in the last blog. I honestly had forgotten, and the photos I took gave me absolutely no clue. I strongly suspect it was in the late afternoon, after we had eaten in Porgi l’Altra Pancia. We must have picked her up, and then I spared her my documenting every moment of life in Italy, and we just spent a chill evening at home. In fact, now that I have some recollection – she was quite tired and not up for doing much, so we chilled along with her.

The reason why I am now drawing this conclusion is that the day I’m now blogging begins with a walk to the Etruscan tombs north of Volterra. There’s simply no way we would have picked someone up that early in Pisa and then gone on a walk. We definitely made this trip in the early morning, in an effort to avoid overheating ourselves on the very uphill walk back.

So that’s what we did. I had been there a couple of times before, but not with anyone – so this would be a bit of fun. Our friend had recently signed on for a Celtic history course, and while the Etruscans weren’t Celts exactly, her interest in the ancient was piqued enough to join me. What sealed the deal was a chance at a distant sneak preview of the archaeological dig site of a Roman Amphitheatre just opposite the town’s modern cemetery. The cemetery itself is also worth a visit.

We had a few peeps of the of the amphitheatre from above and near eye-level and wished that the digsite would open soon for tours! We continued down the road towards the tombs, passing fully by the cemetery and through Porta Diana – the Etruscan gateway which is missing its arch, and finally around the sharp bend which led outside the town boundary. There was a new sign on the corner which seemed to point into someone’s private field, labelled “Volterra Urban Trekking”. We didn’t take that, but continued down the road towards the tombs – shooting the lovely countryside on the way.

When we got to our destination, I had planned on taking her into both tombs, but the path to one of them was horribly overgrown, and we gave it a skip, given our bare arms. Last year, it had recently been strimmed (weed-whacked), but no such luck this year. So, we went to the other one, had a look about and a read of the information on a the small nearby sign.

You still wouldn’t want to be too claustrophobic

It was fun and interesting and is to be recommended – but a word of warning here about the walk back to town, which is entirely uphill for a couple of kilometers, if your destination in Volterra is the main piazza. We took pics of the town at a distance and finally poor Porta Diana, which so few visitors ever see. Shame – the whole area is quite lovely.

We huffed and puffed our way back (especially me), and chilled for the rest of the morning. Then lunchtime came. Our friend had nipped out earlier to do a little touring and bag-shopping, so to whet our appetite we had small walk about, looking for a decent place to eat for just ourselves. Some of the following shots are wonderfully dramatic, but indicative of what was to follow!

We hit Osteria Fornelli again and I made a pig of myself by having two courses: zuppa alla Volterrana and pici cacio e pepe (with truffle). Niamh had penne alla pomarola. Thankfully, the cacio e pepe wasn’t as rich and cloying as last time and it was so yum.

After lunch, we had a peep out over the Val di Cecina. Piazzetta Fornelli has one of the best 180 degree views of the valley below – and on a clear day you can make out Sardinia. Today, however, the more we looked on, the closer rain clouds moved towards the town. We’d have to find our friend, and fast!

We gave her a call, and agreed we’d go to Palazzo Viti. She’d been here before and bought a Volterra Card, but because Palazzo Viti is privately owned, it wasn’t covered (the card is great value otherwise!). The Palazzo, which is only open seasonally, was begun to be built towards the end of the 1600’s and is still owned by the Viti family today! The family made a lot of their wealth in the alabaster trade, and the rooms convey the level of prominence of the family. If you’re here in-season, and are fascinated by stately homes and palaces, it’s a must-visit! We met our friend, who was carrying some shopping bags, and went in.

I would be saying hello to these two guys again later on after our tour.

It’s so well-kept and beautiful! We continued through the rooms.

About halfway through the tour, we heard the heavens open. And it hadn’t stopped by the time we’d finished our tour of the house. Once again, it was absolutely pelting rain in Volterra. We waited in the hallway entrance for 10-15 minutes, waiting for the torrents to cease. I tried to strike up a couple of conversations, with varying degrees of success.

The rain didn’t stop, but abated enough for us to make a run for it to our apartment entrance. We got moderately wet, as the rain was falling vertically. Otherwise, we might have been able to creep beside buildings to avoid the drops. Anyway, none of us actually died, so all was well.

We chilled until the evening, went for an aperitivo in L’Incontro and, strangely, went to Don Beta for dinner. I say ‘strangely’, as Don Beta is one of those types of restaurants we would avoid elsewhere – a touristic one, where the menu is vast. On the plus side, if you can’t decide whether you want pasta or pizza, then Don Beta is one of the places to go if are with a group who want a mix of these things. You’ll find something for everyone here. There are times that we are looking for something light, and I love the veg soup here, and it is now also the only place I know in town that does a simple spaghetti all’aglio olio and peperoncino (garlic, oil, chilli). And that’s just what I had!

I gave Campari spritzes a go for a while

I pick my days to go there, but I always enjoy what I order and the service is really fast and friendly.

I was well and truly stuffed by this point and so it was just time to go back to the apartment. I took one more final shot from our Terrace, then it was wine and bed (yes, in that order!).

Thanks for getting all the way to the end of this blog or our busy day. Let me know what you think, or if you have any questions about life in this area of Tuscany.

A Week of Working (29/05-01/06/2023)

This will be a blog of many photos but very few words.

We worked this week, and when that happens nothing terribly exciting or noteworthy tends to happen. I get up, I go for a walk, I shower/change, then work. In the middle of the morning I get a gelato, work, lunch, more work, quit. I think you get the picture. There is something nonetheless wonderful about working away. The weather is usually better, the food is miles better. Gelato. After work, it’s aperitivo time, maybe meet and dine out with a friend or two.

So, with this in mind, I present to you our working week, mostly in photo format.

Let’s do this a little differently, and instead of going day-by-day I’ll group the photos in to various themes and spit out the whole lot. Firstly, walking within the walls of the town!

It bucketed down one day after lunch in Osteria Fornelli

The rainy day above somewhat set some of the mood for this stay. We couldn’t stay under the arch or we would have been late for work. We had to dash and get soaked anyway!

Next – what did it look outside the walls?

At the time of writing this, this lift STILL isn’t operable – but is close to being so

Finally, the pics related to food and drink. Sometimes we ate out, a lot of the time we ate in. It was all, unsurprisingly, good!

That was the week that was in it. I hope you enjoyed the photographs!

We get back to Volterra, then split to the coast (27-28/05/2023)

I guess it was on the cards, wasn’t it? Yes, we came back – we always do. This time, it was for 4 weeks. We broke down this time between holidays and working away (‘smart-working’ as it’s known in Italy – yes, they use that English phrase!). Our first week was spent working, the next two holidaying, and we finished up by working again. I would always recommend finishing your time abroad by working, if you have that benefit as an employee, or if the work you do suits, as a self-employed person. The post-holiday blues are split between (a) returning to work, and (b) returning home. The last couple of times I did this, I barely felt any sadness at all when I flipped open the laptop and started work. It sounds counter-intuitive – but trust me: work just before you go home.

Anyway, enough pontificating. We began this (surprisingly wet – more in weeks to come) stay with the guts of a weekend – three-quarters of Saturday and a full Sunday.

We got up at sparrowfart to take the flight over, and so we were tired enough when we got to Volterra. We dropped our bags up and had a little explore and a light lunch. We bumped into our friend at Volaterra before she had to get back to some work, and we had to get back to some food.

Afterwards, we had a wander towards the panoramic viewpoint at Piazzetta dei Fornelli.

Home to rest, and then out again. We always like to call into La Taverna della Terre di Mezzo as early in the holiday as we can to say hello to Robbi and Aurora, who always treat us so well. We had a wander about Piazza XX Settembre first.

But then it was time for the main event! We ate in the Roman-era cellar – it was lovely and cool down there. The wine and food pairing was as yummy as always.

As we’d had a little bit to eat in Volaterra, we kept it to just two courses. Then, to bed – as we promised a friend we’d meet her in Chianni the next day to catch up and treat her to a little lunch.

There was a spring in my step the next morning, as it was a Fun Day Out™ day! Such was my effervescence, I headed out for a lengthyish walk. Firstly, past the main panoramic viewpoint, then on down Viale dei Ponti, past fonts and fountains and onwards and back upwards to Porta a Selci.

Instead of going through the gate, I walked towards our carpark, but carried on further ’til I hit the private carpark at the Seminario di Sant’Andrea. At least I still think it’s private – it now has a P symbol on Google maps, but I still think it’s not for use by the public. If there are any Volterrani reading this, please let me know! Anyway, I captured some less-often taken shots there.

It doesn’t look like Volterra from this angle, but it is!

I walked back up, to our carpark and entered the town at Porto Marcoli, and walked by the back of the block that faces Piazza XX Settembre.

An Ape… the Vespa’s slightly bigger brother

The morning walk and ablutions out of the way, it was time to go to Chianni!

Chianni is a cute village only about 20km away on the far side of the Val d’Era. It has a sweet centre with super views of the hills on one side, and has forested mountains to the other side. The two bad location aspects of Chianni (purely from our perspective) is that it still takes about 45 minutes to get there from Volterra. Ah, those Tuscan roads! In fairness you are driving through some lovely rolling countryside to get there. The second one… well, we’ll talk about that later.

We parked opposite the carabinieri station (there’s an unmarked (on Google) carpark there) and walked 6 or 7 minutes to the lovely little central square, where we found our friend, Marisa, already filming there. We waited until the end of her take before tapping her on the shoulder.

After hugs and pleasantry-swapping, we got to the serious business at hand: lunch! Marisa took us to Chianni Bistro, which as excellent reviews on Google. They were lovely – they sat is down and provided pedestals for the ladies’ handbags. None for my little man-bag, strangely, but hey-ho. Anyway, lunch was lovely, especially the pasta courses.

Marisa hit the winner here with gorgonzola gnocchi

After dinner we decided, what the hell… let’s drive somewhere fun. Niamh and I already had in our minds to check out the beaches around Rosignano Solvay, and ask Marisa if she’d like to come. We waited for her to collect some things from her house (which we couldn’t see at the time as she had a guest staying there), and headed out!

This brings me to the second unfortunate thing about Chianni. To be clear, Chianni is gorgeous, and the good faaaaaar outweighs the bad! If you want to get to the coast, however, you will find yourself having to undertake a bit of a dull and overly-long drive over the mountains to the east/southeast. There aren’t many views, as it’s largely forested. But when you actually get over the mountains and you are heading towards the coast, then you’ll get to see some amazing ones over the Tuscan coastal plains.

We drove through the cute little town of Castellina Marittima, and there we saw in the distance the huge towering stacks of Rosignano Solvay. Sadly we have no photos of this. The factory looms near the famous white beach. It makes soda ash, which is used in the manufacture of sodium bicarbonate and glass. So, the beach nearby is brilliant white soda-ash! As we got closer, we couldn’t decide on a car-park, plus we noticed there was a hell of a lot of traffic heading that way. Therefore, I made the executive decision to head to Vada instead. We’d been there before, and I felt that we hadn’t done it justice. There had to be more to it than just the little stretch of strand we found.

We found parking there much closer to the strand than we had before – right in a piazzetta with a couple of bars/gelaterie, and wandered to the mini-strand. Marisa has her own YouTube channel too, and I was happy to sit back and let her film, while I only took a little footage.

We hit the strand, and decided to walk over to the left, to see if we’d missed any of it. In fact, we’d missed a whole bay.

There was a lot going on – check out Marisa’s video below, mine is coming in later weeks. The beach had dozens of people, and in the background you could bunch of people kite-surfing. It was a really active place, as it turns out. Turning back towards the village after having done enough gawking (I always feel awkward snapping and taking video where I am fully clothed and the majority of the people are not), we saw there was a really cute outdoor craft market underway.

We had a good look at the life in that little mini-village, and I bought a steampunk fishy thing, made out of coastal flotsam – there was a whole stall dedicated to that! Marisa has better Italian, sounding naturalised (to me, anyway!), and was chatting away with the locals. It turns out, that rather than this market being a once-off, this was its prototype and test, in the hope that it would continue at least throughout the summer. She also chatted with some casual restaurateurs who would cook whatever fish was extracted by Vada’s fishermen same-day. It would have been tempting, but we had already eaten. Everyone was so lovely – as Italians generally are if you should genuine interest in their locality.

We took my booty back to the car, and walked back the 30 or so meters to Gelateria La Dogana for refreshment. In a rare moment, I skipped having gelato, settling instead for an ice cold diet Lemon Soda (hard to find!). The ladies enjoyed their gelato.

We decided the day wasn’t done yet, as we were having too good a time. So, we took Marisa to see Casale Marittimo. It’s my favourite village in Tuscany (so far), purely for street layout and architecture, and it usually blows guests out of their socks when they explore it.

I’ve already written a lot about Casale… you can do a search for all the blogs on this site. I think this was the only time we visited it this year, though. And it’s always fun showing people about if for the first time. It’s so layer-caked, hodge-podge and higgledy-piggledy… clean and frequently quiet. It’s a hilltown haven, only 15 minutes from the relative bustle of Cecina.

The leather worker here was sadly closed today

Marisa was delighted and was taking a lot of footage as we explored. We started at the highest part of town and worked our way down to the main square. There was more to explore on a lower level, where you can see down the coastal plains near to the Maremma. However, it was beginning to get late, and it was going to take us about an hour to get Marisa home, plus another 45 minutes to get us home.

So we headed back towards the carpark, only to pass by a bar that was closed last time we were there. However, it was open, and it was the most extraordinary mish-mashe of bar, perfumery and boutique/accessory store. We needed some refreshment, so we ducked inside and were amazed by it. It is called MADAMA caféshop, and it looks like it only opens seasonally.

The bathrooms were exquisitely decorated too!

We spent about 45 minutes there and then walked to the car and had a lovely drive back to Chianni, via Saline di Volterra and the lovely rolling hills of the Val di Cecina.

Have a look at Marisa’s video for a review of our day!

We said goodbye to Marisa and drove home. I’m almost certain that we didn’t go straight back to the apartment, but instead hung around for a free table at La Mangiatoia. It’s one of a few places in Volterra that focuses on pizza and they’re always so nice to us when we’re there. However, you cannot book a table there. You rockup, and you get a table or not – and if you don’t, you can either queue or leave. We queued, with beers, and they brough out a chair for us to use as a table for our drinks, bless them.