Six or seven weeks after our return from Venice, it was time to return back to our little cradle of peace – Volterra. This year began a spate of flights that were supposed to take off at 18:20 in Ireland, but about 75% of the time were delayed, meaning that we didn’t actually hit our beds in Italy until 01:00-02:00. Tired but excited. We had a little appointment with a friend on the first day, but first – a little walk!
Afterwards, we had lunch in Ristorante Etruria (which I see has climbed from 3.8 to 4.0 in Google – well done guys), and I had something on their menu I’d never had before – or it was new to their menu; not sure which. It was a sausage, cheese and pepper sauce… and do you know what? It was bloody delicious!
Shortly after lunch, after we’d re-prettied ourselves, we called out to Chianni to see Marisa and David of the Tales from Tuscany youtube channel. Earlier in the year, Marisa had taken a very nasty fall in a hotel, and she could only walk a small distance, so our usual meetup of going somewhere to explore was out the window. The plan was we’d have a good old natter, then David an I would leave Marisa and Niamh to chat further, while the pair of us took in a local football (soccer, il calcio) match.
Now I know Italians are very passionate about football, but when we got to the carpark of the local pitch it was rammed with vehicles. David and I had only just stepped out of the vehicle when a huge firework went off. Post-anxiety, I’m now usually relatively cool and collected, but that terrific noise came out of nowhere and I nearly lost control of my sphincter!
There was a shed opened with a shop inside. We grabbed a beer each and headed towards the concrete bleacher seating that stood only on one side of the pitch. In front of that was a light railing, and in front of that again was a chicken-wire fence behind which the game was being played. There were maybe a couple of hundred people here, if even. I noticed that someone had duct-taped flares to the railings, and a couple of these were lit during the game. They really love their football here.
It turns out it was quite an important game – the last game of the season. If Chianni’s competitors won (they were from Staffoli), they would win the division championship. Chianni needed three points from the win to give them a better playoff position. It ended up a goal apiece – the second half being a little more fun than the first. A couple of Staffoli supporters got a little emotional at the verbal abuse at the end of the game, and had to be held back to avoid physical altercation. All-in-all, I’d go again, and I really must attend Volterra’s games when I start spending more time over here.
We went back to Marisa and David’s and had a good long chat. They both have a good sense of humour, and can give a slagging as well as taking it. Poor Marisa was moving sluggishly, and there was no way we could have visited anywhere in a meaningful way. We wished Marisa a speedy recovery and headed home.
That evening we were in La Terra di Mezzo for some yumminess and smiles:
Next day, we were up pretty early. My brother was arriving on a morning flight and we had to go pick him up. These days, whenever we have to travel north (either to pick someone up or drop them back to the airport), we take advantage of being north enough to travel to places we haven’t been before. In this case…. we didn’t! Haha! We had been to all of these places before, but my brother hadn’t, so we took him along to see two spectacular bridges. The first of which we stopped at before, but heck – it’s beautiful, so here it is again! The wonderful Devil’s Bridge:
My brother was suitably impressed. The colours are just amazing. It was approaching lunchtime, but we didn’t hang around here for food, but instead carried on to the next bridge, at which that last time we didn’t stop. It’s more of an industrial, steam-punky affair – at it can be found at the far end of Fornoli, and is only a 7 minute or so drive from the Devil’s Bridge (at the time of writing this – 02/05/25 there is a road-blockage, the detour around which doubles the travel time).
The bridge takes you from Fornoli’s new town to the old town.
We stopped in Bagni di Lucca, and ate in the square which contained the Theatre and the Circolo (a sort of social club you’ll find in many towns – don’t overlook the occasional one for killer food). Bagni is a strange kind of town, as it’s split into two – firstly a really cute part with a tiny piazzetta by a bridge and direct views of the river. Then there’s a bit of a gap as you take a bend with the river with few, if any, buildings and then a larger part, bordering the river.
Anyway, we parked by a hotel and didn’t go to that Circolo. Although the menu looked really nice, it was a little restrictive. We walked up the town a bit to see if there were any restaurants opened. Strangely, there were none. It was a Sunday and I would have thought we were in season, but there weren’t a lot of people about. We walked back to the square and ate in a place that had everything on the menu – Ristorante del Sonno. I usually try to avoid these places, as their food only tends to be so-so. It had a 4 or sub-4 rating on Google at the time, but now it has a 4.1. I’m glad we stayed. The pasta dish I got was, in fairness, wonderful. It also serves pizza – and I remember at the time one of the two Americans sitting next to us complained that his wasn’t sliced for him. Oh dear! The service was a little wary at first, but it soon warmed up when we used a little Italian to order – always works a treat.
We didn’t walk around for long. In fairness, it was a big ask of my brother who had been up since the wee hours and was now beginning to fade – so we drove the 2-hour drive home.
After an later afternoon rest, we caught the sunset out by Fornelli and had a couple of spritzes.
As we had pasta earlier on, we didn’t go mad during dinner – just pizza and beer at La Mangiatoia.
I began the next two days with walks with my brother.
I’ll be honest, I do not remember a lot of what we did these days, except they were spent in Volterra. We had dinner in La Vecchia Lira for the first day, for the second we spent ttime in a restaurant we don’t visit often enough: Osteria La Pace.
Well, that’s how it began. I will continue to merge days where I can in an effort to catch myself up to 2025! For extra-special days, I’ll holder over an entire blog. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.
Our Man In Volterra 
