Tag: irish

Medieval Festival – Day 2

Warning! This post is media-heavy!

We got up, breakfasted (I skipped my walk), showered and headed out to the Festival. We bought the tickets, got our wristbands and waltzed through security. Or at least I did – the ladies had to have their bags checked.

The Palazzo dei Priori was our first port of call, to play dress-up and rent a costume for the day. It was one of those weird occasions where you don’t think you’d need an official piece of identification, but we did – at least our guest had her driving license with her, which she had to leave with them as collateral. I got a monk’s robe, and Niamh was a woman-of-modest-means, and our guest was a chaste peasant! I may post pics another day, but you can see us down below, having a bit of fun with the mixologist from Antica Velathri Café.

We mooched around the main area – pretty much skipping the performance by the sbandieratori, as we’d seen them a lot the previous night. Once done, we all had a killer sausage and onion sambo to stave off the hunger.

Then it was off to the park to watch the falconry exhibit again. No movies this time – you can check out Day 1 again. Niamh tried using the crossbow, and came very close to hitting the targets (the targets were tiny – apple sized – nobody was hitting them), and afterwards, both the ladies tried archery. Niamh was worryingly good at this. I’d better watch my back! Again, photos may be forthcoming later.

It was getting really warm – even though the monk’s habit was curiously insulating, and so some refreshment was in order. We left the park by the other gate, and headed to Antica Velathri Café, where we became celebs for about 3 minutes. The guy there is really sound, and is happy to help me practice my Italian. He took photos of us to put on his social media sites, and a couple of other onlookers joined-in and took pics of their own!

Of course we had a little booze – iced mulled-wine and Moretti. The mulled wine was yum.

We were roasting by then, and went back to the apartment to chill. But not only to chill, as we had an All-Ireland hurling final to watch! Tipperary, against the odds, pretty much trounced Kilkenny, which made Niamh and her family very happy indeed.

We headed out again for another wander about town, but this time we brought our costumes back. We only thought briefly of wearing them again, but we knew we were going out to eat, and if it was too warm out, if would have been too much of a trial.

We were early to our restaurant, and it wasn’t yet opened. Cursing our luck, we joyfully skipped to Quo Vadis for a swift pint to while away the time! Once sufficiently pinted, we strolled to Ombra Della Sera Pizzeria and yummied down pizzas, and a small, shared plate of fries.

About halfway through our pies, our guest and I swapped pizzas and carried on guzzling, and kept up the calorie count by creeping around to L’Isola del Gusto for a naughty cone.

Unfortunately, I think we missed the skill-at-arms competition, and maybe even an archery competition somewhere… ah well… it just means we’ll have to come back next year 😉

The market at night is cool. The stalls are nicely lit up, and different sets of jesters and performers patrol the streets. We didn’t stay for the full closing ceremony, but hung around the main square to catch a closing act.

Both ladies bought really cool masks made of leather – Niamh’s one is now on display in the apartment.

The sbandieratori closed off the whole show (we know this, because we heard them from our balcony, whilst gulping down wine).

Below are some photos and videos of the nighttime fun.

This morning, I wasn’t feeling too bad, and so both I and our guest went around by Porta San Felice, Porta San Francesco, past the Roman ruins, down to the Docciola carpark and took the arduous stairs back up to town. A shortish route, but with some challenge, especially at the end.

While our guest is out being a tourist, we have to get some shopping in, keys cut, and we might see about framing that artwork we bought.

This evening, we’ll attempt to go (and park!) to San Gimignano. The jewel in the hilltown crown. Pretty is, as pretty does, mind you – I still think Volterra has more to offer!

Volterran Antiquities and Medieval Fest Opening 2

Well, it was market day again yesterday, so after breakfast we toddled down to the carpark beside the Roman ruins to have a looksee. We all got little items of clothing. I bought sandles, as we hope to rent medieval costumes today, and wearing them with modern walking shoes is not a good look.

We have stayed in Volterra 6 times, for a total of about 9 weeks, and yet we still hadn’t visited the Roman or Etruscan ruins, so we decided to remedy that finally yesterday. I think it’s just €5 in per person (our visitor bought a Volterra Card, so she could check out most of the town’s main cultural attractions over 3 days) – which gets you into both the Roman site, and the Etruscan site in the public park.

The Roman site was pretty good – although you can’t climb into the actual theatre (except if you buy a ticket during their arts festival).

The Etruscan site, however, is rather tired-looking and in need of a bit of a cash-injection. There are a couple of informational pedestals which are almost unreadable due to sun-damage, and the site itself is small. I suppose it’s not bad for €5 per person, for both sites. On the plus side, you can climb down into the Roman cistern here. It’s a dizzying climb down a narrow spiral staircase into the chill, dank room below, but it’s mad to think they were engineering these things a couple of millenia ago.

Afterwards, we went to La Terra di Mezzo for lunch – wine and limoncello was had.

Niamh and I went to a crafts store to see if we could buy anything to start personalising the apartment, while our guest headed off to have a look at some other attractions. We found a nice little cypress tree ornament, and a limited print of a lovely, stylistic painting of the walled village of Monteriggioni, which we have not yet visitied. We’ll remedy that during this trip!

I crashed for a couple of hours, as I was still a bit bushed after yesterday’s trip to Pisa. At around 17:20, I was groggy, but heard the unmistakable sound of drums heading our way.

I’d forgotten that there would be some medieval fair stuff happening this evening. I wrongly thought that it would be a repeat of last week, and hurriedly texted our guest to adviser her to make her way to Piazza dei Priori (the main square). I got dressed and lashed up there myself.

When I got there, the lords and ladies were already arrayed at their table, and it seemed to me that the Master of Ceremonies (the same amazing riffing, rhyming guy from last week) was looking for volunteers for something.

As it happens, it was for racing cheese-wheels (well, wooden versions) around a simple course in the square. It was professionals versus volunteers, and was a bit of fun. They have their own ‘palio’ involving these cheese-wheels they race down an obstacle course in October (the ‘Palio dei Caci’). Sadly, we will be missing that. So, this was a good alternative!

You can check out a short video of a bout here:

They announced that something was going to be taking place in the square at 21:30, but my meagre Italian didn’t pick up exactly what it was. We went home and had the first set of a large batch of beef ragú Niamh made up. It was nice and coarse – I love it that way!

After dinner, we had a couple of glasses of wine, and I managed to catch this gorgeous panoramic shot of the sunset from our upper terrace.

We went to the square, just in time to catch the entrance of the dignitaries, combatants and the teams representing their contrade for the Palio del Cero.

The teams would be contesting in a tug-of-war competition!

Once again, it was a knock-out affair, with semi-finals and a final. The sbandieratori (flag jugglers) put on a couple of shows before the semis, and the final itself. A fun evening, although we didn’t get bleacher seats and so were a little foot/backsore after nearly two hours of standing in the same spot.

The lord and lady representing the winning contrada were frocked and awarded.

And then, to bed.

I woke up, but decided on not doing a walk today, as I will be on my feet for the Medieval festival for much of the day. We also have an All-Ireland final to watch this afternoon!

I’ll tell you all about the 2nd day of the Medieval Festival tomorrow. Toodles!

A Haircut and Shopping before Ferragosto

I wandered out for a little in the morning to get my head shaved (“Posso avere un zero, per favore?”, along with the mime of a razor going over my head from front to back). Sadly I don’t know the name of the business, but it was on the corner of Via dei Sarti and Via delle Prigioni. He was an older gentleman, and a few other men were hanging around inside and gossiping incessantly with him. Is this a normal thing in older barber’s in Italy? Anyway, it was nice to see. When getting my head shaved, sometimes I only spend 4-5 minutes in the chair, but this old pro took his time – he was methodical and exacting, and did a great job – I spent about 15 minutes in there. I’m not too sure about outside the old town, but a headshave is €14-€15 – a bit more expensive than back home. Once he was done, I mumbled “Sono molto bello ancora.”, and he had the good grace to smile at my attempt at humour, and, wonder-of-wonders, he didn’t wince when I handed over a €50 note to pay!

At around 14:15, thought, I grabbed a couple of sandwiches from La Sosta del Priore for lunch. Elena (I think that’s her name) knows me by name now – so that’s good service. I hope to return the favour and ensure I remember hers. On holidays, I get so fixated with sitting down in restaurants to get something to eat, when some of the best stuff you can find is street-food, and so it was a long time before I tried this place. Anyway, if you’re in the area and are peckish – give them a shot. Their Tripadvisor score is 4.5 after nearly 1,000 reviews. Anyway, I got a porchetta (roast stuffed pork) sandwich, with caramelised onions and pecorino. *Drool*

When the shops re-opened in the afternoon, we realised we’d have to get the ingredients and makings for food for the next couple of days. We knew that tomorrow (today, as of the publication of this!) was Ferragosto. This holiday is celebrated on the 15th of August every year and conincides with the religious feast of the Assumption. A great many Italians take the day off and spend it with friends and family.

As it falls on a Thursday this year, I suspect that many will also take the Friday off and make an extra-long weekend of it. With this in mind, we headed out to get meat, condiments and veggies for meals. We noted that the insurance office below us was taking advantage of an extra-long weekend, and it turns out so was our local greengrocer. We headed up Via Gramsci to go to another one, passing the owner/manager of La Taverna della Terra di Mezzo (we’ll eat there again soon!), Roberto, was outside talking with friends. He gave us a friendly wave and hello as we went past. We found that one shut too, and so headed past Roberto who nodded and smiled at us again. We had decided to look for chicken breast in the butchers, and were halfway back down Gramsci, when I suggested we just get everything in the Co-Op supermarket. Our walk to the car, took us past Roberto yet again in a matter of a minute, who looked at us amusedly, saying “And one more time!”.

We got almost everything we needed in the Co-Op for a beef ragú for one day, and chicken and veg stir-fry for another. We have a residents parking permit, but it doesn’t guarantee you a spot. We have ridden our luck a lot in our favoured car-park, and once again managed to grab the last place upon our return. After a nice little struggle up those stairs to our apartment, we settled in for more relaxation.

That evening, I had a second go at making an all’olio, aglio e peperoncino dish, this time correctly using spaghetti. Still a little undersalted, but better again than my last time.

It was tasty enough – and is a nice and light pasta dish to have if you’re not ravenous!

Later on that evening I went on patrol to check out what was happening about town. It was a lot quieter than it had been over the weekend! There was something going on in the pinacoteca (art gallery), but I’m not sure what it was. People were dressed-up a little and stopping to pick up a brochure at a table outside. I moved along, and somehow ended up with gelato from L’Isola del Gusto… don’t know how it happened, but I wasn’t complaining!

This morning, I decided to see if I could walk fully around the walls of the old town, and I made it. Some days, I struggle, some days I feel great… this was one of those latter days! Here is my route (click it to view a larger version – walking clockwise, about 4.3km):

Naturally, I took some shots along the way.

The Tyrrhenian Sea on the horizon

You can clearly see the Tyrrhenian on the horizon today – that’s over 30km away.

Today, being our first Ferragosto here, we have no idea what will happen, but expect that most businesses will be closed, and that the traffic will be cataclysmic around the town. We couldn’t belive how busy it was on Pasquetta (Easter Monday), when we were over here for a couple of weeks in April. Nonetheless, we’ll head out and about to see what’s what, and report back.

As we are collecting a guest tomorrow morning, we’ll have to tidy the house, empty some of the wardrobe in the guest room (we’ll have no wardrobe in the master room, until it gets delivered towards the end of the month). Fun times. It also means that there will likely be no blog tomorrow, but they will recommence on Saturday.

Ciao, and to anyone from Italy reading this: Buon Ferragosto!

A Trip to Massa Marittima

I took a day off blogging yesterday – apologies! You didn’t miss much from the day before yesterday… we stayed in town all day. We had food we’d had before and just lazed about. No wait… we will have a guest on Friday, so we had to buy and assemble a second fan. That’s as exciting as it got.

Moving on to yesterday, I skipped my usual morning walk and did a little writing, and after we’d breakfasted and showered, we got in the ‘car’ and headed off towards Massa Marittima – a gorgeous little town in The Maremma, an area in south-west Tuscany less frequented by tourists, but no less beautiful. It had been so hot the past couple of days, that, after we’d turned on the aircon, I sighed in huge relief; it was great to have some sort of ambient temperature controller, rather than just having to rely on fans!

I took a few snaps of the countryside on the way. You’ll see silver pipes running throughout the landscape in a couple of the shots. The area is geothermally active, and energy companies are using this natural resource. There is a hot debate (pun intended), between the locals in the area and the government in Rome as to whether geothermal energy is actually ‘renewable’, and therefore deserving of certain tax-breaks being given for renewable sources. I hope that the Tuscans win out, or it could spell trouble for the employment and businesses of thousands in the area.

We drove by Pomerance, Montecerboli and Castelnuovo Val di Cecina, and half-promised to stop in one of them on our return journey (we didn’t – sorry – some other time!). You’ll have to forgive the occasional reflection in the car window, and the filth of the windscreen.

We arrived, and parked in an area that was free-of-charge last year, but was €1 p/h this year. We bought enough time for a little over 3 hours’ parking, and attempted to guess where the sun was going to go, in the hope that we’d parked in a spot that would soon be in the shade. Then we headed up to the town… more hills!

We got up to the main square, and saw that works were ongoing on bleecher seats for their own medieval activities here. In fact, there were drummers and pennant-folders marching within the town, but I failed to get a good shot of them.

We had a mooch around the shops to see if we could pick up any quirky, artsy objects for our apartment. There was some nice stuff there, and not too expensive, but not fully to our taste.

Yes, that 13th century painting of a fertility tree does have penises for fruit hanging off of it. Can we all be adults about it? No? Good 😉

A couple of cute restaurants were nestled up one of the characterful, narrow side lanes. We chose one called Il Gatto e la Volpe (The Cat and the Fox – it’s not the most brilliantly kept website, sadly), you can see in the large picture above. We sat outside at one of the small tables. Niamh had bruschette and I had ribollita (a twice-boiled soup, thickened with bread). Both were excellent. Then we waited for our mains. And waited. And waited some more. We always appreciate we are on ‘Italian time’ over here, and are usually chill about lengthy mealtimes. However, that’s usually when we know we can have a few drinks and get back to our apartment. Niamh was driving, and we had our minds on the parking ticket aswell.

About 45 minutes later we were told that our food would be arriving subito (immediately), and it came 2 minutes later. Phew – well in time for getting back to the car in the end. Niamh had large pasta parcels (I don’t recall their name), stuffed with ricotta, smothered in a minced beef ragú and I had pici with a white ragú – the meat was rabbit. Again, the food was fab – I just had to watch out for bones in my ragú, which is often the problem with slow-cooked, stewed sauces, I have found.

We got back to the car, and found it in open sunlight. I guess I’ll never make a navigator! The temperature guage read 43 celsius in the car, so we had to let it cool down in the aircon, while we readied Google Map’s GPS for the journey home.

Again, I took snaps – including one of part of the older quarter of Pomerance. When we got home (taking a quick photo of the workshop of probably Volterra’s finest alabaster sculptists), I had an icecream from L’Incontro. They had coconut – one of my faves! It was needed too, as the forecast was for 29 degrees, but it was 33 when we returned.

Tired, we lazed about the apartment and watched a bit of telly. I’ve started watching Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix. Not bad at all, although if you’ve got a queasy disposition, maybe give it a miss!

Still, it wasn’t enough to put me off my food. We wondered what we were going to eat in the evening. There was pasta and some leftover veggies in the fridge – and some vacuum-packed grilled peppers. But while I am not a fan of wasting food, I also hate just throwing crap together on a plate to get rid of it. Recipes were invented for a reason, and I want to enjoy what I eat! Sooooo… we, um, did this:

Our first evening take-out. Sorry, not sorry!

After more telly, we went to bed.

I got up, put the smelly organic trash out, and walked a route I’d walked before – past the prison gate, down through some shortcut steps to the road that would lead me to Volterra’s best free carpark (by the Docciola font). I walked up the steps and was reminded of something else I’d seen on my previous walk of this route.

On the Friday before the Medieval Fair, I’d walked up some of the steps that led to Docciola, when I saw two women at work near the top of the flight of 200 stairs. They were pulling weeds in time for the large influx of fair-attendees. Turns out they did it for the other staircase too. That was a pretty Herculean labour – well done to all who managed to do this in the time allotted!

No firm plans today, except that I might get my hair cut. The experiment to see how we could live, and I guess all the mundane stuff is part of life.

See you next time!

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!

Volterra AD1398 Festival, Day 1, Part 1

I’ve had to split this into two parts – both are reasonably photo-heavy. I’ve linked to some movies in public posts on Facebook.

I took to wearing shorts for the day, which is nearly unheard-of for me, but it was just as well – it was a very hot day. We took ourselves outside and marched up to the ticket booth, after which we had to present ourselves for our re-entry band.

And then we went off to explore the stands. I’ve never seen anything like it. You hear of Renaissance Fairs in the US, and I suppose this is something akin, but when you have the setting of an actual medieval town, it makes it so much more special. At times it was like walking through a movie set. And fair play to the townsfolk, they were so into it, and many of them dressed up for their stalls, but also to just wander the streets, adding flavour and believability to the whole festival. We exchanged some Euros for Grossi, the currency of the day, and used for purchases in the festival.

There were costumes for hire for the day. We didn’t hire them today, but maybe it will be cooler next Sunday and we might be persuaded to grab some then.

There were stalls for food, and then various craftsmen showed how goods were made all those years ago – from hammering out delicate earrings, to demonstrating how salt was extracted from the source not too far from the town. Volterra is still well-known for its salt. Some scribes were drawing and performing delicate lettering, and there was even a medieval hospital set up!

Turning the corner to Via Roma, you could see stall after stall of wares, food and drink. When you add in the backdrop of the arch between the two towers (everything has a name, I sadly can’t remember what the names of those two towers are – sorry!), it all felt more real.

Then we went off to the park. There was a similar setup there, but in a more bucolic setting, along with more unique stuff like smithing, and crossbow and shortbow ranges (which I never got around to trying, dammit – maybe next week).

The layout of the itinerary looks foreboding at first, but you see that many of the items are repeated, allowing you to stay in one location for much of the day to view most of what’s on offer, or alternatively bounce between locations to catch repeats. In addition, there were a couple of marching bands who roamed the roads between acts, keeping everyone entertained (and on their toes), as well as stilt performers and a jester/magic act.

But there were some specialised performances that demanded either the square (dancing lessons) or the park (falconry exhibition) – see Part 2 for these, so sometimes you just had to travel. It’s murder on your Achilles getting up that slope to the park!

You can see a couple of brief movies on this public Facebook post.

We were both roasted by this stage, and so went back to Via Porta all’Arco for a granita, and then grabbed sandwiches to see off our hunger. My one (in the background, with sausage meat and fried onion) was particularly yummy.

We needed a bit of a break, as it was getting extremely warm, and so went back to the apartment. It was so hot, that the fan was on the cusp of turning from friend into enemy. We struggled through our ‘rest’, and eventually headed out for the early evening part of the show. See all this in Part 2!

The calm before the storm

After tidying ourselves up, we went outside to the market to buy sundry knick-knacks for the house. Once my head is protected, it’s not often I actively seek shelter, but while shopping there the sun was scorching, so I ducked out of the light as often as possible. Fortunately, stalls have their own covers and awnings, so it wasn’t too much trouble.

We went to other shops in town to grab some meats and veggies for dinners for the next couple of days. We both agreed that we needed a short break from pasta!

On the way back to the apartment, I grabbed myself a lemon granita from L’Isola del Gusto. It was fab. After a short time in the apartment, I went out to La Sosta del Priore and grabbed a burger there for lunch. It’s not the be-all and end-all to look at, but God did it taste so good. They put it with caramelised onions and a type of mayonnaise that tastes amazing. I will be back for one of those again next week!

We blew much of the rest of the afternoon in the apartment, in an effort to escape the searing sun. Suddenly, around 17:15, we heard a hullabaloo outside the guest bedroom, which looks down into the main street. It was a cacophany of drums and trumpets, so we guessed that it must have been something to do with the impending Medieval fair.

We dollied-up as quickly as possible and went to the main square. There was a wedding there, and I think they had to be given the bum’s rush at 18:00, so the Medieval procession could start.

Anyway, shortly after 18:00, the MC, fully dressed in oldie-worldy garb, started reciting Italian poetry, and announced the lords, ladies and representatives of both the sbandieratori (flag tossers) and balestrieri (crossbow men and women) for Volterra’s 8 contrade (districts), who will be in competition.

Afterwards, there was a very impressive display by the sbandieratori, who are among Italy’s best.

When I get the time/bandwidth, I might stick up a couple of vertical, shaky, iPhone videos 🙂

Once this was all done and the festival declared open, we went home to have a meal. We’d bought a rotisserie chicken from one of the market’s foodstalls earlier in the day, and so Niamh put together a lovely meal. She baked rosemary fries (an oxymoron, I know), and they were fantastic.

While out on the terrace, we heard some music, and so washed the dishes and went out to have a gawk. We found some medieval buskers. They were great players, and had a little coterie of people following them about town. I uploaded the video to Facebook – hopefully you can see it there. We inadvertently joined them for a little while, as we wanted to go for a drink on Via Gramsci. We ended up in the Antica Velathri Cafe again. I had a fab chilled mulled wine there. I’d give it another go!

We then went back home and vegged out on the couch for a while, before going to bed.

I slept right through ’til 05:30, which is unusual for me, and so headed out early to see if I could find if any more stuff had been set up for the festival.

It’s supposed to hit 35+ celsius today, so I, for the first time in a long time, will be showing off some ankle and calf in very fetching shorts. We’ll probably spend a lot of time outdoors today, so I expect tomorrow’s blog will be very media-heavy – apologies in advance! We’re both really looking forward to this!

Roll out those days…

Nat King Cole once sang “Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer…”. I guess two out of three ain’t bad, to quote another song. Yes, we had a slow day yesterday.

After screen-watching, we went to the Co-Op to buy food for the next couple of days, and refil our Chariot of Fire… well, it’s more a like a smouldering dustcart… with fuel. Fuel is damned expensive in Italy. In Volterra it’s about 20% more expensive on average than it is in Ireland.

We got prezzemolo (flat-leafed parsley) and peperoncini (chilies) for tonight, and stock cubes for future attempts and making Zuppa alla Volterrana or risotti/orzotti (the latter is like a risotto, but it’s made with pearl barley). Amongst other stuff, I also bought some deodorant, which I wore for the first time this morning for my walk – in order to prevent me being chased by flies. For a while I couldn’t put my finger on what it smelled like to me – then I had a revelation. It’s like the spice mix you get in digestif liqueurs – specifically Amaro or Jägermeister. Er, lovely?

About an hour after dropping shopping back up to the apartment, we went out to La Mangiatoia for pizza and beer!

I had a 4-cheese and Niamh a cappriciosa, both were lovely – the second-best 4-cheese I’ve had here (Ombra della Sera Pizzeria being the best so far). The Moretti were lovely as always. They have large 660ml bottles of beer over here – slightly larger than your pint bottle of Bulmers (568ml). I’m not a huge beer drinker, but Moretti hits the spot. A Sardinian beer, Ichnusa, is pretty good too. But if anyone who lives local is reading this, could you please tell me where I could find some cider?! I can’t believe it’s not popular over here, given the weather in summer!

Afterwards, we had a stroll around town and got some gelato from L’Isola del Gusto. I got nutella & marscapone, and nocciola (hazlenut) – the first was great, but their hazlenut is a.m.a.z.i.n.g. So creamy.

And so back the apartment, pretty much until the sun went down. It took us a while to work up a hunger after the pizza, but at around 20:30, I rustled up my first all’olio, aglio e peperoncino dish (oil, garlic and chili respectively). We had bucatini to use up, so we used that instead of spaghetti – but ideally you should use spaghetti. I had a dread fear of over-salting since my last dish, and so didn’t salt the ingredients in the pan. The result needed salt, but that was easily recified after serving it up. It was yummy and I was well-chuffed! Certainly better than I’ve ever had it in Ireland.

Niamh stayed in, while I went outside in search of free entertainment and a shnakey pint. They had a band playing jazzed-up folk and avante-garde pieces in the Roman amphitheatre. They were pretty good, so I hung around for a little while.

This moring I went on a shorter walk (about 2.75km) around, and just outside, the town. In the cathedral square, a bunch of guys were unloading more props for the medieval festival, and the market was just about to kick off in the Vallebona carpark. Bleecher seating was out in Piazza dei Priori, presumably for the performances of the sbandieratori (those who practice the art of throwing and juggling large, medieval flags). They will be performing this Sunday, so I hope to get pics or movies. For the very first time, I also walked through the graffiti-lined shortcut that cuts out an entire corner of town.

We were planning to go to Massa Marittima today, but with the market in the main carpark, those put-out residents are on-the-prowl for handy parking. So if we left our spot, it could mean we’d have to spend a lot of time either finding/waiting for a spot, or parking in the arse-end of nowhere and having a difficult walk back to town. We have tons of time, and so can go next week.

Thanks a lot!

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!

August Strikes Again

We took things a little handier after yesterday‘s hectic day. When we were done hanging around the apartment, doing a little writing etc., we took ourselves downstairs and outside. We had to buy a pliers to tidy up a wire, currently suspending the net curtain over the door to our terrace. We grabbed one handily enough in the hardware store on Via dei Sarti, and had another little wander around some of the artsier stores on Via Porta all’Arco.

As we had a mind to eat out tonight, we decided, for the first time ever since we’ve been here, to grab a sandwich out of one of the few streetfood stores near us. We chose La Sosta del Priore, just around the corner from the entrance to our apartment building. It gets rave reviews on Trip Advisor, as do a couple of the other streetfood vendors in the area.

We both had variations on a porchetta (roast pork) sandwich. They assemble it in front of you, and chop up the pork on a flat griddle. I had sundried tomatoes, porchetta, pecorino with a little fig jam. It was sensational, and we’ll be trying these streetfood sandwiches again soon. They fill you right up, too!

I should have taken a photo side-on, as this shot doesn’t do it justice.

Niamh found a single-seater chair she wanted to buy for our living room, in a place in the industrial zone of Colle di Val d’Elsa, a town about 35 minutes drive away. As it was after 13:00, we had to wait ’til closer to 16:00 before heading out. Colle di Val d’Elsa also has a lovely medieval town, and a nice centre to its modern area, but we didn’t visit those today – some other time!

Anyhoo, we got there, and noticed that the carpark was suspiciously empty. Niamh had checked the opening times online, but the message on the window nonetheless stated that they were shut from August 4th until the 27th. Wonderful. Back we went, but on the way home, I took some snaps of the countryside as we were driving.

Upon arriving back in Volterra, we decided not to blow our time at the apartment until it was time to eat, but did this instead:

A manly drink for a manly man, in the prime of his manly manhood. I considered it one of my 5 a day, as it had pulped peach in it. We got these in Antica Velathri Café (Velathri is what the Etruscans called Volterra back in the day). There is a fabulous mixologist there, and he’s very friendly to boot. They also have little bready canapés you can eat, if you like.

After we’d had a couple there, we went to Il Pozzo degli Etruschi for dinner. Niamh ordered one course with a contorno (side dish) of grilled veg, and I two. This is the second time we’ve done this, and neither restaurant has gotten the timing right, despite confirming it with us. So I had my second dish while Niamh had to look on and wait. We won’t make the same mistake again.

Anyway, she had roast cutlets of wild boar, and she said it was the most delicious meat-dish she’s had here. I had a taste and had to agree – it was pretty sensational. I had Zuppa alla Volterrana (veggies!), and after pici with lamb sauce. The soup was ok – not as good as in a couple of other places I’ve had it, but the pici dish was great!

As we both had very full bellies, we went home.

There was supposed to be hella rain this morning, so I had conditioned myself to not going out for a walk. In addition, they were spraying for mosquitoes in the green areas around Volterra, and I didn’t want to be around that. I tried to sleep in. I really did, but there it must have been the commercial glass bin collection day today… and they must have set up a central collection point right underneath our bedroom window. The sound of glass bottles crashing together can become unnerving after 30 straight minutes of it. Still… it must be done to keep the town tidy.

Long story short: fat, lazy Eoin didn’t go out for a walk today. Will do so tomorrow!

Ciao!