theatre – Our Man In Volterra

Peak laziness was achieved yesterday after my walk! We hung around the house and then, with a bit of a hunger on us, walked the long way around to get lunch. We went from our house to the Porta San Francesco, and followed the walls clockwise, past the Roman amphitheatre back to the Porta Fiorentina, which is actually the closest gate to us! Nothing wrong with getting a second walk in, I suppose.

On the way, we took a look inside Chiesa di San Lino, as we’d never been in it before. Whenever I enter an Italian church, the first thing I do is look up!

It took us a while to reach the restaurant, Osteria La Pace, who have wonderful home-made pastas. Their menu isn’t huge, but that which you can concentrate on is often wonderful. I had Caserecce di Cinta e Funghi (a pasta variety with pork and mushrooms), and Niamh the Pici al Cianghiale (thick noodles with wild boar). The pasta that came out on my plate looked nothing like caserecce, but more like thick pappardelle (the pic on the left below), which is ok as it’s one of my fave pastas. While mine was tasty, the food jealousy was very real after tasting Niamh’s (the middle photo). It’s one of the best plates of pasta in Volterra. We both finished the meal with an amazing tiramisù. On the way back to the apartment, we booked a table for our evening meal – always be thinking ahead!

In the afternoon we rested a while (it was pushing 30 to 31 degrees out), I wrote a few more hundred words of my novel and toasted myself for a short while out on the terrace.

We then went out to have a look at a small flea market and stopped off at La Mangiatoia for a couple of Moretti each.

After another laze-about, we got ready for our meal and wound our way down Via Gramsci towards the restaurant. On our way, I paused a moment to snap a lady demonstrating the art of alabaster carving.

Sometimes it’s the food that keeps you coming back to your favourite places, and sometimes it’s the welcome. In the case of La Taverna della Terra di Mezzo it’s both! Roberto and Aurora always welcome us back enthusiastically, and serve us some wonderful dishes. A free snifter of grappa (a strong spirit distilled from the left-overs of wine making) to finish the meal off helps a little there! It has a strong, almost woody, flavour, but hits you a bit like vodka.

I had the Zuppa alla Volterrana and Niamh some Bruschette to start. Niamh then had Penne Arrabbiata (literally, angry penne!), which was quite hot with chili. I had a steak on the bone with oven-baked spuds. Then we had tiramisù again, but instead of it being made with coffee, it was made with limoncello and was almost as lovely as the one we’d had earlier.

We rolled ourselves out of our chairs and strolled towards the Roman amphitheatre, as there was a performance of Faust there that night. We got one of the cheap ‘seats’ (looking on with no charge from the walls above!). It was all in Italian, and we understood little of it – the sound wasn’t bad, but it didn’t carry fully up to where we were. At one stage, Mephisopheles appears, and it was done so well – completely unseen, then appeared with clever lighting. Unfortunately, I missed a photo of that. I have photos below, but they’re poor – I must invest in a decent camera one of these days!

We only stayed for 15-20 minutes before heading back to the apartment.

This morning, I felt a smidge hung-over, and there were denser clouds in the sky. The air felt thick in my lungs, and I knew a strenuous workout was to be avoided, so I just walked about town and papped anything purty I saw.

I didn’t sleep so well last night, and so I’m still a bit wrecked – back to bed for a while! A presto!

I lazed about for a couple of hours after my walk yesterday, and then we both went out to buy ingredients. If we’re not eating we’re buying food – that’s the way it seems to be right now! After shopping, we saw that the Volterra theatre was open, so we went in, donated and had a looksee.

It’s small, but perfectly formed, as the saying goes. Gorgeous! Niamh made lunch with some of the pasta we’d saved over from the previous day, plus a few grilled veggies, rocket and some mortadella (a wide sausage, with pistacchio nuts – not going to lie: it reminds me a lot of fancy luncheon meat, but I love it).

I had to spend more time indoors while I dealt with Sky over our inability to stream via SkyGo. No satisfactory conclusion was reached, but we’ll get by with YouTube, Netflix and Amazon… and, of course, all Volterra and Tuscany has to offer!

After that debacle, we decided to get some much-needed dessert, but rather than going to L’isola Del Gusto (the place to go to get gelato usually, as it’s one of the best in Tuscany), L’Incontro was also recommended to us, so we gave it a bash. I had orange cream and tirimasu, and it was fantastic – well done, folks!

We walked the calories off a little before heading home, chilling, and having another meal, cooked by Niamh. Are you beginning to sense a pattern yet? We got a couple of juicy pork steaks on-the-bone from Antica Macelleria, and had ourselves an Irish-looking dinner. It was fab, and a needed change.

After another while we headed out to see if there was anything going on around town. In the main square (Piazza dei Priori), a stage was erected, and some seating placed out for the townsfolk and visitors. While Volterra gets a lot of tourism from the UK, Germany and Holland, the bulk of it seems to be Italian, which is a great indicator, in my book. A couple of comedians (we think) warmed the crowd up, but it being entirely lost on us, we went back home. Looking at my social media feeds this morning, it seems as though there was music afterwards. Ah well…

This morning, while Niamh continued her ‘Couch to 5k’ programme, I walked to the only gate in Volterra I hadn’t been to yet: Porta Diana. The town’s cemetary is nearby and it’s a relaxing little walk. At least the walk there is, the walk back is a different affair.

The gate no longer has its arch, sadly. I can only speculate that this happened during the retreat of the Germans. Portal all’Arco was saved, but sadly Diana was not. If anyone reading this knows, please drop me a comment. You can check out some old photos of it here.

I noticed that there were some Etruscan ruins not too far away, so I decided to check them out. The road wound steeply downhill, and I knew in the back of my mind that I would certainly pay for all with the walk back into town. Halfway there, a car heading towards me had to jam-on, as an adolescent doe ran across its path, just yards away. Where it had come from, stood a young buck, possibly contemplating the same move. I didn’t make eye-contact for long, and swiftly made my way downwards. I’m sorry now that I didn’t take a shot of him. When I got closer to the ruins, I saw there were indents, cavelets (if you will), dug into the side of the road, with walls on top. I knew I was in Etruscan country then.

I found the entrance to the site and made my way by a dusty path to one of the tombs, and climbed in. It was electrically lit, so I wasn’t too spooked (yet).

I only spent a minute down there, as I thought the place might be mozzie-infested, although I didn’t see or hear any insects. A feeling of unease came over me, and I decided to, as masculinely as possible, make my way back up the stairs. Then I heard a click behind me. I moved again, and it became a crackling-crunch, so I bolted up the first few steps and then realised I had my damn water bottle in my back pocket. The plastic for water bottles in Italy is a lot thinner than we use back home, so you only have to look at it to make it crackle. I felt a bit of a tool, and slowly made my way up the rest of the steps and out.

The walk back was horrendous. I mean it was beautiful, but I am unfit and it damn-near killed me. I probably won’t go back to those tombs on foot, until I get a little more active. The 1.7km walk home was totally uphill, some of it steep. I had to rest on my feet a couple of times and took another snap of Diana’s magnificent Etruscan blocks.