Tag: tuscany

Holiday day! Eating out.

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!

Hot deals, but not hot wheels

Yesterday, we drove a little outside Navacchio, to a complex of malls and stores and had a look at some furniture.

Although our rental is brand new, there’s something that rattles in it ferociously if you’re in too high a gear. Couple that with the fact that it has all the power of an asthmatic sloth, and you have an object into which I am currently pouring much of my malice. It gets us from A to B, and the aircon works a treat, so I suppose I should be thankful for small mercies.

We passed Peccioli on the way. One of these days we’ll actually rock up there and explore it! Here it is, looking very pretty by a field of sunflowers.

We were reminded how much hotter it gets several hunderd meters closer to sea-level when we got out of the car. I think it peaked around 34 celsius.

In Casa, we bought some bins and sun loungers, all of which we took with us and stowed in the car, and then in Mondo Convenienza we got ourselves a lovely, accessorised wardrobe and a couple of side tables, and a cabinet for the TV. All-in-all, these weren’t too expensive and looked really nice, so it was a win/win. The mall was great to look at and spotlessly clean.

We will have to wait until August 26th for the delivery unfortunately. We were brought over to a desk to finalise the order (the wardrobes are modular, and can be completely designed from the inside out), and were introduced once again to peculiar Italian bureaucracy. In order to buy furniture, we had to provide:

A codice fiscale (the Italian social security number)
A passport (after checking with her manager, she accepted Niamh’s passport number)
An Italian phone number. We don’t have one, so we had to give them the number of our Estate Agents, who also look after our house while we’re back in Ireland

Finally, at the cash desk itself, Niamh had to provide 8 digital signatures to accept and pay for the order and delivery. Seems bonkers to those not living in Italy, but I guess it prevents money laundering and other nefarious activities. However, I wonder if one of the reasons that Italian economic growth is so low is because their process and bureaucracy acts as a deterrant to commerce. Anyway, I digress.

After Niamh bought a nice top for herself, we did this for lunch in the mall, and I’m not one bit apologetic about it:

We went back home, the car struggling up the hills closer to Volterra. It was still 28 degrees there, and we dragged the two sun-loungers and bins through town and up to our apartment. We were a bit wrecked by the time we got there. Hopefully, the loungers will get some use by us and the few guests we’re having over our stay. Here they are on the upper terrace:

Niamh cooked again in the evening, but it was a light meal, given that we’d pigged-out earlier on.

The string beans here are so tasty and the fish was very tender and flakey.

We chilled for a while, and then I went out for a quick stroll about town.

The Irish Bar had no free tables, which was great to see. A pair of seated gents were playing jazzy tunes on electric guitars outside another restaurant, while over-excited kids screamed and wheeled about in front of them. I have to admit to having a little bit of ice-cream from L’isola Del Gusto on the way! The lady behind the counter recognised me, and welcomed me back… it’s the small things in life that often make an impression.

For this morning’s walk, I took a route past the prison, on one side of a small valley, the other side of which houses both the modern-day hospital, and the closed mental hospital. The road leads down to Porta e Fonti di Docciola, where the largest free car park for Volterra can be found (get there very early if you want a spot for a daytime visit, or if staying overnight you should be able to find parking spots after 20:00).

The font here was built in the mid-1200’s, and was an important source for water for both living, and for commerce back in medieval times. Today, it houses both fish and pigeons!

I took the 200 steps back up to town, which gave me a decent workout.

Despite the pasta, pizza, and the occasional cakes and gelato, my belly seems to be slowly reducing, so yay! A lot of that is down to portion control and exercise, but also to the fact that crisps and sweets simply aren’t as prevalent in the stores here, and we seem to have way less inclination to buy them as a result.

Today, we have to let our Estate Agents know that we are expecting an order for furniture, and to renew some sort of security dongle at the bank. Other than that, it’s chillout time – we’ll proably eat out today, and I have to commit a few hundred more words of my novel to electronic paper!

Thanks for reading this. If you have any (polite) comments, questions or suggestions, please leave them below.

My Scooby-doo moment

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.

Today, we might do a little furniture shopping. We really need a wardrobe and a cabinet for the telly. Maybe we’ll look at some sunbeds too.

A dopo!

Ti piace il sale?

It was the beginning of a lazy day after my walk was over yesterday morning – although Niamh began her ‘Couch to 5k’ while I was out – no mean feat in a hilltown! After some telly-watching, we did some food-shopping for the makings of lunch and dinner. The weather had certainly picked up, but the highest it got all day was 26 celsius, and I don’t think it was for very long. We pottered around the shops for a while, and I got myself a pair of lengthy culinary tweezers (is there a more correct name for them?) for plating long pasta and stir-frying. We also bought a fan to try it out.

I am an incredibly impractical man, and so Niamh had to jigsaw the device together, and it seems to work fine. She also prepped lunch – a carpaccio of bresaola (thin, cured beef slices), rocket, capers and pecorino (sheeps cheese).

A drizzle of olive oil finished it off nicely – it was tasty!

We went out later and tried out the new (to us!) granita shop on Via Porta all’Arco. Granite (pron. gran-ee-teh) are essentially dense slush-puppies, but usually flavoured more naturally. We both went for frutta di bosco flavour (fruit of the forest), and it was yum… but there were a lot of seeds to crunch through. They also found every nook and cranny in my teeth. The consistency was less dense than I expected, but still I’ll go back there again – it was really refreshing.

Back home for a siesta, a little novel-writing and relaxation, and my attempt at making conchiglie con carne di salsicce e cime di rapa (pasta shells with sausage meat and ‘turnip top’ greens). We couldn’t find cime di rapa, and settled instead for cavalo nero (black cabbage – essentially it’s kale). I managed to turn these:

Into this!

Here’s the thing about Italian sausages. They are denser than Irish sausages, in that they are really meaty, but they also have gristle in them, which is great for rendering down. They are flavoured with salt, black pepper, fennel and salt. I really did not appreciate how much salt there is in Italian sausages. I should not have salted the ingredients in the pan, nor put as much salt in the pasta water as I had. The cavalo nero would serve to temper the salt, but I also put in about 50% less than I should have. The result was that the dish was too salty. Ah well. The basic flavours were all there, though! A 50/50 hit/miss, so.

As it got dark after dinner, I noticed that Niamh had strung solar-powered light bulbs across the railings of the terrace, and they looked pretty neat!

I finished off watching The Boys on Amazon (try it – not for kids!), threw on some brainless laughter-fodder on YouTube and then went to bed.

Here are some shots of my walk this morning. I polished off listening to ‘Milkman’ by Anna Burns (more for literary flair than story-telling), and started off Jo Nesbo’s ‘Knife’ during the 50 minute stroll.

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We’re going to need fans!

The humidity on our first night was around the 80% mark (due to a storm – humidity is usually very low here in the summer), and although the temperature was down, it still felt really warm. Before we arrived, we naively told people that, due to the thickness of the walls, our apartment will be well-insulated against the heat. It was more than a little worrying when we felt 3-4 degrees warmer after we climbed the first two flights of stairs with our luggage. Volterra had also had its heatwave recently, and the apartment was really warm when we got in.

During the day, it is possible to open the back door to the terrace and create an airflow by leaving windows opened throughout the apartment. It works wonderfully. Whilst I know Volterra isn’t exactly a crime hotspot, we’d rather not have to do this overnight. Additionally, it was stormy that first night, so we had to be careful about letting windows/doors slam, and having rain come in.

Before this year, we had remembered Volterra as being quite sleepy come 22:00 – when everything seems to shut, apart from restaurants. That night a new place near us was having a Boney-M revival night, and it was loud. I was still glad of it, though, as I had begun to wonder what Volterra’s younger generations do for a bit of craic. It’s great to see a little night life in the town!

Anyway, with clothes pretty much shed (sorry for that image!), I fell asleep. Then I had to get up at around 04:00, as there was pelting rain with accompanying gales, so I adjusted the windows or closed them altogether. I don’t think I got out of bed until well past 10:00 that morning, which is pretty much unheard of for me.

There was still a yellow weather warning in effect throughout most of Tuscany, so it piddled down on and off until Sunday evening. Fortunately, Volterra’s nature also suits dismal weather.

Aaaannd it didn’t stop us stuffing our face!

food_2807

Zuppa alla Volterrana, pici with sausage and tomatoes, stewed boar and olives we had in Ristorante Etruria, and I forget what the last thing is but we had it in Pizzeria Ombra della Sera! 😉

Before we went back to the apartment we had a look at the Roman Ruins to check out the setup for the Arts Festival they’re currently having (nothing scheduled for Sundays), and to have a quick pint in the Irish bar there, called Quo Vadis… probably the only Irish bar in the world with that name!

We caught the sunset, though.

IMG_E3463

Sleep the second night was pretty much the same as the first, albeit a little better. Then up for a quicker than usual walk, and some brekkie.

That brings me pretty much up-to-date. Maybe some fan shopping today is in order, and now that we’ve moved the outdoor table back outdoors, we need a table for the telly. I’m also thinking of cooking up rigatoni with sausage and kale later on. Ciao!

A rocky start

Everything began beautifully. My brother picked us up, and dropped us off at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Despite there being quite a few people waiting, we managed to grab a bag & tag machine immediately, and with practically zero queue, ditch our bags to the mercies of the handlers in Dublin and Pisa.

My wife, Niamh, had to stop for cash, and afterwards my brain created an event here that didn’t actually happen – more on this later. We breezed through security – one of the aspects of air-travel I really detest.

Things started to go wrong after we’d ordered food at one of the bars. I’d had a couple of swigs from my cider, when I thought I’d smugly show Niamh that, yes, I had everything in order. But my mini-wallet wasn’t in my pocket. No fake-out. I got that feeling of panic… you know when your stomach drops, then rises and your bladder shrinks to the size of a golf-ball? We emptied my carry-on all over the table, thinking I had absent-mindedly thrown it in there, after we’d gone through security. There was no sign of it, though.

I was convinced that I had looked in my wallet in the airport when Niamh was getting cash out, to make sure I had a float of my own. I raced back downstairs, past all the shops and over to some security guys to explain my situation. I had three cards in there, plus about 150 Euros in cash. I didn’t care about the cash, my bank card (we have an account in Italy, so we’re ok for money) or my Health Insurance card. What was killing me was that my driver’s license was also in there… and I was supposed to be a named driver, so I could share the driving. I was feeling a total moron for having lost it.

Fair play to the lads in security, they searched high and low for it. I convinced them that I definitely had the wallet before security, as I remembered that I had taken it out at the ATM. Anyway, they didn’t find it, and so I raced back, pausing to stop at some shop tills to see if anyone had left it in. They were all cool too, but didn’t have it – they took my number in case it came up. People simply are brilliant, more often than not, aren’t they?

Anyway, we had to leave shortly, so I yummied down as much of my lunch as I could in 3 minutes, before departing for the gate.

The flight missed its departure window, and so left 30 minutes late, at 14:15. No worries, I thought, we can still make Volterra and have dinner there later this evening. I began to get worried again when the captain said they’d have to circle for 20 minutes, as the weather was too bad to land. We knew thunderstorms were on the way and were wondering if we’d missed them in Pisa. We hadn’t. We did land after that 20 minutes, and it was a very smooth landing, fair-play to the pilot. I don’t mind flying, but I do get a little antsy about landings sometimes.

We taxied, and waited for a few minutes. It looked dry out, if dismal. Then came another announcement – ground staff will not work in thunderstorm conditions, so we’d have to wait on-board until the weather got better. He turned the air-con up, so we wouldn’t suffocate. Only then, did the rain come down.

It was liked being papped in a carwash, with tumbling water blurring the view outside and lighting flashing through the clouds.

rain

The photo was taken by Niamh early on in the deluge, and doesn’t do the latter stages justice. After 50 minutes or so, we were allowed leave, and I got a free shower just running to the bus at the end of the stairs. I said to Niamh that I thought the arrivals area would be cataclysmic. The bus started up, and, no word of a lie, travelled all of 40 metres to the terminal stop where, laughing, we all got off and raced inside. I understand completely why they have to do that – not everyone is able-bodied or in the prime of their youth, but it was comical at the time.

Passport control was a breeze, and I thought I might have been wrong about how busy the rest of the terminal might be. I wasn’t. People had piled in, and we struggled up to the telly screen to see on which carousel our flight’s baggage would be arriving. But there was no movement, neither of screen nor carousel. There were occasional announcements that the baggage handling would begin when the storms subside. Still more people arrived into the terminal. One of the two vending machines was out of order, and I managed to get 2 of the last 3 bottles of water from the functioning one.

terminal

Feeling a little sorry for myself, I WhatsApp’d my brothers and had a bit of a rant at how things were progressing. I got a call from the brother who dropped us at the airport, shortly after to say that he had my wallet – I must have dropped it in the car on the way. He is due to come out to us for a few days at the beginning of September, so both Niamh and I were happy for Niamh to do the driving in August, and I in September! I can’t begin to describe the endorphine rush I got after that call! While I am writing this, I am still unable to banish the ‘memory’ of pulling out my wallet at the airport ATM and looking at the cash. Isn’t the brain an absolute fucker somtimes?

About 2 hours later, we saw a bunch of students we knew to be on our flight gather around carousel #3 and were collecting bags. I looked at the master screen, and it didn’t say, and the screen over the carousel didn’t indicate the flight either – yet those students knew. Neither of us had heard any announcement. But what the hell, our bags were finally coming out!

Once our bags were snatched, we dashed through customs, squeezed our way through the hilariously over-crowded arrivals area and out into some refreshing air. The car we picked up from Hertz 20 minutes later was a Lancia Ypsilon (we’re here for 9 weeks – our budget is limited!). I will be as nice as I can and say that it was a time-machine: just like driving was back in the early 90’s. Niamh sent the mail to Volterra’s Municipal Police to request that our ZTL & Parking resident’s permit be updated with the registration of our little Tardis. A town’s ‘ZTL’ (Zona Traffica Limita), is an area through which no traffic can pass, save for those with special permits. Each time you break a ZTL sign, that’s a 3-figure fine!

The winding journey to Volterra from the airport was in the dark, save for eruptions of lightning, which flickered across the sky. There were a couple of instances of forked-lightinging, and were I to do this all over again, I’d (remember my wallet!) have parked a GoPro on the dash to capture the journey. The forks were colossal!

We arrived in a partly fog-shrouded Volterra about 70 minutes later, and with 70 kilos of luggage, were reminded how unfit we are. We eventually arrived in our apartment at around 23:00, local time – exhausted, and only fit for our bed.

Welcome to Volterra!

Hi there.

We are an Irish couple, who have an apartment in Volterra, Tuscany. While we still mostly live and work in Ireland, we still manage to get over to Italy a few times a year.

This blog will diarise our time over there. I hope to cover not only life in Volterra itself, but musings on Italian culture, language and food. As we will have our own (rented) transport, the blog will also feature trips around Tuscany, especially central and west-central parts. I hope you enjoy reading it, and if you have any questions about living life in Tuscany, please let me know.