Tag: volterra

2020

I got up, took out the trash and, all alone (in your face, anxiety!), traipsed around some of the walls in innards of Volterra. Unsurprisingly, she was looking lovely.

I couldn’t tell you what we had for lunch, I’m afraid, but we decided to go to Osteria Fornelli for dinner. Like Del Duca, this is a bit of the treat, as they do two menus: a traditional one, and a modern take on some classics. Or they used to. This time they only had the traditional offerings – I wonder if they lost their chef. They used to have this killer baked raviolo stuffed with pork – sadly, nowhere to be found.

However, they still had 3 excellent things:

Their bread was wonderful, as always
The cooking was fantastic, regardless
They also have one of the best views for a sunset in Volterra for any restaurant

We had a wee walk on the way.

Piazza Minucci – one of the best Instagrammable shots in Volterra

Then we walked in without a booking and grabbed a table. We didn’t think anything of that, except that we thought that they were insisting we sit inside, for seemingly no good reason. We were a little disappointed, as we wanted to be outside to see the sunset, without having to leave the table.

About 10-15 minutes in, though, it turns out that we were incredibly lucky – the restaurant was actually booked solid. This was the first time that we had been given any kind of a clue that things were beginning to pick-up in Volterra. At first we thought that it was despite the pandemic situation, but it transpired that it was because of the pandemic situation – more on that another day.

Anyway, back to the grub! Niamh had mixed bruschette, and I had (surprise, surprise!) Zuppa all Volterrana. To follow, Niamh had a steak with mixed veg, and I had pasta (pacchieri, by the looks of it) with white ragu (either rabbit or hare – I don’t remember which). Everything was delicious!

I left my table (masked-up!) to take a few colourful sunset shots.

We went home, then – taking snaps on the way. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we stopped at Isola del Gusto for a sneaky gelato!

Down By The Riverside – 09/08/2020

Some time after brekkie (we probably let it get too warm), we headed straight for the car, as we wanted to check out a bathing area by a river in the nearish-by forested reserve of Berignone.

The latter stages of the journey were tricky, as we moved from dual-lane road, to single-lane road, to gravelled lane to pot-holed, dirt-track into a carpark, that was largely already full. I felt somewhat overdressed in my usual (t-shirt and jeans). It was hot, and I noted someone had set up a mobile bar near the beginning of the walk to the bathing area – I’d be making a bee-line for it on our way back.

We carefully forded a mostly-dry, but perilously rocky riverbed, and continued about 1.5km along a trail that led to the bathing area.

There were a couple of natural pools people were using; one of which was deep enough to jump into from a rock above. We weren’t properly geared to join, so we mosied around a short while, and feeling self-conscious that people were fairly unclothed around us, we headed back to car park.

On the way there, I must have picked up an insect bite (I don’t get them nearly as often as Niamh does), but it was the mother and father of them. Four months later, and I still have a mark. Anyhoo, we raided the bar area, and I got myself a chocolate and hazelnut gelato cone. Not bad, considering where it was, but no Isola del Gusto! The carpark was jammed by the time we got to the car, and it proved tricky to negotiate our way out past incoming traffic. If ever there’s a next time, we’ll park on the road that leads to the dirt track and walk. Here are some shots of a distant Volterra taken during our trip home:

We opted to go to one of the few (non-vegetarian/vegan) restaurants we hadn’t yet tried: Bar Trattoria Da Bado. Turns out to have been an inspired decision: I had one of the best pappardelle al cinghiale I’ve ever had – the pasta was homemade and so toothsome! We also had a nice antipasto platter beforehand. There were tons of locals eating there, which is always a good sign. Unfortunately, I can’t remember what Niamh had. If I had one complaint, it would be that we were rather close for comfort to other people, given the Covid situation. But anyway, we weren’t infected!

On the way back, I stopped at Isola del Gusto for a lemon granita – the perfect thing to cool you down during a 36 degree day.

Our hunger for pasta was obviously not sated, as we finished off homemade plates of spaghetti al ragu that evening.

I like a coarse, rather than creamy, ragu!

That evening we went to Antica Velathri Cafe for some chat and cocktails. Always a lovely time there.

Gambassi Terme and Montaione – 08/07/2020

There is a cantina inside the walls of Volterra that Niamh and I occasionally (ahem!) visit to top up on our stock of red and white. It’s called Santa Lucia, and the vineyard responsible for producing the wine is located near a town called Gambassi Terme. We thought we’d head there. The vineyard was most likely closed in these Covid times, but at least we could stroll around the town.

It’s a nice drive there, and we passed an amazing looking restaurant on the way. One day, Osteria del Castagno, we will say hello!

Anyway, onwards to Gambassi Terme, which turned out to not only be lovelier than we guessed, but also held another surprise.

It was stinking hot. That’s hardly a surprise, but what was a surprise to me, is that Gambassi is on the Via Francigena – the pilgrim’s route from Canterbury to Rome. We saw a bunch of people geared for hiking and eventually put 2 and 2 together.

We decided to stop over for lunch at a nice and simple restaurant. We had pasta ‘n’ meat! Wasn’t bad, especially considering the price.

One done with Gambassi, we had to go food-shopping. We noticed that there was a CoOp in Montaione, and it was on my list of towns to visit. It was also only 10-12 minutes away, so off we went.

We finished our shopping, and had a stroll around the older part of town. It was still stinking hot, and very, very quiet. Montaione is also either on or very near the Via Francigena, but was much quieter! Maybe because it was post-lunch and people were inside, resting.

Anyway, it was a pleasant enough place, but we didn’t spend too long there because…well… heat! We went back to the car – I had to stop off for fruit at the CoOp again – and went home.

That evening we had a stroll around Volterra. We didn’t notice it at the time, but some of the streets were beginning to become a little busier.

Lunch in Del Duca – 07/07/2020

Niamh started the day of in artsy fashion by taking the two masks we’d bought (one last year at the medieval festival on the right, and the fancier one in Florence on the left), and hanging them in the corridor between the living room and bedrooms.

Then we had a challenging walk, partly around the walls, and then up the 200 steps at Portal di Docciola. I found them less challenging this time around because (a) I’d lost weight, and (b) I’d been walking up and down our stairs 10 times in a row as early-morning exercise before work, almost every workday.

Then it looks like I insisted on our particular lunch venue:

We went to Ristorante Enotect Del Duca! Yay! This place features the best technical cooking in Volterra. I had home-made gnocchi with mushroom, drizzled over by a barley-laden broth. I could have drunk a pint of that broth! Niamh settled for the lasagne, and once again, had me beaten. It was amazing.

Afterwards, we headed to Antica Velathri Cafe, and had a couple of cocktails each. I can only assume I was having a good day, health-wise, as I’d been keeping away from drink up to now.

As always, we got a lovely welcome from the guy who runs the place… he’s a fantastic mixologist. He had a helper-lady with him this time, who was very friendly too.

I have no other record of what we did for the rest of the day, so I assume Niamh rustled something up to eat, and the pair of us screenwatched.

Volterra still seems kind of quiet… hmmmmmm.

Hospital Stroll – 06/08/2020

We both got up, left the trash down (I presume!), and Niamh took me on a walk she’d done before. There were parts of it I hadn’t been on before, so that was pretty cool.

We walked to Volterra’s hospital, and were greeted by the art installation that had graced the cathedral square a couple of years ago. It’s an interesting display, but perhaps a little depressing, given its location.

On we went, past apartment buildings I was unfamiliar with (including an abandoned one), and past a church I’d only seen in photos. To pay Niamh back, I took her to the entrance to the old psychiatric hospital, and then back through town again. A good, long stroll!

We hung around the apartment screenwatching until lunch. We made good on our promise to visit the waiter in Porgi l’Altra Pancia – handy too, as it is just down the steps from us. Niamh had a form of Caprese salad, and I just stuck with my usual Zuppa alla Volterrana. I remember the soup being yummy.

And back upstairs for a lazy day in the apartment. It just gets too warm in August to go wandering.

In the evening, I was sent out to grab some takeaway pizza at Pizzeria Da Nanni. I’d heard good things about it, but while the resulting pizzas were taste enough I guess, they was a little overdone. Ah well. I’ll have to give them another chance at some stage, but my favourite pizzeria in Volterra remains Pizzeria Ombra della Sera for now.

After we’d eaten back at the apartment, I dollied myself up and headed out to try out the iPhone 11 Pro’s night-time photo capabilities. I was impressed, but the ambient lighting is very much overstated. Pale greens come out as ‘very’ greens etc. Still, a million times better than the grainy efforts I used to get using the iPhone 7.

It all seems very quiet in Volterra. But things were about to change.

Our Glowing Balls – 05/08/2020

First day of the holidays! What to do, what to do. We decided to head out late morning for Navacchio, about 45 minutes away north to look for paints and lights… and maybe someone who knew a thing or two about air-conditioning units – although we figured that we were getting on grand with the cooling units we bought a while back.

We stopped quickly in La Rosa on the way, to scope out a cheap department store called Magazzini Mangini to see if we could cut short our journey and just buy lights. The stuff they had wasn’t to our taste, so onwards to Navacchio shopping centre!

We masked-up and went to Casa, and bought some knick-knacks and some gently glowing balls (bedside lamps). Happy with our lot, we decided to head down to OBI. Spotting a lift, we got inside, thinking it would take us down a full level to where OBI is. However, we quickly discovered that the lift was for disabled access to the store and just went down about 7 feet to the same level as the bottom of the stairs into Casa. Thoroughly humiliated, but laughing, we went on our hunt for OBI.

OBI had paints, but not the ones we wanted… it had nice air-conditioning units too – but I chickened out.

Quickly nipping into Euronics to confirm we had no impulse to shop for electronics, we had a big flip-off lunch in Wild West. A nice burger and fries for both of us, but damn we had to wait 20+ minutes for a table – although it was still (albeit barely) Covid-compliant. It also had yapping dogs. Italians love their dogs and they are frequently welcome in restaurants.

Afterwards, we went back to La Rosa, and picked up a couple of heavy terracotta decorated boxy-type things, which we’d use to hold the doors to terraces open. Handy! We also checked out the opening hours of a second-hand type store – Il Mercatino Dell’Usato (which I nicknamed ‘tutta la merda’ due to little bit of everything it seemed to have in stock behind its locked gates).

Then back home. I don’t think we ate much, as we’d had a big lunch, but not so big that we didn’t head back out into town to take some snaps. I also indulged in a lemon granita from Isola del Gusto to cool me down.

And that was that… screenwatching and bed!

Here Goes Nothing – 04/08/2020

“Here goes nothing!” as the bauld Lando Calrissian said, which is kind of apt, because that is precisely what we did on our last working day before our holidays kicked in.

We went on a walk and took some photos. And I think that’s all I got. I’m sorry about that.

We’re right beside Antica Velathri Cafe here

Well, that was it. However, something peculiar was happening in Volterra, and it took us a few more days to spot what it was. More on that another time!

Exploring La Fontana dei Ponti – 03/08/2020

Another day in paradise, which is to say we spent Bank Holiday Monday in Volterra. I’m pretty sure we went food shopping in Conad City that day. We must have spent an awful lot of it screen-watching, before heading out for a walk.

We headed towards the prison, and then doubled-backed towards the municipal park, admiring a huge beetle on the way (maybe a Rhino Beetle?).

There’s a small snack cabin and seating area just off the park, which we have rarely used. It was closed that day, but lately some work had been carried out on a tall stacked fountain called La Fontana dei Ponti – it’s visible from the road (Viale dei Ponti) leading up to the famous Volterran vista. Some restoration work had begun on it, and I’m pretty sure that walkways which were previously unavailable were reopened. They started off this snack area, so Niamh and I had a walk around the parts of the fountain we could.

Sadly some of it is still defaced by graffiti, so I hope they can do something to clean it up.

Afterwards we went home, and Niamh cooked up some ravioli with sage and butter sauce. It was yum!

Screen-watching and bed – we were back in work tomorrow for a couple more days before our actual holiday kicked in.

Chianti Country – 02/08/2020

Right! It was time to spend the bank holiday the right way again. We took the car out and drove to the Chianti area. Much of the drive was lovely, but there were no obvious spots to pull in and take shots, sadly.

The first town we visited was Castellina in Chianti, and for me, it is the best town in the area (we also visited Greve and Montefioralle before – the latter is a hamlet and is gorgeous – I didn’t blog about them, sadly). We found a handy carpark near the old town, but it was at the bottom of a slope – so we winced when we heard the bottom bumper scrape a little off the asphalt.

We got out, and took a stroll around. It seems to embrace its position in the Chianti area a bit more readily than some other towns. The Chianti Cockerel was to be seen everywhere.

We found a restaurant (Taverna Squarcialupi), with a lovely view outside (although we ate indoors due to them having air conditioning). The highlights were Niamh’s stuffed zucchini flowers and my pici with Chianina beef ragu. The latter came with a mini-jug of Chianti sauce on the side. Yum, although my gastritis and anxiety were preventing me from enjoying myself fully.

After we ate, we had a look at their wine cellar – nifty!

Their wine-tasting room (above, bottom left) was lovely!

We explored a little bit more of the town afterwards.

We got back in the car, then, and drove 20 minutes to Radda in Chianti – a smaller town, but lovely for all that.

There was an art exhibition in the town hall. Last year, we encountered the artist in Monteriggioni, and were delighted he seems to be coming up in the world. His was exhibiting with his brother. He paints, but he also draws exquisitely just using Bic pens. We bought the one on the left from him last year – the medium was a Bic pen. It’s hanging in our apartment. The other was part of the exhibition. A talented guy. Unfortunately, he was busy with prospective clients, so we didn’t get a chance to talk to him – but we chatted with his brother for a moment.

After we stopped off at a gelateria, and I had a lemon sorbet – Niamh opted for nothing. It tasted so-so, but it did its job of cooling me down.

On the way home we stopped for two photo-ops. One on the way back to Castellina:

And yet another stop at the O, on the Siena road, much closer to home. The views were gorgeous there, as always.

Check out the hi-res version of the pano shot here.

And then home, and a night in watching telly… and cooling down!

Another Stay Staycation – 01/08/2020

Soooo… Saturday means market day!

And then, to our chagrin, we must have stayed in all the live-long day, until the evening, when we went for a stroll after having some pizza in the Irish Bar (Quo Vadis). My drink was a virgin Mojito (gastritis), and it was incredible refreshing – top marks there!

The pizzas were tasty too. I had the house pizza (a pizza bianca) another day, and it was fab. I digress… we toddled around, and I tried to snap things that I hadn’t captured too often before (as well as some usual sights, of course).