Wednesday: Volterra
Our day began with a walk to the main piazza where we met our local guide, Annie, who is an American ex-pat who lives in Volterra with her Italian husband and family.
Annie told us how one of the Medici family members found himself taking the quick way out of one of these building--he was thrown out the window. Wonder if we can solve our political problems that way?
While I've read that yellow school busses are an American thing, evidently the Italians have them too.
This is a medieval era city gate. When the Germans withdrew from the town toward the end of WWII they planned to dynamite it to block the road from being used by the Allies. To save the gate the residents of Volterra destroyed the road on either side of it and so the withdrawing troops left it alone.
Annie walked us around town and included taking us where we could overlook the ruins of the Roman Baths and Amphitheater. She said they were just getting started with the excavation and that they expected this to become a major tourist attraction in the not too distant future. Glad we got to see it before there were more English speakers in town than Italians.
Volterra is known for its alabaster and our tour included watching this gentleman make handmade alabaster bowls. His work is beautiful but unfortunately there isn't enough money in it to keep the local kids doing it.
The word "Tuscany" refers to the Etruscan people, those who dominated the Italian peninsula before the Romans. Annie told us that some of the early "Romans" were actually Etruscan. In any case, their civilization was centered in the area now called Tuscany and Volterra has an Etruscan Museum which we visited.
We were given an Etruscan attraction card that let us into several places around town and turned loose for the day. Job #1 was lunch!
We were given an Etruscan attraction card that let us into several places around town and turned loose for the day. Job #1 was lunch!
We ate at a lovely outdoor cafe not far from the Etruscan museum and then started to explore the town. What do you think of the local prison? No, it wasn't on our tour card.
Tuesday afternoon we wandered the town, visited a couple of churches, shopped (very briefly) and saw the town art museum. Then we met the group for a wine tasting. Tuscany is known for red wines so that's mostly what we tried and my unsophisticated palate was revealed when I preferred the least expensive wine we were shown. Still it was fun to taste wine while it was being described by someone who knew what she was talking about.
Below are some photos we took wandering about town.
Below are some photos we took wandering about town.
We were on our own for dinner Wednesday and just wandered until something looked good. We ended up on the main piazza and while neither one of us remembers what we ate, we know that we never got a bad meal in Italy. While we were there an American couple sat at the table next to us. They had a home in the area so evidently this restaurant isn't just for tourists. We learned that they like New Orleans and they shared a bottle of wine with us.
It was about sunset when dinner was over so we went to the overlook to watch again. Then it was time to go back to the hotel so we'd be ready to leave in the morning. We thought the street on which the hotel was located looked a lot like Diagon Alley. What do you think?
It was about sunset when dinner was over so we went to the overlook to watch again. Then it was time to go back to the hotel so we'd be ready to leave in the morning. We thought the street on which the hotel was located looked a lot like Diagon Alley. What do you think?
Goodnight! See you tomorrow!