9/30 Tues – Volterra
Today we take country roads on the east side of the main highway and head north – through Cecina and Ponteginori to Volterra which rivals San Gimignano. Volterra stands on a rocky hill 1770′ above sea level, surrounded by strong walls – it is rich in alabaster, an important industry to the city, mineral waters, the Soffoni of Larderello where boric acid is extracted, the sulphur lake of Monterotondo, the copper springs of Caporciasno and the baths of Montecatini. Beautiful drive getting there as again it is all very rural, only a couple of very small villages.
We climb very high and of course you drive in circles to get to the top so finding where to leave our vehicle becomes a bit of an adventure. Our first one is no good – only for police and townspeople – we keep going finally coming upon a good size parking lot with a couple of rv’s there. Our neighbor told us he had stayed here the night before. Lo and behold we are right across the street from one of the town’s walled entrances, where there is an acquaduct, then up many, many stairs, along alleyways, obviously a very old fortressed village, finally arriving at Palazzo Publico (1217). Here also is the Cathedral (1120) Guarnacci museum, and several very upscale shops carrying alabaster carved statues, ceiling & wall lamps – very beautiful and very expensive.
We tour around for a couple of hours taking in all the history and magnificent views from various piazzas. An english speaking tour group goes by so we listen in on some of the history of this wonderful place. At the bottom of a pretty steep brick lane is Porta All’ Arta, one of the village gates dating to 300 BC. It is incredible! Rod keeps looking at it and saying how did they ever get this huge blocks of stone up there and with no mortar either. Here is another piazza overlooking the valley way down below.
As we head back up this same lane we come across the alabaster shop of a man I had read about where you can watch him carve alabaster. Sadly he has the doors pulled to, off to lunch I guess, so I stick my camera through the opening to take a few pictures anyway. He comes along and says go in, go in. His little tiny shop is chock full of alabaster dust with much of his work on shelves. Rod starts talking to him in his high school spanish – very close to Italian – and finds out he is Scarselli Daiu – has been carving alabaster for 70 years, started when he was 14 which makes him now 84. We purchase a little carved pidgeon – then he gives us a piece of alabaster rock so the pidgeon now sits on this in our home.
Up the street is Il Poggio where we have a very nice late lunch. We take a long time returning to San Vincenzo through this beautiful Tuscany country. Good day.
Tonight we dine in San Vincenzo at Jimmy’s – he was the one who helped Rod get a cab when we got off the train so felt we just had to have a dinner with him. What fun he was. Fabulous food, but what was more fun is his father helps clean off the tables and his mother cooks the meals and he had to have us meet them both. Also as a treat he brought us a Limoncello (a wonderful Italian liquer) and one for himself. What a fun time, and a great way to end this day.
Tags: Travel
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