Volterra, IT

Our intention, when heading out from the Cinque Terre region, had been to drive through the day on the speedy Autostrada highway and spend the night in Siena. We had been confused on our way in, due to poor maps, missing signage, and unlabeled roads…

The same problems plagued us on the way out, and we ended up fumbling through an intestinal maze of roads all the way to the port town of La Spezia before finally emerging onto the relatively smooth and straight highway. We had chosen the perfect day to leave, since the weather was heavy, and it rained on us all morning.

We left the rain and the coast behind as we entered Tuscany, and stopped for lunch in Lucca, which bears some distinction for having kept its walled fortification.

Our stop included a walk around the local art market, fully in swing during our arrival, as well as a visit to a fundraising event which involved massive amounts of bread. The bread was being sold by donation, so we picked up a fair number of samples. We took an abbreviated tour of the old town, and city walls. The walls are quite high from the outside, but arranged as parkland from the interior, which makes a large amount of green space available in the form of a circular park around the old town. From Lucca we headed south on a secondary road, not yet having learned our lesson, and thinking to cut a corner out of the main highway which would have directed us toward Firenze (Florence).

The road was much longer than it looked on the map, and despite some pretty spectacular scenery, by the time we arrived in Volterra everyone was in agreement that this was plenty of driving for one day, and we should see about finding something for the night.

Volterra is really old. Massive stone buildings and tight cobbled streets piled themselves up on the top of a hill and were hemmed in by an impressive wall. This wall had several gates, the oldest being Porta dell’Arco, built around 2200 years ago. We arrived around dusk, and they were just wrapping up some sort of classic car rally. the main square was full of classic and vintage cars, with people taking pictures and posing beside favorites.

The Tourist Information Center was already closed, so we were left with the guidebooks we had brought. While we were having a brief break Christina sought out one of the hotels listed in the guide. I waited, and the folks took a last look around the square. Then we waited together, wondering if she had gotten lost, or if something was wrong. We were discussing whether to go looking for her when she came running around the corner, waving at us to come with her. She had found the perfect apartments. Unable to locate the hotel in the guidebook, she had instead rang the bell under a tiny sign advertisng rooms. An old matronly woman had answered and shown her into two very generous apartments, which combined to a total of about 2000 square feet of living space, with a sitting room, kitchen & dining room, two bedrooms, and terrace looking out over the valley. The price for this luxury was 60€ per suite – about the same as a private room in a budget hostel.

We made good use of the kitchen, provisioning ourselves at the local grocer with wine, cheese, veggies, bread, and a few other basics, then setting in to a spectacular meal. If other arrangements were not already awaiting us for our next days it would have been very easy to stay.

In the morning we decided to not dash off too quickly, but to explore town some, and enjoy the area. We walked through the streets, made more lively by open shops and clumps of tourists. The items of most interest were the painted ceramics, though Christina preferred the Portugese style, and the alabaster sculptures. We looked through a few stores, and peeked in a couple of shops where old men were busily carving away on blocks of stone.

We took a break for lunch at a self-service-style restaurant,  La Vecchia Lira, and helped ourselves to one of nearly everything, for a proper taste of the Tuscan cuisine. The last alabaster workshop we visited had a desk on the showroom floor upon which I noticed a business card for Affittacamere Renzi, our accomodation, and made mention that we had spend the night there. The girl at the counter said that the woman renting the rooms is the wife of the old man carving in the workshop below, and that both are businesses of the family. She gifted us with a couple of small items from the shop, to commemorate the happy chance of our visit. This small gesture was very charming, and the perfect note upon which to leave town.

I would very much have liked to take the secondary roads, cutting directly across country to Arezzo, our next stop .Unfortunately we had a little trouble, yet again, with the maps and roads and signs and found ourselves, impossibly, coming full-circle from Poggibonsi to Montevarchi and back again. Faced with attempting the secondary roads again, pretty as they are, or routing through the less interesting primary highway via Siena we selected the less adventurous route, and were on our way in no time. The approach from the south ended up as an advantage, since when we pulled in for directions at Foiano della Chiana it was revealed that this town (about 30 kms from Arezzo itself) was actually much closer to our destination. We took some guidance from a local who was familiar with our host, and in no time at all we arrived at La Spiga d’Oro, our home for the next five nights.