André does an early morning start to check out the photo opportunities around our little town and comes back with a gorgeous panorama. We settle into our usual breaky and plan the route for the day.
This is as we leave our little home. We plan to take back roads and visit a couple of the smaller towns. The weather is just perfect, cool enough to walk around and with nice puffy clouds holding the rain in.
The scenery we drive through is picture perfect Tuscany we think. Each little town sitting on top of a hill with vineyards and olive groves falling away from the top in soft , flowing mounds. It does take a fair amount of twisting and turning to get around, but we reassure André that he has much more road width then the Amalfi Coast.
We discover that right through this area is where the Via Francigena pilgrimage path traverses and we do see individual “pilgrims” here and there as well as walking groups.
There are a lot of field flowers in bloom and although they are interspersed with clover and weeds they throw colour onto the hills.
The main town today we plan to explore is Volterra. It has ancient ruins of a Roman amphitheater and lots of cute alleys.
It is just about time for lunch and we choose a small restaurant , last table is ours. Tanya and André pick pasta meals and I select the Toscana chick pea soup with thick slices of bread submerged in the soup so that there is hardly any liquid left.
Fortified with that we do some more exploring and gradually make our way home. André has never ending opportunities for a panoramic shot.
After a little rest at home it’s already time for dinner. We descend the steep road into Certaldo New and check out a few dining options before settling on the “Il Pirata” restaurant/pizzeria as it does bring memories back from the Amalfi Coast.
André gets to order a locally brewed, organic Pilgrim beer which is very tasty. We now have developed a good pizza technique with ordering two to split between the three of us, that works really well.
A little ricotta with chocolate base surprise finishes the evening and we walk back to our walled city under the light of a pretty clear sky and some old street lights illuminating the trees. The Palazzo outside our door now in evening lighting.
We are very jealous. We’ve just caught up on everything you’ve been doing over the last week. Simon remarks there are a lot of photos involving food! And why is Andre always taking photographs? Look forward to seeing your photos when you’re back. In the meantime we are going out for fish and chips at Catherine Hill Bay, which Simon reckons is almost as good as Tuscany!
Fantastically written as always and panoramic shot galore!! Just a lovely engaging place to be. Looking forward to your next post x
Hello Gorgeous , thank you 🙂 lots of adventures on this trip