Day 22 Siena
Johnny is standing right in front of the telly in our room
in Siena, picking random Italian words from the adverts that are playing, and
repeating them. I’ve asked him to stop because it’s irritating but he claims
its helping him learn the language. See what I have to put up with!
We left Lerici after breakfast and put our fate into the
hands of Madam Navigator. Johnny tries
to plump up my confidence by telling me how well I navigate but all I do is
hold the I-pad and give infrequent and quite often confusing instructions.
Despite this we left Lerici and headed past Pisa towards Voltera. The landscape
was at first workaday Tuscan rather than the dreamscape that we had read so much
about. But when we got well out into the countryside and started the approach
to Voltera, the dream unfurled itself before us in the rolling hills of
Tuscany. Like visual punctuation marks, the upright conifers studded the vast
fields and clustered around the noble houses and farm buildings that stood
grandly on the hilltops. The landscape was a patchwork of olive groves, vines,
vast open fields and copses of yellowing vegetation caught in the lower creases
of the hills. This was the Tuscany I’d been dreaming of.
When we reached Voltera, we approached the city walls past a
vast archeological site of the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre and a great
complex of associated buildings. Surprisingly, this was not even mentioned in
the tourist guide as a place of note as there were other sites that were even
more noteworthy. We entered the city
through monstrous defensive gates and proceeded up the cobbled streets into the
town. When I say “picture perfect”, I mean it and a film company thought so too
as there was an enormous encampment of movie trucks and actors clustering
around the cathedral making a movie. I had noticed a couple of blokes walking
through the streets in full-on medieval costume and chased after them for a
photo. When they turned the corner the full enterprise became apparent. The set
and location person had cleverly draped hessian over all the modern signs and
with a minimum of fuss the street looked hundreds of years older. Huge lights
on industrial lifts flooded the set with light and it looked like organized chaos.
Voltera had an astonishing deli. There was a vast array of
specialist cheeses, pastas, rices, salamis and wines. Some of the cheeses were encrusted
with all sorts of exotic material including grass. Everything was locally made
and the owner was happy to provide tastes of everything. We bought the best
pannini in the universe there. We chose a “black” bread and then she hacked off
great chunks of Tuscan salami. Prosciutto and Pecorino cheese to fill them. I don’t
know how she makes a profit as I’m sure I had at least a quarter of a kilo of
salami in mine. We took our picnic to the piazza overlooking the vast valley
that fell away from Voltera and ate lunch looking out over paradise.
Before we left Voltera we walked aound the base of the fort,
which curiously now houses the local working prison. We then swept back up into
the laneways that led us back to the street where we started. Every place we
have visited has some sort of artistic specialism and here in Voltera its
alabaster carving. Alabaster is something like translucent marble, and is the
perfect material to be fashioned into lights. The alabaster shops really
tempted me but I did not want to collect any more “things” for home. The throng
of people that filled the street when we arrived, had dispersed and there was an
eerie quiet in the streets. We popped into a café for coffee (and wifi), before making our way back to the car and
setting off for Siena.
It was late afternoon by the time we got to Siena but the
sky was already darkening. Johnny picked a very swish hotel this time and we both
happy as I got luxury and he got a free street parking. This place was
luxurious with an indoor pool, elegant furniture and a wonderful lounge and
reading room for common use. There was just enough light left in the day for us
to take an orienting walk around the town. We walked past the huge fort
opposite our hotel and headed towards one of the vast cathedrals nearby. We
peered over a wall to see the ground falling away suddenly and rising on the
other side of the valley a great tumble of houses leading up to an even larger cathedral.
The city started to light up like a Christmas tree as light fell and if its
possible, this made it look even more beautiful. The streets were full of
people and it really felt lovely. We headed back to the hotel in darkness for a
rest before going down the road to a nearby bar for dinner.
Dinner was at a nearby restaurant recommended by the reception guy. It was a short walk from the hotel and terrific. It wasn't busy when we arrived at the Osteria Del Buon Goveno, but there was live music playing and by the time our food arrived, people had started to drift in and cluster around the guy on the keyboard. It was Karaoke and these guys were really into it. There was a lot of Italian ballad singing, solos and duets. Johnny had the rabbit and I had the steak with garlic spinach. We were having such a good time that we stayed for cake and coffee. Johnny was very harsh I thought when he strongly counselled against me getting up. Great night but would have been even better if Johnny had got up and given us a rendition of The German Sausage.
Dinner was at a nearby restaurant recommended by the reception guy. It was a short walk from the hotel and terrific. It wasn't busy when we arrived at the Osteria Del Buon Goveno, but there was live music playing and by the time our food arrived, people had started to drift in and cluster around the guy on the keyboard. It was Karaoke and these guys were really into it. There was a lot of Italian ballad singing, solos and duets. Johnny had the rabbit and I had the steak with garlic spinach. We were having such a good time that we stayed for cake and coffee. Johnny was very harsh I thought when he strongly counselled against me getting up. Great night but would have been even better if Johnny had got up and given us a rendition of The German Sausage.
