Buongiorno,

Our morning surprise arrived as usual. It makes starting the day so pleasant – tho it does not make a difference as we are in Italy, but we will take the breakfast. Our driver picked us up at 9:00 am and we're off to Volterra, an Etruscan village. As our driver says “andiamo” (we go).

As we approached Volterra we were climbing. The city is located on top of a hill (a mountain considering Chianti does not have a lot of elevation). So steep that it was difficult for armies to attack, as they would have had no staging to set up the catapults. We met our personal guide, Iliria, who was from Pisa, and off we went. Not very quickly as there are very steep streets or pathways. All of a sudden the clouds came rolling in and so did the rain. Inside tour for a while but, half hour later it was gone. This made walking a little difficult but no falls. We visited some alabaster one-man workshops and some churches (of course). A Roman theater was uncovered accidentally while digging under a soccer field.

The Germans in 1944 were planning to blow up an entrance to the city to keep the Allies out. The town's people convinced the Germans that they would block it with stones and they did and saved the entrance.  The Americans came in the other gate – crazy.

We stopped for lunch – pasta of course. We have to come back here and spend a few days – Highly recommended!

A quick stop on way back in Certaldo.

At night we had a cooking class. One of the local ladies came in to help us cook dinner. Very little English but, no problem because our Italian vocabulary for food is very good! We made bruschetta, pasta, chicken with herbs, roasted vegetables and tiramisu.Then relaxed and enjoyed the fruits of our labor.

Click on a pictures to see a slideshow

September 9