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7:25am: Slept horribly again, don't know why. Finally got up a little before 7 and took a shower. Looks like it's going to be another glorious day here. I love hearing the sounds of the birds and the owls in the morning. We were going to go to Florence today but decided that since we didn't do much driving yesterday and florence would be a very small driving day, we'd split up the longer driving days, so today we're going to Volterra which is almost an hour away. We're both pretty excited about going here because there's a big alabaster craft community and lots of really fun and interesting looking shops!
7:00pm: Back at the farmhouse, ready to cook dinner! We first set off for Volterra, which took about an hour to get to. Arrived without much problem after driving around a bit to find the correct (convenient) parking garage. Had pastry and cappuccino at a nice café. It was only 1.90 euros for both. Crazy cheap. Then we wandered and found a whole ton of alabaster and other awesome shops. I had taken down the name of a couple interesting-looking ones and we found them and I was in big trouble. One was a handmade jewelry shop with gold and silver things in the etruscan style. I bought a gorgeous ring and little stud earrings. They were just barely the 155 euros needed for a tax refund, but he had never filled out the form so I hope it's right. It looks like he signed it in the wrong place so I hope they give me my money! Anyway, then we found some really beautiful alabaster shops, I bought a couple of butterflies and a hand-painted alabaster magnet (purple!). One had an open showroom around the corner and we saw a guy working hard on something. Alabaster is really cool especially when lit from within. We then found this Vitrium shop, which I'd found on the internet beforehand. They make everything by hand in Volterra with glass. So I bought 2 pairs of silver and glass bead earrings that totaled 18 euros.
Then we went into the Etruscan museum which is one of Italy's biggest. It was sure huge - stuff on 3 floors and in more than 20 rooms. It was pretty amazing to see all the stuff they found.
Then we had lunch at a Pizzeria recommended by Rick Steves a bit off the main tourist avenue. We split a small "torta di ceci" - a round 'cake' of sorts made from chickpea flour that was baked in the wood oven. It was pretty good. Then we each got a pizza, which was probably a huge mistake. I got a regular margherita and it was only about 5.20 euros. Interestingly, the place didn't charge a cover charge, they just had a 10% service charge, so it was pretty darn cheap. Then we used the internet café "Wine and Web" or something for a little while - it was interesting, the computers were above the wine bar/café on a little loft.
Volterra is quite nice - not too touristy, but touristy enough to have nice shops and restaurants featuring local craftsmen and really talented people. The problem with Volterra is all the Twilight stuff - books, calendars, tours, celebrations, souvenirs, etc. Sad.
Then we left and set off for Certaldo, which is near our farmhouse. We wanted to check out the old part of town and also the train station parking situation since we'll need it tomorrow for Florence. I think the GPS took us a circuitous route, but a little less than an hour later and we were there and found a free parking lot just a short walk from the station. We bought our train tickets for Florence tomorrow and found the funicular to get up to the old part of town. 1.20 euros for a return trip. There is only one little main street in the town, which is made entirely of red brick and beautifully preserved. There was a gorgeous ceramic workshop/showroom where I had to buy a little squid figurine just because it was so cute.
Wandered around for maybe a half hour and caught the funicular back down. We decided we weren't that hungry tonight so we'd just cook in and for tomorrow we'd get some stuff to make a sandwich type meal. Asked at the tourist office by the station where the Coop market in Certaldo is and it was only a half km away so we just walked. Got some salami, cheese, bread, etc., and some eggs for the chicken that we'd forgotten to get.
Came back to the farmhouse after getting a teeny bit lost getting out of Certaldo and made our way back where we are now cooking, even though we're still not that hungry from the pizza!
8:30pm: dinner was a decent success. I overcooked the chicken and everything tasted bland without any garlic, but otherwise it was a pretty good Italian feast! And so ends another glorious day in Tuscany. We didn't do too much but again it was nice to be semi-relaxed. Also another successful driving day, yay!
Domanni andiamo a Firenze!
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