0378 Volterra to Viareggio

9th Oct 2015

An interesting morning, but boring afternoon’s drive !

We awoke to a hazy but pleasant morning, and I felt somewhat better.  By the time we had showered, breakfasted, and packed up, I was exhausted again !  This stomach bug was taking a bigger toll than I either expected or am used to !!  But we got everything done, and then set off to look at Volterra on foot – It was only 900 metres into the centre of town, we had been told……….  But first we decided to explore Le Balze – The big area of erosion that had swallowed buildings.  Not only was it nearby – We were in fact camped right on it, with the remains of the Etruscan Walls not 30 metres from where we had slept overnight !

The short walk behind the camp site showed plenty of Etruscan remains, and also the large eroded area where, presumably, heavy rains have simply washed away the soft rock and silt that makes up this area.  There is a monastery, the Badia Camaldolese, perched right out on the edge of the area that is obviously going to be the next building to go.  And looking down into the hole below us we could see a couple of bits of old building sticking up out of the soil – Must be part of those old churches that fell in !!  We had a quick look along these Etruscan walls, and then headed the 900 metres into town.

900 metres ?   Well, maybe they measure differently in this part of Italy, but it was probably double that, and with it being mostly uphill, and steeply uphill, into the old walled city, and with me feeling a little seedy, it seemed to take forever !  But we eventually came to the Porta San Francesca, and the entrance to the old city, and it really was delightful. As with so many other places round here, lots of narrow alleyways and enchanting little shops as you wander up the steep cobbled lanes into the main Piazza del Priori.  We earmarked some

bread shops and a very interesting wine shop to check out on our return to the car later, and eventually found the Piazza, which was full of several old buildings like a Palazzo and a Cathedral – But we couldn’t really see a Cathedral.  We wandered around and took a few pics – A Few tourists were starting to arrive in buses so we kept moving.  I noticed a small building in the corner that was very conspicuous because it had the alternate layers of black and white stone similar to the amazing Siena Cathedral, so we went to investigate.  Entering, we found it was the Cathedral, and inside was this enormous building which just was not implied from its outside façade !  Very interesting, especially since the door entered right beside the altar, instead of the more normal entry down at the opposite end. 

Originally dating from 1120, this Cathedral was the usual mix of enormity and amazing architecture, combined this time with the visual impact of the alternating black and white layers of stone in the walls.  To be honest, inside much of this coloured stonework appeared to be painted on in relief, for effect, but nevertheless it was a fine building, especially when one remembers the small façade in the main Piazza which we had almost missed completely.  In fact, it turned out that there was another bigger entry down at the other end, and that was how we excited, into the smaller Piazza San Giovanni. 

Also in this smaller Piazza was the Battistero de San Giovanni, which to be honest I didn’t quite understand !  Circular, with a statue in the middle, and a light show projected up onto the circular domed ceiling.  There were also some interesting views over the surrounding town and country side from these edge of this Piazza.

We then wandered on through the old town until we exited through the Porta Florentina, and directly outside the walls we found the remains of a Roman Theatre – With the tiered seating and remains of columns and archways that would once have held hundreds of people.  Together with some Roman Baths outside the old theatre, we were able to look down onto it from a road along the old wall directly above it all, so had an excellent view of it all as we made our way back towards town.

Once back in town, we started to wander back down the hill, looking first for the wine shop we had spied on the way in.  This little shop is an outlet for a local winery, and had a customer inside when we were there earlier

who had brought in a big (10 litre ?) cardboard cask.  The girl had removed the internal bladder, refilled it and reinserted it into the cardboard case, and within 5 minutes the customer was on his way with a refilled bladder of local vino !  Much better than refilling glass bottles ?  The Australians may have invented the wine bladder and Chateau Cardboard, but do we refill them ?    Anyway, we decided to try some of the local red wine, and were able to buy a 5 litre cask for a wopping 10 Euros.  We will advise what it is like once we have tried it !  But space is so limited in the car, and if I carry normal wine bottles I am limited to about 4.  I can carry two 3 litre casks, which is about 8 bottles, and so doubles my storage capacity !  This 5 litre cask is the equivalent of about 6 or 7 bottles, and still leaves enough room for a few cans of beer, so it looks promising !

We made it back to the camp site, which had not fallen into Le Balze while we were away, and after a quick sandwich we headed off in a northerly directly.  We are heading eventually to Lake Como, so will just see how far we can get up the road today.  We continued to stick to the B roads as much as possible, but this afternoon was a really uninteresting drive.  We were basically following the coastline up towards La Spezia, but it is mostly industrial, and pretty boring.  So we kept just motoring through it all.  Finally, as we neared Viareggio, we had had enough, and searched for a camp site – Finding 5 or 6 listed down near the ocean.  But once we arrived in Viareggio, a not very exciting town, we found all the camp sites were closed for the season – All locked up tighter than a drum !  Hmm – What to do ?   Janet suggested just going down towards the beach to see what was there, so we drove the last few hundred yards down there – And found about 15 campers all parked in a parking spot beside the beach !  Obviously all in the same position as us – Unable to find an open campsite!  So we joined them on the beachfront and had a very pleasant free night in Viareggio !!

Photos are here :-  https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0378VolterraToViareggio?authkey=Gv1sRgCKDO-Oa25NaidA