This week our tour of Tuscany towns continues. I hope you’re impressed with the alliteration in the blog title – Tales of Tuscany Towns two: Montereggioni San Gimignano and Volterra! We were weather dodging during this part of our Italian Tour as, believe it or not, we caught the tail of Storm Ciaran all the way down here in Tuscany.

Florentine Steak – Montereggioni

From Siena we headed to Montereggioni. Where we managed to try the infamous “biscetta alla Fiorentina” in the most stunning setting. We’d drooled at the famous Florentine steak whilst watching Stanley Tucci’s Italy series on Netflix over summer in episode 5. My goodness the one in Monterggioni did not disappoint. The steak was delicious and served in such a theatrical way. We hadn’t intended to order the steak at Ristorante Da Remo. However, the owner of the restaurant had fallen in love with Merlin and it was nearly my birthday and it came highly recommended! Do I need any other reasons? None at all. The 1.2kg T-bone steak cooked over hot coals – seared on the outside and perfectly pink on the inside was delicious. It was paired perfectly with a local wine and the whole meal is one of our all time favourites.

Montereggioni

The steak was not the only amazing thing about Montereggioni. The town itself has quite an interesting history. History is not usually a Sally thing to write about – being more of a scientist – however I’m trying something different and learning some historical things.

Built in 1213-1219 by the people of Siena, the walled city originally acted as a defence in the war against the Florentines. During the Middle Ages both the Florentines and the Bishop of Volterra (more about Volterra later in this blog!) attacked the town. The walls of the town are almost circular about 570 meters long and follow the natural landscape of the hill . We walked around the walls. You can’t walk the whole way round and in fact you walk on metal walkways next to the wall however as the way is as old as it is I can understand them wanting to preserve it!

Dante described the turrets (towers) in Montereggioni when talking about his infernal abyss and they do inspire some wordiness!

San Gimignano – the town of fine towers

We left Montereggioni stuffed and headed to a wonderful Sosta in San Lucia just outside San Gimignano. The Aire and the town was really busy! If we’re honest Beatrix was a little big for this particular Aire however in keeping with our lucky streak we found the perfect parking position so that we didn’t block anyone in and no one could block our exit! Perfect!

It seems that most European schools are on their half term and so the Aire kept filling up. It’s also worth noting that this town is on the UNESCO heritage site, which is one of the reasons it’s so popular.

The reviews of the Sosta on search for sites mentions an easy bus into the town which we could’ve done and yet Toby and I needed the steps. We took the short walk in. It was my actual birthday and the sun was shining!

The town epitomises the walled Tuscan villages we’d seen so far. The narrow streets with tall, Tuscan coloured buildings. With the colours imagine dusty oranges, yellows, peach, teamed with colourful windows blinds of greens and blues. The grey stones to walk on and the blue sky alongside the grey green of the olive trees and green of the vineyards. The visual impact is hard to forget and it makes me wish I could paint!

As we walked through the streets of the town we were surprised by the cars driving through the streets as we really thought they should be pedestrianised. I certainly wouldn’t be confident driving in those narrow streets!

We heard music and headed to the main square where there was a market and a band – and still lots of tourists! We enjoyed a small glass of wine and the medieval architecture.

Suddenly the sky turned more grey and the wind picked up. With the warnings of storm Ciaran we decided to head back to Beatrix. The wind certainly did pick up and we had a slightly disturbed nights sleep. We realised the strength of the winds overnight when we woke to find the exit barrier to the Aire had snapped. It was time to move on!

Volterra – Etruscan history or cinema vampires

We were confident that for now the high winds that were happening in western France and the UK were not near to us. We were heading to Volterra – another walled Tuscan town on the top of a hill! What could possibly go wrong.

As avid readers of our blog you’ll know we’re now quite adept at driving up and down mountain roads. The road from San Gimignano to Volterra did not have big mountains. We covered the majority of the journey with ease. The last section heading into Volterra to the Sosta was the steepest and narrowest bit, the place we least wanted to meet a lorry. Just as we were about to go full pelt into ascend – we met a huge tanker coming in the opposite direction.

It brought back memories of Tre Cime.

Luckily two things happened the tanker reversed and waved us on. We didn’t have to stop and could continue, although slowly, up the hill. We thanked the driver and managed to get to the Sosta with no further worries and yet again realised just how awesome Beatrix is.

The Sosta in Volterra is quaint. It sits at the bottom of the city that is built on a high plateau, enclosed by volcanic hills between the sea and Siena. Because of it’s height D.H. Lawrence wrote that “it gets all the wind and sees all the world a sort of inland island” which I think perfectly describes it.

We took a quick walk into Volterra after getting ourselves a pitch. Just when we were furthest from Beatrix the heavens opened. It was pretty torrential rain and was the start of the storm we had been hearing about. We all got absolutely drenched – Toby and I were both wearing jeans and realised afterwards how foolish that was.

Storm Ciaran in Volterra

Storm Ciaran hit when we were in Volterra – and although we were high on a hill we were in a really protected area under the wall of the city and decided that it was a great place to be with incredibly high winds all around us. When Toby checked out the conditions on the other other side of the town, he lost his cap to the wind.

We also realised there was electricity that we could pay for. We paid the 1 Euro expecting our electricity to last just 24hours – in fact it lasted us for the duration of our stay 3 days so that was the best euro we’ve ever spent on electricity.

Whilst the weather closed in we had a few moments to walk around the town without wind or rain. Volterra is famous for a few things – our friend knew it as an ancient Etruscan town, we took a look from the outside at the Roman theatre ruins and younger readers may know of the Volturi from Stephanie Myers’s Twilight novels and films. We saw a few of the vampire sights as well. I learnt that some of the alabaster shops now stopped doing carvings due to the amount of dust that they created in the town.

The Sosta was surprisingly busy and was full every night we were there. On the last night some drivers were double parked meaning others could not get out. November is it seems still a busy touring month in Italy. With the storm abating, it was time to start heading towards the UK.

Favourite Tuscan Town

So now you’ve read Tales of Tuscany Towns two: Montereggioni San Gimignano and Volterra as well as part one. Which has been your favourite Tuscan town? We’d love to hear your thoughts. As for Toby and I we struggled when asking each other this question. I think for me it would be Montepulciano and for Toby probably Siena.

As always thanks for reading. Please like the post and share it with anyone you think might be interested.

Till next time, ciao for now Sally, Toby and Merlin