October 27, 2010: Winter Already? No Thank You.

This morning it was cold. And it stayed cold all day. I whipped out the gloves and double layers, and Mike had on a hat and mittens. We were reminded that the East Coast transition will be difficult, and Mike pondered the idea of sweatpants under his work clothes.

Brilliant ideas like this are the result of waking up really early to catch the 7 AM bus to Volterra. For some reason, what should be a relatively easy day trip is made unnecessarily complicated (by whom, I'm not sure). There are four buses each day between Florence and Volterra (we got the complete printed schedule in Florence before we left). Since it's a two-hour bus ride (each way) that requires a transfer in the small city of Colle Val D'Elsa, we chose to catch the earliest bus. The bus from Florence took us to a random bus stop where the driver said we could transfer. Then we were shepherded onto a small shuttle bus that took us to Colle Val D'Elsa, where we found out the bus we were planning to transfer to doesn't run on on weekdays. We made the best of the hour we had to wait by getting some hot chocolate at a nearby cafe.

We could easily be to blame, being the silly tourists that we are. But we quickly removed blame from ourselves when we tried to do the trip in reverse later in the day and things not only were more confusing, but they were confusing to everyone on the bus (locals included). After we arrived in Colle Val D'Elsa from Volterra, we got on a bus to go the strange transfer location. Then everyone got off the bus (before it left), and got on a smaller bus - us and another 25 high school students. Then all the students got off the bus (again, before it even left), and got on another bus. Finally we were taken to the mystery transfer spot, and everything went smoothly after that.

Besides that, we had a great day in Volterra. Volterra is a cool Tuscan town that was a pretty big deal about 2,000 years ago, when the Etruscans ran the show. To this day there are still Etruscan archways that make up part of the city wall - residents think the Romans got the idea for a keystone arch from the arches in this town. Florence ended up absorbing the town into its empire, but today it manages to elude most of the tourists (maybe because its impossible to get here?).

We walked around the town, visiting the main piazza, a basilica, a few museums, and the duomo - where we're not sure if the columns are leaning by design or due to the ground settling below. The duomo was built in the Pisan style - so we think the lean might be part of the design (I'm talking to you Leaning Tower of Pisa). We also saw a Roman amphiteather, some artisans making alabaster statues, and an Italian maximum security prision (the criminals get to stay in one of the nicest buildings in town!). Before catching the bus we got some great views of the Tuscan landscape - in one direction we could see the sea, in the other we saw snow-capped mountains.

Back in Florence we went to a recommended restaurant for dinner and got some serious servings of some seriously hearty food, perfect for a cold night.

Gelato Gusti per il Giorno (for those who are stupid tough enough to brave the cold):

Mike - Amarena e Stracciatella

To view pictures of our day, click here.