Parma last day, Volterra Day 1, 2 and 3 (sorry for so much)

Sunday April 29, 2007 8:30 p.m.
Well, we had a very exciting day today. Before I get to the day at hand, I have to talk about the night before. We went back to the same restaurant (Corrieri Trattoria) that we had been to the previous day. It had good food, and I wanted to give it one last shot, and it was a good atmosphere. So we found the eatery, and asked for two seats, but they were closing, and it wouldn’t be until 7:30 that we would be able to sit down. So we had about 45 minutes to kill. So nearby was a kind of block mall, so we went and found some windows to look through. And in our escapades, we found a Army Consignment shop. We both thought it would be a great idea to go and have a look. Just so we could tell John (Lisa’s brother, and avid Armed Services Person) that we went into one. So we went downstairs and they of course had guns, and other Armed Services crap. So we were about ready to go, and Lisa and I saw that they had MRE’s. I think we actually saw them in the window and went in to inquire. Well, we asked how much they were, and they said 12€. Ouch. That is about 16 bucks, for 1 MRE. But we decided to get one, because it would be fun, and we could get a lot of stuff out of one. So we ended up buying two of them. One is basically turkey and gravy, and the other was beef ravioli. We left there and went shopping some more at the mall. Nothing really caught our eye, but who cares. We also went back to the place we ate the first day in Parma, and actually went past the place to see all the other shops on that street. Boy was there a lot of people out that night. I am so surprised at the amount of people that are actually out on any given night. But we went past all the places without stopping and made our way back to the trattoria. We got there right when they were raising the gates of the restaurant. We asked for a table for two, and they asked if we had reservations, and we said no, but they were able to fit us in. That place was really packed for reservations for the night, because most of the tables had reserved signs on them. So we sat down and started figuring out what we were going to order. Well from the first time around, I know what I didn’t want. But I figured that Lisa and I could get a few things and try to stay under what we had spent prior. So we ended up getting the fried pasta and two green salads, the first course tasting menu, and one off the second menu. We also got a half liter of Lambrusco and water. The waiter brought out the wine in a little carafe. When I went to pour the wine out, I ended up spilling (it was more like I didn’t spill, but the container was horseshit, because you had to pour so slow) about half cup of wine. I felt like a schmuck. There were about 15 spots of wine on our white table cloth. That was just the start of the evening. So we covered that up with our napkins, and the first part of the food came out. Now in Italy, it has been hard finding salad dressings. When you get a salad, they bring out olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And to tell you the truth, it tasted pretty good just that way. I grabbed the cracked pepper and the parmesan cheese and we made a pretty good salad. And the fried pasta (Lisa swears that it was fried pasta, but I believe that it is more like fried bread) was good, and smelled like the fair. So we drank wine and ate our food. The first course came, and it was a tasting sampler some of the items on the first course menu. So we ended up getting spinach ravioli, gnocchi with gorgonzola and walnuts, and the last entrée on the plate was basically chix a la king with pasta instead of biscuits. But it was awesome chix ala king. So we mowed that down. And for the second course I ordered stuffed veal. Thinking that I was going to get a pounded out piece of veal with some stuffing in it, I thought it would be a good choice. Boy was I wrong. It was basically two slices of veal (3/8 in thick) and a pureed stuffing in the middle of the slices. It was good, but the day before I paid the same amount of money, got five meats and some polenta with sauces and that night I got a teeny plate with some shitty meat, weird stuffing and gravy. Oh well. Lisa and I both ate it and were mildly happy. I really liked that place, and I know other people would as well, so if I went back to parma, I would eat there again. So we ended up leaving there and headed back to our car. That was a chore, because we kept trying to go down stairs that didn’t lead to the parking ramp. We were on the way home and I discussed with Lisa about filling up the car with diesel (I accidentally put diesel in it(for twit)) and I found a kind of 24 hour gas station. So I pulled in, and the car was facing the wrong way after pulling in, so I was about to turn the car around and these teenagers with mopeds beeped their horns because I was doing something stupid I guess, so I had to wait for them to move to move my car in their spot. When I got the car in the right spot, I went to use the computer terminal. As I went up there, two guys show up in their car, and were waiting to use the only two pumps in the whole area, and I was at one, and the other was an old man. So I went to attempt to use the pump, and there wasn’t an English button, so I tried to wing it, and there wasn’t any response, and these two dudes were looking at me like I was a mental challenged, so I got in the car and got the hell out of there. If there is one thing I hate, is making people wait for me. So I was about irate when I was going home. So I had Lisa punch into the TomTom how to get to another close gas station, and she did. When she found it, she said it was like 850 meters away. So I started following the route the TomTom gave me, and low and behold it was sending me to the same gas station that I had just left five minutes prior. I was super pissed now, because I was going in circles for something I could probably easily get the next morning, so I pulled over, re-examined the route the TomTom gave me, and it was lying to us. Sure enough it said that a gas station would be up in 850 meters, but when you click okay, the damn thing said 2.5 Km. So I swore, went back to the hotel and parked the car. I was pretty hot and bothered for about another hour before I cooled off. I was also pretty hot physically too, so I had to take a cold shower that night. Lisa and dinked around for a while, and then decided to get an episode of the Sopranos in. Then off to bed.

At the crack of dawn (actually more like 7:30-8:00) we got up and got all our stuff together. We then proceeded to get some breakfast. Everything was great like the last couple days. I was pretty happy with that breakfast. I got everything I wanted. Lisa even got us caffé. When we were done, we went upstairs to get our bags and head out. I ended up leaving the senape there, because I didn’t want to deal with it anymore. The ends didn’t justify the means. But everything else we were able to get in one trip. We typed in the directions to the TomTom and off we went. Of course, along the route to get to the autostrada, we found a gas station. A guy came out, asked if I wanted diesel, and he filled it up. I was impressed. It came out to 17€. Fine by me. So the trip to Volterra was a major headache. The first part of the trip was fine, but then we started getting into start/stop traffic. And when I say start/stop, it would be at a standstill, we would drive like half a mile, and then it would stop again. This happened a few times. Finally, when we reached Pisa, I was able to haul ass because nobody was around, and I could actually pass people without having to worry about some dink going 200 km/h behind me. But here comes the kicker to the story. When you get off the autostrada, you have to go through a tollbooth and pay the toll. Well, for some reason, all these tollbooths get backed up for some reason (my reason is because Italians can’t form lines, and motorcycles “budge” in front of everyone (you would have about 1 motorcycle for every 5 cars basically, and they don’t form a line, they go in between the lanes and on the sides of the road to get farther down the road, and nobody says anything). So we sat in line for I would say an hour and a half because there were three types of lines: the autopass (which is like an electronic pass you put in your car and you drive through a scanner/reader thing), credit card (it just said carte with no visa/MasterCard signs) and then Cash/money. And there were billboards for you to queue into. So I was actually driving in the autopass lane, and I figured this out after going around the two lanes of people at a stop. So I had to slow down and basically dive in front of another car in line for the carte (at this time, I figured that the carte lane would be a credit card. So, from left to right, there was three lanes: autopass, carte, and euros. So after about an hour of driving (and having to pee) we got to the point where you could pick a lane at the tollbooths. The Italian system is so dumb that for all the people that queued up in the lane they thought they were supposed to be in, they switched the tollbooths. So for the people in the credit card line had to merge and then go past the people in the euro cash line, and vice versa. So after an hour of start/stop traffic, you have to swerve and weave into a whole new lane. I swear I could break bricks with mind on how stupid this line/queue thing is. So I ended up staying in the euro cash lines because I wasn’t sure if the carte was actually a credit card payment. So at one of our stops, I had Lisa go behind the car and get some cash, because I wasn’t sure what they would take when I got up there. After we got up close enough to read the small print on the signs in front of the carte lanes I figured out they were credit card lanes (I really didn’t want to get in those lanes, find out that I couldn’t/wouldn’t be able to pay, and then have to back up and pick another line. I would have caused a mini traffic jam, so better safe than sorry). Well, when I came up to the line for the tollbooth, these retards were making two lines for one tollbooth, which really threw a wrench in the system, so I ended up letting people into my lane, because they made their own queue for a nonexistent tollbooth. Ugh. How frustrating. Finally we got through the tollbooths and zoomed off to our destination. First we stopped at a gas station to go to the bathroom and stretch our legs. The rest of the journey was a breeze compared to this. We got off the interstate and went on these windy roads to get to Volterra. And the scenery was nice. You could see Volterra from about ten to twelve km away, and it is a city basically on the top of a cliff. There is a series of windy roads that go up to the city, which are really windy. So the TomTom told us we were at our destination, but I couldn’t find the hotel, so I had to quick make a u-turn and then we kind of “parked” to see if we could find it. Well, no wonder I couldn’t find it, because the sign was about as big as a cracker box, and there was a car in the driveway that I needed to get to. So I waited for the car to leave so I could get my car in there. Finally we parked the car, got our check in squared away and got our room. It is a beautiful room with a large bed and a chair in it. Lisa and I hauled up all of our baggage up two flights of steps. Ouch. That was difficult. But not compared to the walk we had to endure to get up to Volterra from there. We got all our stuff out that we needed to get out and then I decided to get some clothes washed. The bidet helped me out with that. I got some hot water in it and some soap and I washed a few shirts, because I only brought about 5 or 6, and most of them were dirty from parma. After that, we took off to the Etruscan gates. Volterra was one of the bigger Etruscan Cities before the Romans took over. The Etruscans were a people that were around before Romans showed up. Around 3rd and 4th Century B.C. I think. We had to hoof it up a 10 degree incline to get to this gate, which is even before you get into the city. So up to the gate, then up to the city. What a long and hard walk, especially when you aren’t used to it. When we got up there, we just ended up walking where we thought the way was to the Etruscan Museum. Volterra, inside the city walls, is a small town. I can walk from end to end in about ten minutes. So we got to the museum and paid 8€ per person, plus a 3 euro audio guide for 1 person. (Lisa and I figured out that an audio guide for 2 people is basically a player with a headset for an extra amount of money, but if you just get the audio guide for one person, you can plug in your own headphones). In the museum, you figured out the Etruscans were big into burial. 90% of the museum are these funeral urns that look like stone boxes with a carved scene on the side and a carved person on top. The other stuff in the museum included pots and jars, coins and jewelry. It was neat to see all the old stuff in the museum. These people were pretty good at carving into stone (especially alabaster, which is the predominant stone in the area). Lisa especially liked seeing the pottery, and I liked seeing the jewelry, because you would think these people couldn’t do such intricate work. The audio guide was worth the 3€, because otherwise only about 1/64 of the museum was in English (I know I shouldn’t bitch about things not being in English because it is of course Italy, but come on). When the tour was over, I went to go to the bathroom while Lisa looked for postcards. Now let me tell you about the toilets in Volterra, at least these. When I opened the door to the bathroom, there was basically a porcelain slab with a hole in it (the flushing hole) and two imprints for feet. This slab was even with the floor. Well, if you wanted to pee, you stand up and pee in the hole. If you gotta take a dump, I would guess you would put your back towards the wall, put your feet on the imprints, and slide your back towards the floor and crap. Mind you that the slab is even with the floor, so you really don’t sit. I was aghast at the sight. I couldn’t believe that people would take a dump like this. How archaic. And how flipping hard would it be to update this system to the toilet system. I should have taken a picture, but I guess it is commonplace in this area, so I will get another chance. Yuck. Well, Lisa bought 3 postcards and we left. Across the street, we walked into the first alabaster shop we saw. We started our journey out of the city, but before we did, I ended up getting a magnum bar. Double chocolate. Yum. Then I decided that maybe we should look into getting something to eat, and I offered to Lisa to pick a place to eat something small, then she vetoed that and told me to find a place. So I turned around and found a great pizza place. It was kind of spendy 4€ for two medium slices of pepperoni pizza. It was tasty to say the least though. So it was worth it. We left this place and went to the main square of Volterra to find out that they were having a craft fair. People brought in their wares and tried selling them. All of it was junk, like meatheads trying to sell belts and purses or some people trying to peddle trinkets. We then crossed another street and found the food fair. There were people trying to sell their wines and olive oil, etc. That was nice to see. Then we took a rest by the baptistery. I looked at the map and found a spot where there are scenic views of Volterra, so we went there, took some pictures, and went back to the hotel. We did some more laundry, and then opened the windows to dry some of my shirts. Boy did it get cold quick. I was freezing in the room, so I demanded that we close the windows. We had a few snacks to finish off supper, and then realized that we had MREs. So we opened one up (the beef ravioli) and ate some of the stuff out of them. The Ravioli was good, and we used the “heater” included in the bag. Everything that we ate was good. And now we are up to date. Time to go to bed, or watch TV. Ljf
Monday, April 30, 2007 PM Whoa, I kind of feel like I shouldn’t be writing in here today. We really didn’t do much. We got up leisurely arrived at breakfast kind of late at 0900 or so and had a wonderful breakfast of breads with two kinds of cheeses and meats. There were 4 I think sweet “cakes” or tortas, Luke tried a few varieties: pear and chocolate, lemon and shortbread (my favorite from Luke’s plate) and can’t remember the other one. We had the blood orange juice again. Had American coffee served to us by a miscommunication, though it was very good and it had been a while since we’ve had that. It was rainy so we ate breakfast inside. It was cool and sprinkling a light mist. We walked to the big big hill to get up to the city center. Oh, I just hate that hill. It wasn’t so bad today though you really have to use your big muscles in your butt or you can wear out your ankles and calves. We didn’t bring the itinerary or even review it before we left so we had to do what we remembered. OH well. We went to the Roman theatre. There is a great public viewpoint from a street otherwise you pay €2 to get a closer look but still behind fences so you can’t wander IN the theatre but only in a straight line between a section of the seating. I guess it was covered and not rediscovered until the 1950s. It was very nice to see (from the street) and there was no one else there to hinder or bother us at admiring it. From there the day gets a little more unstructured. We walk around and consider going into the Tortura Museo – the torture museum. We walk into the anteroom before you pay admission, they had some pictures and some old “interrogation” chairs with spikes all over the sitting surface and straps. We probably could have gone in, but not for €8 each. €6 we would have gone in but not 8. So we turned around. Oh, I thought it was funny that the Casa de Pane (house of pain) was next door to the torture museum. Actually it was House of bread in English translation. We walked from there and decided to go to the Etruscan excavation site. We followed the map and eventually headed downhill which means we passed the “center” and were going down the other side of town. We walked mistakenly into residential areas and had to backtrack a bit. We walked by this huge cemetery. There were plaques on the walls of two levels, there were librarian stairs to get to the ones close to the ceiling. ALL the graves were SO very well decorated, flowers ALL over almost every square inch. The bodies did not have grass over them, it was a stone cemetery and the bodies were buried and covered with a big engraved slab and the next person was lying a few inches away. It was interesting in hind sight. We saw lots of people visiting there. They remember their dead often. So we still haven’t found the Etruscan excavation. According to Luke’s map we should have passed it. When I make suggestions he blows me off. Which I guess he is in charge of the map, the only time I try to help is when we aren’t getting where we want to go. So we turned around when we realized we were way off the map, oh well. The bad part is we had to walk again- uphill. We ended up and looked publicly at the front viewpoint of the Roman theatre. We walked back to town, looked at the city hall and saw but didn’t take a picture of the “yardstick” the official measurement of length for selling things so everyone was on the same page. Went to the tourist info and asked for wine tours etc. They “didn’t have anything organized” but gave us a pretty big booklet on information and routes to drive. So, they were not really very helpful. We then discussed where to go and what to do. We talked about lunch out or cold lunch at the B & B. We stopped at the De Spar store. We were in DeSperate need of some sliced sandwich meat (pre packaged sliced ham for €3.30), Ementaler cheese (kinda like swiss), more mustard, olives (not in oil), I also got a shelf stable tiramisu that was about 8x8 little debbie style. Luke and I trudged home, crossed the busy street, up the stairs to the room. It was Luke’s turn to make lunch. We split 1 of those huge buns from Parma, Luke topped with mustard, cheese and ham. We also had dried cherries and finally finished them off, ate some olives (I wanted a beer with them). Then we watched an episode of Criminal Minds on the computer. We did flip through the TV twice so far. They did have American MTV with shows that were subtitled with Italian. I wasn’t too keen to watch Pimp my Ride or those Dating shows they have so we turned it off. When we flipped last night with the 20 channels they have- Colombo was on 2 of them. I thought that was funny. I guess it is no different than here we have at least 2 Law and Order shows on every afternoon. One thing I thought was interesting with the rain here is people with umbrellas. Boy, at the slightest sprinkle, they put the kids in the stroller and cover them with the stroller rain coat, they put up their umbrellas or put their jackets over their heads to keep the hair dry. It was hardly even sprinkling! I also have seen lots of Norwegians. That is, just seen them only because they have been wearing some piece of clothing with a flag on it. I wonder if there was a soccer match or something. Luke and I woke up late from our nap; I hope we can sleep tonight. We are debating going to Siena I don’t know as of yet. We’ll probably go out to dinner and post this at this “Wine and Web” place. Now that I think of it we REALLY haven’t taken many pictures. Not many at all. I am sorry but nothing has really popped out at me. It’s pretty local here but still have lots of tourists to push through when walking the street. I think most people here are day trippers from other places. I would say the view is the most worthwhile thing here. Ljf tomorrow as one of our day trips.

April 30 2100 Well we did eat out, but at the grocery store. We discovered that we had access to the hotel microwave in the common area where we eat breakfast. We bought food at the grocery store that we could eat from the microwave. We had pasta carbonarra from a package, canned peas, cordon bleu from the deli, and potato and carrot soup in a “hi-C” box. All the food was very good and really hit the spot after we microwaved everything and brought it up to eat in our room. We watched the sunset and the brilliant blue sky and pondered watching the Sopranos.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007 1800 Good evening. We got home from our “day trip.” We did not go to Siena but to see the coast and the Mediterranean Sea. Our B &B hostess Antonella guided us to a place with a great view and had some Etruscan monuments, Populonia. It was about an hour away (not on the autostrada, thankfully). We made it there at like 11 or so. Parked for €1 and went to look at the views. They were amazing even though they were the trademark “hazy” for our trip. The water was so blue and was so far down from our viewpoint. We walked into the “city” which was literally like 3 blocks down. They had this tower (Torre de Populonia) that you could climb….for a fee €2. We walked up and had some more nice views and the ladder to the top was kind of tight. The stairs were nearly the most un even we have experienced here in Italy. Got some pics and walked around. The weather was breezy on top and warm in the sun, mid 70s I’d guess. Luke and I looked into the shops geared toward the tourists. We saw a cantina carving a pig, a whole head on roasted pig. Luke had a sandwich for €3.50 and it came with some like beans in a pod. They gave you a paper cone filled with like 8 eight inch long pods that looked like green beans. You popped them open and ate the 5 beans inside. The first bite was kind of starchy but then we enjoyed them. We then walked down to explore the Etruscan Acropolis. You could kind of see the ruins from the road. Luke had to pee, so we inquired and he used the bathrooms in the process. We thought the entrance was €3 but we misread the handwritten numbers and it was €8. I made the call to go in anyway. The center was close to the sales building and we began our tour there saw foundations of temples and water cisterns, hutches, an old pretty intact road, foundations of baths, mosaic tile floors (had been moved to a covered museum). We walked to see some “hutches” that wandered out in a gravel trail with tall bushes and some trees to either side. Every once in a while you’d see a lizard or a salamander rustle a low lying bush. It scared the shit out of me; of course it didn’t bother Luke wearing long pants and tennis shoes. Then we walked through a little worm “spider” web, that about gave me a heart attack as I absolutely HATE spiders and especially the webs. My brother used to chase me around the house with a spider web on his finger or make me walk into a web on purpose. So I was pretty freaked out and then we heard bugs or bees buzzing like crazy around us and then, what must have been a huge lizard (he was too quick for us to see) rustled a bush really loud and moved it quite a bit. From then on I was absolutely on edge. I was nearly hysterical. I wanted to get out of this isolated bush ASAP. We did and I tried not to see the huge beetle on my path and tried not to walk into any salamander nests. We exited the Acropolis, used the bathroom (of course) and went on our way to see more of the Mediterranean up close. We saw TONS of cars parked along the roadway and families getting out with their beach towels and lounge chairs. We knew we were in the right direction. We saw a motorcycle rally with a band and lots of people playing soccer and generally being rambunctious. We decided to skip the “state fair” exhibition. We went further on, found an access, parked and brought our lunch. We found the beach. The sand was like very coarse sand. They were like COARSE pepper. It was really neat. The sand was so very warm to the touch. The temp couldn’t have been more than upper 70s when the sun was behind a cloud. It was pretty cloudy most of the time we were there, but warm despite being on the ocean. Luke and I laid out our rain coats and sat/laid on them. I read my book, Luke people watched and listened to music. There was an ice cream salesman with a cart that had motorized tank treads on it so it could traverse the coarse sand. He still got stuck several times though. Luke pondered that if he helped the stuck ice cream man if he’d be rewarded with an ice cream delicacy. There were also 7 or 8 African Italian peddlers of purses, towels, and sandals. We had to say No Grazie! Oh well, at least they didn’t kick sand on my “towel.” Luke put his feet in the ocean, he said it was as warm as the Kanawha pool. We stayed and lay in our clothes tanning for 3 hours. My cheeks got a minor burn, forearms a mild-moderate burn. Luke got pink on his shoulders. I guess that is an indication of the cloudiness and that we had no sunscreen on in hopes of getting some color on our lower bodies. I decided we should go when the sun got notably brighter. We took our lunch garbage with us and scooted to the car. It took us an hour to get to Populonia and I took us 2 hours to get back due to traffic back ups. The problem lies with the demonic Autostrada. The traffic stops 8 miles before the entrance to the toll way where people have to stop and queue up to get their ticket. Our exit was before the toll way and we still paid dearly for it. Traffic was also very backed up on the backroads to Volterra due to construction also. Then to deal with Italians who think you are not going fast enough pass 3 cars at a time when they can’t see oncoming traffic. They also like to cross the yellow line when going around curves. Luke and I came to the decision that they cross the line so they do not have to slow down as much or downshift at the curves. Many of the curves are blind and you don’t know if someone is coming until you meet them and have to overcorrect their hogging the road. I am sure that Luke has talked enough about the driving for a whole blog entry, so I will leave complaints and frustrations at that. We very much enjoyed the beach. Tonight we WILL go to the Web and Wine and have a first course or 2 and post and then come back for an early start to Siena and hopefully the traffic on the way back will not be such a frustrating nightmare! Wish us luck and hopefully we’ll pick the “right” wine. ljf