Terror in Volterra 8th dicembre 2011

Terror in Volterra 8th dicembre 2011

Today is one of those very rare events - a national holiday in Italy. It is the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception, and certainly we stumbled across a church that was having some sort of thing!
Today I decided to go for a ride. A long ride with a work colleague. We cycled from Siena to San Gimignano to Volterra and back to Siena - a total of 71.1 miles. A tough route with lots of climbs, getting up to well over 500 metres in Volterra.

http://app.strava.com/rides/2621625

The weather stayed nice for us. Actually it was about 14C with a hard wind. I am terrified should I ever move back to the UK as I took this ride with full winter gloves and winter overshoes, several tops, and a full vizor buff. Weak! Mind you, there was a bit of wind, but my lord not as bad as the winds that have been seen in Scotland where it is not only snowing, but there are winds of up to 165 mph - which has resulted in this wind turbine catching fire!

San Gimignano was our first port of call. This is sometimes known as the first city of skyscrapers due to its huge numbers of still existing towers. Typically, each family would build a tower to demonstrate their power and wealth and social influence. In San Gimignano there are 14 of them left, but in the 13th centuray there were over 70. I say in San Gimignano as Siena also used to have lots of them too, but they were cut down by the Moors-influenced Spanish when they came rampaging through in around the 17th Century. Shame, but you can see evidence of this in some of the old photos of Siena.
It's also famous for a special type of white wine called Vernaccia - but unfortunately I have yet to try it! Today I tried too much and felt incredibly full for the rest of the day. In the bar in San Gimignano I had a chocolate panforte, a rice tart, a coffee and an evil hot chocolate that nearly was the end of me!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernaccia_di_San_Gimignano

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gimignano

Our final, and furthest destination was Volterra. This has been described as being atop the hilliest hill. The views from the town are stunning. The town is typically famous for a number of items: it was one of the big Etruscan cities, so there is plenty of Etruscan gubbins around, especially marble and alabaster - typically the horse sculpture. Also it has a well preserved Roman ampitheatre.

However, Riccardo gave me some great info as to why the town is famous in Italy. It had one of the biggest mental hospitals in Italy, until it was closed down in the early 1980s - for that reason, the Italians still think of it as being a town full of crazies. Just like the folks from Luton - mad as hatters and all that. The other thing is that it holds a huge jail - it is one of the strongest and most fortified jails in Italy and holds a deal of the Mafioso due it's high level of security. It was built in 1342 and is almost impenetrable. Maybe in the near future it will hold Michele Zagaria, a Naples clan boss - of the Casalesi clan - he was found in a secret bunker in his hometown near Naples yesterday. Classic cosa nostra - he has been on the run for 16 years!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16065556

However, Volterra has been made famous recently due to it's association with the Twilight movies.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/6616301/Twilight-in-Volterra-The-inspiration-for-vampire-movie-New-Moon.html

The most recent film - New Moon - has some part of it set in Volterra, largely in the Piazza del Priori. However, the shocking aspect, and certainly extremely upsetting for the Volterrans, was that the film was not actually filmed in Volterra, but in Montepulciano, apparently due to there being a fountain in the square. In a bar in Volterra we discussed this with the barrista and she talked about the influence that Pisa has over the area (it is in the province of Pisa, whereas Montepulciano is in Siena province) and how this possibly negatively affected the decisions taken by the film crew. Shame. According to me Volterra needs the business, it is bustly but it is really not the same as other towns in the area. For example, San Gimignano is ALWAYS busy, always super rammed. Maybe this is due to it's proximity to Siena, and it is certainly very accessible from the autostrada between Florence and Siena. Anyway, it's a shame as I think it's a lovely place.
It also has a huge Etruscan gate. Well, the original side stones were laid by the Etruscans in about the 4th century BC - pretty amazing that they are still there fortifying the city to this day! Have a look at the picture I took today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volterra

Other exciting news from the ride - there was a big "O" near Volterra - there always is the big "O" - it is by a locally-based sculptor. This is right at the top of the hill climbing into Volterra and the views from it are amazing.

Near there we saw an eagle. I think it was an eagle, it certainly was extremely close, pretty damn huge, and stunning to watch. And the final thing was the part below. Graffittied onto one of the power huts was the following phrase "Ceilbato - la perversione piu' disumana!" - "Being celibate is the most unhuman perversion". Classic!

Over n out.

Oil and acorns 1st Dicembre 2011

Today, 1st Dicembre, is a bank holiday in Italy. Actually, it might just be in Siena, whatever, I am very glad to have had a day off. Last week we were in USA with Dawn's parents for Thanksgiving. To clear all the work I needed to before leaving I ended up staying up until 05:15 am the night before leaving, and had to get up at 06:00 am to get the plane. This meant that I spent the whole week recovering and eating and sleeping - wonderful. Losing a night's sleep and some work pressures since we have been back means that I really needed a rest again and today has been quite wonderful to restore a little balance.

Bank holidays are rare in Italy, certainly rarer than the UK - this is compounded by the fact that if they fall on a weekend they are not rolled over, but fall into the abyss, somewhere between Rome and Milan there is hidden a hell of a lot of bank holidays that I am owed. Frickers. Stronzi!
I took a ride again today, but was pretty slow. Either a result of being cream knackered (thank you Mark and Lard - lordy how I miss those guys!) or as a result of being back in the gym this week. After over 3 months of low grade illness, the week of sleeping and illness has made me feel better and I have been to the gym every (a mighty 3!) times this week, even if only a little bit. Plus my regular Tai Chi on Monday evenings (well, regular, since I have been going about 4 times). The weather was pretty foggy, but it is always foggy in Siena. Nah, it's not always foggy in Siena, but it can be very foggy in Siena. At the minute, when I drive in in the morning it is beautifully, if dangerously foggy - see some pictures attached. The fog can be absolutely stunning some mornings when the sun is out, and also strange on our road, which is hilly, as we see many patches of fog that you drive through, sometimes only a metre or two in balls. Freaky! Pazzo!

Anyway, the ride was nice, if a touch cold. I was well and truly wrapped up complete with shoe covers and new winter gloves, vizor buff. I tried out my new mini camera, but the picture was of very poor direction, so will not upload this time. It seemed to take about an hour of video, great, but I need to attach it firmer to my bike to get a decent picture. Of course, the inactivity of the past 3 months has made me a behemoth, so I need to get rid of a gut before I can cycle quickly again. I am trying to cut down on the booze and carbs after the past 3 months, wish me luck!
Whilst we were in the USA, Dawn picked up a bike. A decent, slightly used, full carbon with Ultegra kit. Pretty nice - a Kestrel RT-1000 from 2011. Very nice. And the best thing was that we got it back to Italy seemingly without any damage. Thankfully I am a top level business class member on the airline that we flew so we got a reasonable treatment. Bikes in Italy are really freaking expensive, absolute crazy prices like you cannot believe. It's always the way though, in fact, in the USA I ended up buying some Italian herbs and oils, made in Italy, as they are cheaper in the USA than in Italy, rather like the shoes and other Italian-made clothes that I ended up buying in the UK.


At the minute there are acorns everywhere. Absolutely everywhere - it is quite dangerous when you ride as you have to constantly avoid them, it has been a bit critical the last month or so, between the mud on the roads from tractors that are moving olives around, leaves on the ground that have fallen from the trees and the acorns, honestly, proper dangerous and I've had a couple of near misses. Not only that but I've been riding a few times when the acorns have been raining down from the trees and they have hurt me as they are pounding me on the face! It reminds me of one of the letters written in on the Friday Night Comedy show from the BBC - the news quiz with Sandi Toksvig. One of the amusing letters spotted in the paper was from a guy who was moaning about noise from acorns falling on his roof when wind blew overnight keeping him awake. The amusing thing was the phrase which was something like "when it blows hard, it keeps me up all night with the banging" - or something like that. I sympathise with him, and maybe the hunters that are running around at the minute shooting the wild boar (cinghiale) should let them stay around a bit to eat all the acorns! Of course, I could not be without my podcasts - between Collings and Herrin (sadly now demised), Fighting Talk, Friday Night Comedy, The Bugle etc, it allows me to stay in touch with the real world, and saves me too much from the struggles of Planet Italia. It has now been 2 years, in fact, tomorrow is the 2nd anniversary of my first day of work, and the fun is almost gone.

There are some good things left though! I mentioned the oil collection recently and now the oils are coming out. The olio nuovo - new oil - is absolutely fantastic. I really didn't get it when I first moved here, but now I am starting to really get it. About a year ago, we went to a Michelin-starred restaurant in the countryside around this time and as part of the starter we received a small glass - similar to a sherry glass - of new oil. This seemed really freaky and weird but now I totally get it. Actually, that restaurant was great. We had a good amount of very good wine and the set menu of about 4 or 5 courses and it was only about €70 each, including paying for the people that were leaving. The second course was a single huge ravioli, with an egg in the middle - and each was perfectly cooked - the yolk was perfect. A sparkling course indeed. Actually, it wasn't perfect for me. I am still suffering after a disastrous trip to Basel when I was working with Roche. My entire team went and we were at one of the busy times of year so we were placed in some AIDS hotel. It was terrible. My room was at the end of a corridor and really narrow. In fact, it was so narrow that I could not walk through the door straight on, but had to turn my shoulders sideways to get in! There was also a random drunk off the street walking the corridors trying the doors late at night, TnL had to share a room. It was a really weird room, like some sort of 1970s suite. There were the bizarrest lamps, a balcony, but only one bed. A kitchen and mould on the ceiling. Classic. Anyhow, in the morning there was an AIDS breakfast buffet and I ate a boiled egg that was not cooked properly and gave me super AIDS. SInce that time I have been really funny about eggs, and can only handle eggs that are cooked super hard.

Also, now I get the significance and the reason the Italian families spend so much time growing, land and time collecting and pressing the oil. It is a labour of love, with very little financial gain. I was recently given another figure for production; previously I was told that it was 1 litre of quality oil per 100 kg olives, now I have been told 14 litres of quality oil per 100 kg olives, which sounds a bit more realistic.
On our two campuses in Tuscany we have some olive trees. These were collected and a few litres of olive oil was made. At lunch this week we had DIY bruschetta - some thin toasted bread, cloves of garlic to be dragged over bread with a fork, salt, and some of our own oil. It was awesome. Equally spicy and the taste was amazing.

Cari colleghi,
desideriamo informarvi che martedì prossimo, 29 novembre, presso le mense di Siena e Rosia sarà possibile degustare delle ottime bruschette all’olio.
Quest’anno infatti, gli olivi presenti presso le nostre aree hanno prodotto un notevole numero di frutti. È sembrata, quindi, una buona idea mettere a disposizione di tutti i colleghi l’olio dei nostri alberi. Nei giorni successivi e fino a esaurimento, potrete trovare l’“olio nuovo” presso le mense di Siena e Rosia, sul tavolino delle spezie vicino alle casse.
Buon appetito a tutti!
Communications
Italy

--------------- Dear Colleagues,
Please be informed that on Tuesday November 29th at Siena and Rosia canteens you could taste some delicious bruschette with oil obtained from olive trees of our sites. Next days the “olio nuovo” will be available to everyone at the canteens of Siena and Rosia, close to the cashes.
Enjoy your lunch!
Communications

And on that oily note I shall greasily sign off. Ciao!