San Gimignano

We spent a few hours Thursday morning in San Gimignano, the one locale we had visited back in 2015. They were having their weekly market, which sounded more exciting than it was in reality. Mostly cheap clothing stalls instead of artisanal products. We didn't have any "must-sees" in town, so we just wandered as much as the kids would allow (which is not much). Maeve had her heart set on pizza for lunch (again?!), so we had to pass by lovely little trattorias and settle on a touristy joint, which was ok in the end. A local playground entertained the kids for a while and we set off to find another just as the skies opened up. We got properly soaked on our walk back to the cars! The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and hiding from the rain before the pasta dinner. 

San Gimignano is known for its towers, built by wealthy families to display their power. I'm not one for d*@k contests, but appreciate the architectural beauty. 

We found some good gelato and milkshakes

Visiting Volterra

I was really excited to visit Volterra, a hilltop town we didn't make it to on our first visit to Tuscany. My friend Tobey raved about it and said we had to see the Etruscan museum, so that was our first stop. I had no idea about the Etruscans, the people who inhabited ancient Italy before the Romans. The museum was filled primarily with intricate alabaster carvings, which covered tombs and urns. It is always mindblowing to see art that has survived millennia and to imagine people carving these images thousands of years ago. 

The walled entrance to the city. 


The rooftops of Volterra

The kids showed a decent amount of interest in the museum. Maybe they were just fascinated with the tombs. 

I love an ancient mosaic floor! 

The detail! 

After the museum, we walked through the city to a restaurant I'd found for lunch. The winds had picked up, but it was still a beautiful day. 

Jude had wild boar ragu every chance he could get. Maeve stuck to her tried and true plain pasta (that's my girl!). 

The remains of the Roman Theater

I would have loved more time to explore Volterra and its small streets and boutique shops, but we had to get back to the Agriturismo for a pizza-making class! Two espressos and 3 gelatos for 8 euros. The good life! 

Pete is our resident pizza maker and has made a few attempts to hone his skills at home. The kids loved the pasta-making class and wanted to do another. Pete joined them to learn some new techniques to try at home. And then we all feasted on pizza (again)!

It was a stormy afternoon, but gave way to a double rainbow! As if the scenery needed any more enhancement! 

Tuscan Truffle Hunt!

We had an awesome experience hunting for truffles with our guide and trusty truffle-hunting dog, Nura! We walked a short distance into the woods while learning how truffles grow, how dogs are trained, and the best way to extract them. There are many varieties of truffles and a black variety grows around this particular area of Tuscany. They train certain breeds of dogs to hunt for them by smearing some truffle oil in balls that they start hiding for them at a very young age. 

Once Nura was off leash, she quickly went to work. She darted around the forest until she caught the scent and then she quickly started furiously digging. Truffles grow around the roots of trees so we watched for her to head to a particular tree and start enthusiastically wagging her tail. The goal was to keep a close eye on where she went and run to meet her at the tree. You have to be ready to pounce and tackle the dog away once the first edge of the truffle is visible, otherwise the dogs will destroy them with their digging. I have some videos below. It was so thrilling to see the tip of a truffle emerge (typically buried at least 8 inches below ground). Once Nura was restrained, the kids took turns gently extracting the truffles from the earth with the digging tools. In the course of 30 minutes, we had dug up 3 good-sized truffles. The truffles need to be harvested at the right moment- if they spend too long in wet earth, they will rot. If they come up too soon, they have to ripen in a specific way before they will be ready for consumption. 

Sadly, we had to turn our finds into the kitchen, but I did enjoy a truffle pasta later that week- perhaps made with one we had unearthed! 

In the afternoon, we drove to the nearby village of Peccioli to have a look around. We were quite surprised by this sculpture near the modern amphitheater just outside of town. 

Lovely wisteria by one of the town playgrounds

We were back in time for the second communal meal of the week: Pizza night! The weather had taken a turn so we were seated indoors for the evening. Maeve made quick friends with a little boy from Seattle and we enjoyed meeting and hanging out with his family.