It’s starting to feel “normal” driving on the wrong side of the car, and the wrong side of the road.
Until you are happily driving along and see a car coming towards you and you have a momentary panic, because you realise that you are on the wrong side of the car, and on the wrong side of the road.
MBW made her first blunder today when she walked to the driver’s door to get in, thinking she was going to the passenger side. I’ve possibly done the same thing once, although in reverse … but MBW didn’t see me do it, so it doesn’t count.
Every so often we will be driving along through the pretty countryside, and I have this crashing realisation that we are in Italy. It’s pretty amazing to be here – not something that I would ever have expected I’d have had the opportunity to do.
And I get to do it with MBW, which makes it extra special ❤️
If only MBW was fluent in Italian, then it would have been perfect.
Today was just another beautiful day in Tuscany. The day started out clear and cool, but turned overcast with very high level clouds. The afternoon warmed up nicely and we got down to short sleeves.
We went for another drive today – North and West. To Volterra and Certaldo, specifically.
Both are beautiful medieval, hilltop villages. Forgive me, but all medieval hilltop villages are starting to look the same.
We started the day with some video calls – Mitchell is back for a week break from working in the mines, and we had a nice chat with another two of our FLP (Teddy and Lili).
We had a quick chat with Joey too, while we were stopped at the side of the road heading towards Volterra.
We’ve caught up on all the gossip now too. If there is something gossip-worthy going on in your life, we may have been talking about you.
Especially if your ears were burning.
We had a late start. We didn’t leave home until about 9.30am due to washing hair, washing clothes, and video calls.
The drive to Volterra was a pretty one and took us about an hour. Volterra is the Mt Glorious of Tuscany – there were dozens of motorbikes there, with leather-clad bikers enjoying the village and sipping espressos.
Volterra was very touristy – lots and lots of people, lots of shops, paid parking and paid toilets.
We parked in the parking station just outside the village, because the only other option was an open-air parking station about 2km away, and at the bottom of the hill.
And that didn’t seem like a good option for either of us, especially when the alternative was only €2.00/hour.
Without wanting to drift into topics about toilets, the fact was that we both needed to take a tinkle, and we couldn’t even find a paid toilet that was open.
I don’t know how the Italians survive in this country without reliable public toilet facilities. Maybe that’s why the grass at the sides of the road is so green …?
So instead of paying €1.00 each to use public toilets, we bought two pieces of pizza at €3.00 each and used the Pizzeria’s toilet for free.
You can see why everyone drives a small car here. Coming out of the carpark, the ramp up (we were 4 levels underground) was such a tight turn that poor Claude was on full lock, and I was doing the maths in my head trying to figure out if I was better scraping the side of the car, or hitting someone head-on who was coming down the ramp.
Fortunately neither of those catastrophes occurred, and Claude lives to see another day.
We then headed over to Certaldo which was about 40 minutes away. Again another pretty little hilltop village, but less tourists and free toilets.
Certaldo has some history with a dude named Boccaccio who wrote the Decameron in the 14th century. That’s all I know about it, and I only know that much because that’s what MBW told me.
As I said before, all medieval hilltops are starting to look the same, so we bought gelato as penance for using their toilets for free … although if eating gelato is a form of punishment, then I’m dedicating my life to being bad.
And that’s about it. A nice, quiet day in Tuscany.
We stopped into a giant Coop on the way home and bought groceries, then filled up Claude ready for the onwards journey to Florence tomorrow.
Claude is averaging about 5.8 litres/100km which is pretty darn good. One of those Fiat Bambinos could probably do much better, but we wouldn’t be able to get our suitcases in.
The Landcruiser can carry lots of suitcases, but he can’t come close to matching that fuel economy.
We met Cinzia’s son this morning … it’s Saturday and he has no school. He is 6 years old and was being a typical 6 year old playing with sticks. Nice kid.
Cinzia is a funny old stick. Her English is as bad as our Italian, but she just keeps waving her hands around and continues to speak Italian at us, even though we have no idea what she is saying.
We just keep nodding, and she seems happy with that.
We are off to Florence tomorrow for a few nights, and we start with a pasta-making course and then get some culture.
Personally I think I get enough culture from the yoghurt on my breakfast each morning, but MBW thinks I need more.
BTW I’ve learned a new Italian word – “intero”. It means “entire” and is an important word to see on your carton of milk because it means full cream.
Why they can’t just write “full cream” is beyond me.
That’s about it. Claude has done almost 3,000km and is behaving nicely, although he is covered in dirt and dust thanks to the dirt roads we travel on to get to our AirBNB here in La Gruccia.
It’s supposed to rain the next couple of days in Flirence which is a bit of a bugger, but at least Claude will get a wash.
We are going the scenic route from La Gruccia to Florence tomorrow along the SR222, so hopefully I’ll have some nice photos to share tomorrow night.
And hopefully no speeding tickets.
Ciao
#Europe2025