J&J's European Adventure

24 May

Volterra, Italy

We had a good day today. We walked to town under a cloudless sky, and checked with the ticket agent at the train station for the procedure for going to Volterra. This was done mostly via pantomime and drawing trains and buses on a piece of paper. The plan: train to Saline (pronounced sa-leen-ah), bus to Volterra, bus back to Saline, bus to Cecina. We had a couple of hours before the train, so we walked the commercial district. We've been trying to buy a small, cheap compass for over three weeks, and an English/Italian phrase book for several days. We are still trying. Sporting goods stores for wilderness-type activities are about non-existent here, and book stores are also rare.

The train to Saline was one diesel-powered car, and apparently operated more like a truck than a normal train. We could feel the engineer shifting through the gears as we gained speed.

Volterra is a Middle Ages walled town on top of a small mountain. The old fort is now a state prison. We were told that nobody has escaped from it. Volterra is also recently famous as one of the settings in the Twilight vampire books and movies. Like Forks, WA, Volterra is cashing in on the fad while it lasts, but in a fairly low-keyed manner. It is a really interesting place, with incredible views of the surrounding countryside, and we enjoyed our afternoon there. There were quite a few fellow tourists milling about, but not so many as to be annoying. We did try to stay out in the sunlight as much as possible and decided against the tour of the Palace, just to be on the safe side (avoiding vampires).

Mostly due to our neediness, we became acquainted with the young lady in the tourist info office. It turned out that she lives about one block from where we are staying. She was very good about helping us figure out the buses back to our hotel. When the last bus of the day arrived, the driver left for a bit. Janene, our new friend, and a lot of others boarded. Joe waited by the door to pay for the tickets. When the driver arrived and Joe tried to hand him money, the conversation went something like this:

Driver: Speaks rapid Italian with much gesturing.
Joe: Tries to give him money and says, "Saline," one of the twelve words he knows in Italian.
Driver: More talking and gesturing.
Joe: Looks like deer in headlights.
Friend: "He says he is out of tickets so he can't be responsible to take the money."
Joe: Starting to envision spending the night in Volterra, "I can't pay?"
Friend: "No."
Joe: "Can I still ride?"
Friend: "Yes."
Joe: "Bellissima!!" (another of the twelve words)

And that's how we got a free ride to Saline. We used our Eurail pass to ride the bus from Saline to Cecina. We bought tickets for the Cecina city bus back to our hotel, but missed it by seconds and decided to just walk rather than wait thirty minutes for the next one, so we already have tickets to get us to the train station tomorrow. We walked 13.5 miles today, much of it on steep streets. You know the street is steep when your heels never touch while walking up it. We'll either sleep soundly tonight, or hardly at all.

Daily miles: 13.53

Expenses:
27.62€ (food, bus tickets to Volterra)
120€ (Hotel Sileoni in Cecina, 2 nights, nice place)