Volterra, Siena, Chianciano Terme

As is true for nearly all of the towns/cities we visited, they were built on mountain/hill tops. Few had as dramatic a set of steps as did Volterra. Admittedly, these were from the visitors parking lot and it is possible to drive into town, but they have an effective screening system for visitors.  

The old - what did you expect - town hall, in continuous use since the 10th century. Same room, same furniture and probably same issues. New way of making money though, charge tourists to get into the old city hall chambers.

We happened upon a day in which visitor screening must have been working very well as we were some of the few visitors and the byways and streets were pretty much ours.  

It looks like it and it is, a 2nd century Roman theater, with seating for 10,000. Immediately behind it was a series of Roman baths with pools of various temperatures.  

Now this part of town even predates the Romans and is an Etruscan spring that the Romans preserved and goes back to some early BC date. Patt and I are bundled up. That is us though.

One of our favorite meals, outside San Gimignano, no pasta - pork ribs, roasted potatoes for Charles and me, Linda did opt for some pasta, gnocchi as I recall, and Patt a pizza, but all excellent with a Sangiovese wine, limoncello and a grappa (for me) as after dessert drinks.

One of Siena's large piazzas with one of the famous towers. Siena was a rival of Pisa and Florence and as did all the other cities its power ebbed and flowed but eventually fell under the influence of Florence and Rome.

Should have had photos of the country side before now, but it is beautiful and we enjoyed our rides to the various towns where we visited and stayed.

The roads have been fun to drive. 

 There have been miles of vineyards.

Wheat fields and olive orchards.

There have been many movies filmed in this area of Tuscany, The Gladiators with Russell Crowe, The English Patient with Ralph Fiennes, Under the Tuscan Sun, Diane Lane, etc.

Oh, in Chianciano Terme, there was a 100 kilometer cross country national park to park through small town to small town race. I got a chance to enter and did. That is me in this photo right in the background. You can barely make me out. It was fun to watch a bit of the racers as they came through town according to Charles, Patt and Linda. They were a bit spotty on the cheering if you ask me though.