Volterra

From San Gimigniano, we drove on to Volterra.
This is where they filmed 'New Moon' from the Twilight saga and we came here for that reason...for Chiara.

It was pouring with rain and we drove straight to our big-but-boring hotel on the outskirts of town to warm up before heading out to dinner. We hunted down a restaurant called 'Sant' Elisa', about 3km out of town. On a beautiful site, at the top of a very steep dirt road, it was spooky driving up in the dark and pouring rain to the big old house.
The restaurant was open but we were the only clients. It became apparent that the senora who greeted us was also the chef and the waiter.....she served us our primi piatti first; pappardelle alla cinghale and cinghale alla bosco - a wild boar casserole - and then she brought in our antipasti - the entree - which we thought she had forgotten! Weird.

The next morning we wandered Volterra and tried to find the fountain that Bella ran through when she was looking for Edward....we found the piazza but there was no fountain.....Chiara's comments follow:

'La Porta' through the ancient city wall and the 'Fonti di Docciola' behind

                                     the front door of the clock tower where Bella found Edward .....

 this was meant to be the beautiful secret alleyway that lead to the Voltary's secret hideaway . but instead it turned out to be a horrible graffiti site that smelt like bird poo and urine........

 Eve and Annick on via Matteotti

                                                             The entrace to the Voltari's lair ........

Following the special 'New Moon ' based map, we toured around Volterra searching for the places and piazzas where the movie was taken. We also searched for the fountain that Bella ran through, but it turned out it was just a movie prop....-Chiara

The town was pretty and we stopped for an unexpectedly good lunch at a restaurant called 'Don Beta' on the main drag; 'via Matteotti'. George and I had the Suppa alla Volteranna which was a thick bean/vegetable soup similar to aquacotta and then me: Cervo (venison) alla Volterranna which was a rich casserole cooked for hours with sage, other herbs and lots of red wine. Good'n'hearty. The owner of the restaurant spent some time explaining to us how it was cooked.....
George: Fusilli with Duck, Chiara parpardelle with duck ragu. Other kids, pizza.
All the kids all had creme caramel for desert except for Annick who had a panna cotta con frutti di bosco which was definitely the best choice.
Delicious. All happy.

The food has been really disappointing generally, especially in Rome. Certainly the restaurants have improved as we moved into the country, but nothing to write home about. .......but this is a topic for another post, another time.