Hangin' With Richard Gere

Note: This post was jointly written by the two of us, with a special contribution by Howard in italics.

We spent Tuesday afternoon in Volterra, wandering about without much concern or urgency. We found the Roman ruins, which according to Rick Steves, had (have?) great acoustics. Howard said he would have sung as he did in Pompeii, but our view was from above, not at performance level. This auditorium was built around 10 B.C., but in modern times was used for years as the garbage dump for the city. In the 1950s it was rediscovered. Can you imagine digging through the rubbish and finding this!

We spent the rest of the afternoon weaving our way in and out of the alabaster shops (and another alabaster studio/workshop), primarily looking for gifts. We purchased gifts for Melissa and Chris, Scott, and my parents, so we were quite pleased with ourselves.

Back on the street, a group of tourists from Boston were lost and since we knew Volterra so well (ha!), we set about confusing them even more. One of the women in the group looked at Howard and almost immediately blurted out, “You look like Richard Gere.” Whereupon Howard responded, “I love you,” and walked over to the woman and gave her a big hug! I think she made his day. Her husband then said, “Don’t feel too good, some people say I look like Don Johnson,” which by the way, he didn’t, but she just as quickly said to us, within his earshot: “That’s what he says, but actually they said he looks like a cross between Don Rickles and Lyndon Johnson.” Probably more accurate.

We continued our meandering and stopped into a shop where a man works in bronze making reproductions of art from the Etruscan era. His father was also a craftsman here and his family has occupied this same work area for over 60 years. No one can accuse him of changing jobs to climb the corporate ladder. His work is sold throughout Volterra in many of the shops, including a display at the Etruscan museum.

We stopped for our afternoon cappuccino, then went into a little market where we purchased a small carton of milk, coffee for homemade espresso, and a leetle bit of prosciutto (for Howard). We were ready to spend the evening in our Tuscan apartment. We had barely touched home base, however, when Howard invited me to check out an abandoned house? barn? right across the yard. The whole building was encased in wire fencing, which was covered with green mesh and all of the doors and windows of the building had long ago been bricked up (the equivalent of us boarding up a window, only a little bit more permanent). Here is what we discovered:

(Look at me getting all excited over an abandoned building – more photos of this than of Roman ruins or of Pompeii!)

Hey out there, anyone interested in an investment. Tuscany, Italy, hilltop million dollar views, surrounded by farm land, close to minor highway (not too much noise, but easy access), close to beautiful Volterra, geographically situated between Siena, Florence, San Gimignano; 800 sq. meters of building (1 sq. meter about 9 sq. ft.); 2,000 sq meters of land; all for $600,000 Euros; that’s about $780,000 USD; minor detail, must tear down to ground as structure is unstable and rebuild with like type of material and design, local planning approval, land use, etc; total cost probably a cool 2 to 2.5 million dollars US. You never know, if you don’t ask!! It sure is fun to dream.

After our excursion, we cut up an apple, sliced some cheese, broke open a baguette, and poured ourselves some sparkling water – we enjoyed our little feast on our personal patio as the sun set.




Erratica:

Hey, to my faithful blog commenting women, Bridget, Gretchin, Peshe, and Destree – would you like a piece of ribbed glass from the abandoned building mentioned and featured above? Well, of course you would! I’ll sneak back in through the locked gate (with angle iron across the entry and sharp metal wire sticking out at various angles to snag and catch and tear cloth and skin – but no problem).


Joni, in addition to suggesting I take two pair of shoes, you also suggested I take more than one book. So glad I did! I’ve already read Diary by Chuck Palahniuk and The Ha Ha by Dave King. I’m now reading The Time Traveler’s Wife, the only book I originally planned to bring! Thanks for being my Italy travel advisor.