Did I mention the word villa is in the name of our hotel? The term in this case refers to a lovely country home that is now a B&B/hotel. It is quaint, efficient, cute, and situated ideally at the bottom of the hill I mentioned. The view from our window is charming and includes laundry on the line as well as a fountain and small courtyard. Other rooms have small balconies and a view of the picturesque valley. Our towels are not terry cloth, but cotton, like tea towels. No shower in our room, but we do have a tub with a diverter making it easy to rinse after a shampoo. The tub is skinny and slippery so almost dangerous to get in and out of. Don’t let me forget to mention the aqua tile on the bathroom floor. Bright and cheerful and repeated in the floral bed spread.

The day started with breakfast in the hotel…best bread of the trip so far. I had my usual: a ham and cheese sandwich with coffee. Every night as we head to bed we say, less Murphy, that we are going to pass on breakfast, but we manage to run into each other the next day in the breakfast room just ‘grabbing a bite’ presumably in case lunch is late. We opened our curtains to the sight of neighbors airing out their bedding by drapping it out the window. There are no screens, so it is not a problem.

As a group we walked to the central part of the walled town…all up hill… and met our guide, a native of Washington DC who moved here almost 17 years ago, married an Italian, and is now the mother of two and  immersed in Italian history. She gave us a wonderful overview of the town focusing mostly on its proud Etruscan history which dates back to the 4th century BC. At its height it had an unprecidented 40,000 people and an interior and exterior wall. Being farther north than the other main Etruscan cities and situated proudly on top of a hill, it was the last stonghold against the Romans. The tour gave us a wonderful overview and then we were on our own for the afternoon. We visited an Etruscan museum, climbed the 156 steps to the top of a bell tower, visited an alabaster workshop where we watched the owner  make a bowl, walked through a beautiful church and the city park, and enjoyed the perfect weather and amazing views from the walls.

Lunch was a highlight as most food events have been: three of us had chickpea soup and the others had boar pasta. Both were just amazing in spite of the way they sound.

Volterra is not a major tourist destination like other Tuscan hill towns  + we are ahead of the season,  so we are enjoying the quiet of the town as well as the total lack of traffic and not having to wait for our gelato.

At 7:00 we will rally in the town square to walk to a wine tasting hosted by none other than the husband of the tour guide. Between now and then Dan has a conference call, I’m blogging and washing my hair in the tub, and the children are on there own getting into no end of trouble no doubt. We rarely leave them unsupervised. ;~}