Belforte

I've never showed you the tiny town in which we stayed.  The village of Belforte belongs to the municipality of Radicondoli, in the province of Siena, region Toscana.  It is small.  It has a ristorante, post office and a small shop.  There is a church.

There is, however more to it than that.  Belforte has a long history.  It is the ancestral home of the powerful Belforti family of Volterra. The castle is first mentioned during the 12 C and in a document of 1208 it is cited in the will of Ildebrando Aldobrandesco where he bequeaths it to his son Ildebrandino together with other territory and castles. In 1221, Belforte numbered 260 heads of the family and, together with Radicondoli, swore fealty to the Republic of Sienna. Despite this, Sienna and the Aldobrandeschi continued to contend for possession of Belforte, but in 1301 it became definitively the property of Sienna. From then on, Belforte shared the destiny of Radicondoli and in 1555 it was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of the Medici . In 1676, the auditor Gherardini notes that Belforte had a main street paved partly in brick and partly in stone, running from one town gate to the other. Among the public buildings were the Palace of Justice, a reservoir, a fountain including a public washhouse and an animal trough, a kiln, the schoolmaster's house, a pilgrims' hospice, the parish church and the Church of Santa Croce.

So this is Belforte as we saw it:

The Main Street: Via Santa Croce 

Ristorante La Mura

A 'side street' leading from the Main Street to Villa Belforte

The southern end of Via Santa Croce

Villa Belforte

Just to show that The Nighthawk really was there

Via Santa Croce looking northwards by day

It's hard to tell which walls belong to which house much of the time.

I Forgot the Spa

I forgot in the last post to mention that, at the Villa, there was also a hot spa with a wonderful view and lots of resting places for the drinking type of bubbly as well as the underwater kind.

Villa Belforte

The Holiday in Italy is fast falling into my mental history archives.  There are still more posts to come but I haven't yet shown you the beautiful villa in which we stayed.  The village of Belforte belongs to the municipality of Radicondoli, in the province of Siena and the region of Toscana.  It has a population of about 226 and, so far as I can gather, the church has a Mass every day.

The Villa Belforte has recently been completely renovated.    The villa is on three floors: the ground level at the back and front being completely different (the villa is built on a hillside).  The front entrance is on the middle floor and the large patio area on the lower floor.   The website shows as much as I can but here are a few of my photos:

The entrance hall with the library/television room doors

The magnificent (and totally impregnable) front door

The stairs to the bedrooms on the top floor - presumably handrails would have been aesthetically displeasing

The lounge area on the lower floor  

Kitchen and dining area on the lower floor

The patio and garden area

The seating area built out of the hillside with it's macnificent views

'My' bedroom (with ensuite of course) 

The view from my bathroom window (which may eventually merit its own post).

The Last Views

from my bedroom window at 0800 this morning:

Today we are going to Pisa (Diane hasn't seen the Leaning Tower) and then I'm making a detour north of Lucca to see friends from Callander (Scotland) who have a house there and on to La Spezia where we will, hopefully, stay so that Mo can see the Cinque Terre tomorrow before we drive round the coast to see Gaz in Antibes.

I'm not sure when I'll be back in Blogland but, hopefully, soon.

Thursday Dawns

Until last night the Italian wine industry had had to rely on Diane and I as the only members of our party helping it along.  All six of us were managing to consume about a bottle an evening between us although it had to be said that most of that ended up in just two glasses.  Then last evening everything changed.  The girls had been to a wine festival in Greve on Sunday and brought back some rather better than average Chianti Classico.  Last night quite a lot of that disappeared.  The irony is that my consumption rarely increases much these days and neither did Diane's.   So this morning we are fine and dandy.  One or two of the others are slightly less perky!  What an evening though!  YouTube has a lot of advantages and when you have six people from two different generations brought up and living in six different countries the choice of music, the guessing, the reminiscing, the remembering, the singing and the dancing went on into the wee sma oors.

We had been expecting rain and a very poor day today but it's dawned much cooler than of late but at 0800 it wasn't looking too bad:

Let's see what the day brings.

The View: Tuesday

Up early this morning:

An Apology and More Mornings

This morning I was up at 0630 with the intention of trying to catch up with the blogs of my friends here in Blogland.  Fifty minutes later I have taken 40 photos, caught up with CJ/Sciptor Senex (and a fascinating post on poetry), made two cups of hot water with lemon (and consumed one), sorted some emails which I'd read on my phone and needed copying to my Apple Mail folder on the laptop (same problem as yours CJ), read other emails, watched a parade of ants and generally managed to consume 50 minutes of my life.  That 50 minutes has not passed as quickly, though, as the last week.  By the end of today we will have been here at The Villa for a whole week.  It seems like no more than a few days.  Never has a more appropriate epithet been used than fugit for tempus.

So why an apology?  Well really it's an apology and an explanation.  I have been dipping in and out of my friends' blogs and leaving the occasional comment.  I have dipped in and out sometimes and not left comments where I usually would do so.  Unlike CJ my Blogworld is still quite small so, although I may not manage all your blogs until I get home, I will eventually catch up. 

Are we not quite arrogant creatures?  It just occurred to me that I am assuming you might even care that I do read your posts.  Perhaps that's because it matters to me that my blog friends visit me.  Ho hum.  Back to my ramblings and hot water and lemon.

The first three paragraphs were written 24 hours ago.  I started looking for an interesting photo or three to add to the post.  But since then a sort of communal life has taken over and by the time dinner was finished and so on I was flakers.  There is nothing like a holiday for tiring one so much.

Today is the San Marino Grand Prix.  Hamilton and Button are in the first and second places on the grid for the start.  I really do not want to miss that.  I think the others want to go on a wine tour.  That doesn't matter except that I'm a driver and if 5 want to go the other car only holds 4.   Ah well the day will unfurl.  As a driver I wouldn't be wine tasting anyway.

I know that you will soon be getting fed up of the morning views from my bedroom but it is so beautiful I need to keep a record:

Here's Friday's

Saturday's

And this morning's

A Snake and a Lost Wallet

I'm not sure that I can say that today has been quite what I had hoped for.   I decided that as dinner monitor I would go and get lots of shopping from the nearest supermarket in Poggibonsi 40 k away so that we didn't have to worry about shopping until next week.  On the way back to The Villa I decided to remove the grime from the car and let the world know that it's black again. The petrol station was entirely credit card run with no human presence.  This turned out to be a Good Thing because I had to use my credit card before I could fill the tank.  I had no credit card.  Argh.  I had paid cash for the groceries.  Was my wallet at the store or at The Villa?  Drove home.  Drove back to the store.  Wallet there.  Grazie.  Normale. 

160k later and it was 1730 and wine time.  Then out to the pizzeria for dinner.  Good meal.  Happy service.

The highlight of the day for me was arriving home for the first time to hear a commotion because there was a snake on the patio.  Camera at the ready I approached it.  I got too near and this 30cm or so bundle of fun took a severe dislike to my attentions and became distinctly hostile.  Needless to say he held the upper hand and I kept my distance.   Since then we have been trying to identify it.  Wiki has a list of Italian snakes but it doesn't seem remotely like one on the list.  Its head is very distinctive.  Someone must know what it is.  Any ideas?

Thankful Thursday Already

I'm Dinner Monitor.  It occurred to me that I'm not sure how much that will mean to many people.  For those who went to an English Grammar School or a Public School it will probably bring back memories but if it doesn't mean anything here is a brief explanation (I looked for one on Google but couldn't find one).  Each aspect of school life had a 'monitor' who was responsible for looking after it in some way.  So, for example, on the way here to cope with the peage on the French autoroutes and anything else which required money (and following John and Sue's example - thanks) Diane was appointed Coin Monitor.

Apropos nothing to do with this post Diane has just picked up a white carton and poured some of the contents into her tea.  It was pineapple juice - not milk.  I feel better knowing I'm not the only person in the world who does things like that.

So after we got home last night after a day in Sienna and after Diane and I had cooked dinner I was flakers.  I'm not sure what today's programme is but the weather looks set for sun for the next week.  That would be good.  I'm hoping today will be quiet enough for me to get a few posts written and read.

In the meantime here's last evening's picture of The View after a singularly spectacular storm which occurred here at The Villa before we arrived back from Siena (you'll doubtless hear more in my Siena post).

and this morning's view with not a cloud to be seen.  This was at about 0800.  An hour later and the photo would have been almost impossible shooting into the sun and an enveloping heat haze.

In fact the whole matter of photography here in Tuscany is causing me some thought.  It is well known that the light in Tuscany is difficult to capture and can certainly be different to anywhere else I have ever been.  It is proving to be thus for me.  For example the rainbow picture above is an evening picture and the light really was near that magical colour to my eye but not to the plain photograph from the camera so I tone-mapped it.  This morning's was into the sun and therefore very dark to the camera and  increasing the exposure simply caused burn-out.  So again it is tone-mapped to reflect as best I can what I saw.

Turning the camera so that I'm photographing away from the sun this was the picture wthout any tone-mapping.

and a house in the valley below The Villa

and a harvester I just couldn't resist

After all that who couldn't be thankful for a life that allows me to see such beauty.  I am very thankful.

Wednesday Morning

Up at crack of dawn for an early start for the market in Siena.  One of our number is not so good this morning so the youngsters have skidadled leaving us to follow on.  It's given us a bit of quiet downtime on what is turning out to be a wonderful morning: the first real sun since we arrived in Switzerland five days ago.  The View early this morning looked very hopeful.

Tuscan Mornings at Belforte

So far the weather here in Tuscany has not lived up to its reputation for sun and warmth.  Does that detract from it?  Not one jot for me although I will utter the caveat that if it were to be like this for another two weeks my photography would be severely compromised.  Sightseeing in the medieval Tuscan hill towns is definitely an occupation for sunny days.  It does mean too that we are not using the fabulous terraces this villa has.

The views from my bedroom window are wonderful though and so far each morning has been completely different:

Monday 3 September

Today Tuesday 4 September.  When I took the photos this morning the light was quite dull and the photos lacked any depth or contrast so I tried an exposure fusion (three photos fused) and a tone mapping (the saturation and other aspects being altered).  Here they are.  I have to say that the tone mapped version (second) doesn't appeal to me as a photographic record but does have a certain interest as a picture and you can see more detail in, for example, the tree bark.

Arrival in Belforte

We had set ourselves a very easy day on Saturday with a drive from the last stop of only about 90k.  The roads were not the best and we decided early on to ignore the satnav and follow our noses to Poggibonsi where I knew there was a supermarket to get in provisions.  When we arrived at the centre the rain lashed down but Mo and I had to brave it for a trip to a bar to use a loo - it would seem that Italy has changed to the extent that the toilets I've visited so far have all be usable and even good: when I was last here they bad were beyond description.  What appears not to have changed is that public toilets are few and far between.  

We arrived at the small township/large village of Radicondoli 6 k from our destination and found ourselves a place to eat.  Highly recommended by a local gentleman we met who was from Australia but who lives in Italy for 6 months and Sidney for 6 months.  The barman (and owner I think) spoke some English and was, by all accounts, very hospitable.  We were received by a monosyllabic 'the dining room's closed'  (it was after 2pm and there were people eating so I suppose they closed the kitchen at 2pm) with no hint of apology or alternative.  It that was hospitable then I misunderstood the word.  Anyway we did manage to get some pizza which we discovered lurking in the bar behind which he was standing.  The bonus was that three pizzas and three coffees (served by an even more surly non-speaking girl) cost 7€.  I have paid 5€ for a coffee in some places.

By 4pm we were parked in even more torrential rain outside the villain Belforte with no sign of anyone to let us in. Thank heaven for cellphones.  I texted the owner in Siena who rang the caretaker in Radicondoli and then rang me.  What a charming man and wife the caretakers were.  He spoke French as a second language so that was useful as neither Mo, Diane nor I have particularly good Italian. 

We emptied the car and set about settling in and waiting for the rest of the team to arrive from Australia and Canada via a day or two in Rome.  No sign.  7.30 we left a note and went to the local pizzeria.  Wonderful pasta and pizzas to die for with super friendly service.  We'd been told that it was adequate and rustic so perhaps our international tastes are not as sophisticated as we thought.

Lots more photos of the village, villa and everywhere else will follow but in the meantime I'll leave you with the view from my bedroom last night:

and the view from the Pizzeria: