Monday. October 31 - Happy Halloween!! We have found a few instances of people decorating for Halloween so we have had a touch of the 'spooky life'!

Today we had a beautiful, southwestern, fall drive of about 2 hours to the walled town of Volterra. It dates back to  Estruscan times! One of the original gates still stands.

Outside side

Inside side - we enjoyed interacting with the construction guys who were taking down scaffolding on a house to the right. They literally drilled anchors into the stone to erect & then filled in holes upon removal. 

 This building was the model for the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence:

This area is known for its alabaster craft. We walked through this coop - beautiful work:

This is a workshop that wasn't open - looked like maybe hadn't been opened for a long time!

We also visited several churches:

Outside of this one

Inside of same!

We opted not to pay the €12 each to enter the Roman amphitheatre so we peeked over the gate. Then walking by on our way to  the car, we discovered we could see it all!

Sunny days are great for walking around but play havoc with taking photos! Too bright, shadows, etc.

Gate we left through

You can see how thick the walls are

The pigeons have their own little hidey-holes!

A look at the outside wall

We proceeded home via a different route than we took going and made it home with no turn arounds! No wait, that's not true. At one roundabout, the sign to Firenze had gotten turned which we realized very quickly as we reached a church parking lot!! And, we did go around a couple of roundabouts twice just to verify we were on the right track! The countryside going and coming changed quite dramatically - from vineyards to olive trees, to forests, mountain, to plowed land, valleys, then back to olive trees and vineyards!! Here was one spectacularly colored vineyard:

Now, the whole day was fabulous but the highlight for me was this morning on our way to Volterra. Suddenly I yell 'Stop' and since we were behind a tour bus creeping around switchback curves

(though this particular spot was a straight shot) and there was a wide enough area to safely pull over, Sarah did so!! I saw this sign:

It is the Camino in Italy!!! And to make it even more special, two groups of Italian pilgrims were just reaching this point! They spoke English so Sarah & I chatted a bit. Sarah took a picture with her camera but I was too excited to think of doing so! And we don't have a cable to transfer off her memory card so just landmark photos:

The crosswalk for pilgrims to get safely across busy road - even has street lights!

This is where they came from -

This is where I met them with our car down by the crossing - safely parked so Sarah was able to join us on the Way!

So a wonderful experience on a spectacular fall day!!

Sunday, October 30, was another gorgeous day in our area of Tuscany!

Unfortunately for an area about 3 1/2 hours to the south of us, there was another earthquake of 6.6 magnitude this morning. Bryan, our host, said he saw their ceiling fan jiggle. We did not notice anything. We have the people of that area in our prayers.

Daylight savings time went off last night! Thank goodness for cellphones which automatically switch! Sarah does have her watch so we were able to verify that they had switched over! We (well, it was really Sarah) even figured out how to change the car clock. We are going to recommend that a manual be included with the car for future rentals!
Our relaxed schedule for the day was to go to Panzano for their market day & to check out the famous butcher shop so 9:15ish found us on the road for the 45 minute drive made difficult due to the masses of bicyclists and motorcycles out enjoying the gorgeous day. The road is so narrow & curvy, it is frightening at how fast the motorcycles zoom around with seemingly no regard to what might be coming towards us! Sarah deals with all very efficiently and patiently.
The vineyards are turning yellow and more vistas are visible due to leaves falling off the trees.

Our destination!

We were fortunate to find a parking spot in a free lot close to the market. It was a small market of a few clothing booths, a meat, a cheese, a linens, a cosmetic, and a vegetable/fruit one around the fountain. Up the street, were 4-5 stands selling local products.

Wall in parking lot

Sculpture in restaurant yard by parking lot

Fountain in the square

Linen booth

Fruits & vegetables

On building across from butcher 

And here is the butcher!

Also outside was this:

We bought olive oil from Francesco at his family's booth:

This gentlemen was weaving articles for sale!

 Here are some photos of the town & views taken while walking towards the church:

These 4 ladies were having a great time laughing & chatting away! We saw many instances of that throughout the morning. Market day is still a social event! I never made it to the church as too far to walk. Sarah did - she also did her good deed for the day by carrying a woman's shopping for her! Sarah's photos are on her camera so no church ones to share - what a shame, right??!!

After purchasing a rotisserie chicken plus a variety of fried items (zucchini, mozzarella, croquettes, polenta cakes, and French fries) we headed home to have lunch on our patio. The mozzarella bites didn't make it to the house!!! They were delicious & filling! We had lunch much later...

Here are some shots on way home:

Then here is our grape arbor getting a bit thinned out:

And the lovely colors & shadows with a napping Sarah:

The chilly air arrived faster than we expected due to time change so inside to journal and blog! Plus Sarah researched our outing for tomorrow. An early start so good night!