Day 16: Massa Marittima
It rains all night in Massa Marittima....it is still raining when we get up, but by the time we finish breakfast and are ready to go out, the sun is out, but it is very windy and cold. We decide it is a good day to get in the car and visit some of the nearby towns; it is certainly not the day to take the ferry to Elba.
We drive directly to Follonica, a large and modern beach resort. There is nothing particularly picturesque about the town, but it doesn't appear to be one of those tacky beach towns. The sandy beach stretched for miles on both sides of town and they have preserved long stands of pine forest which guard the coast line. There are seemingly hundreds of hotels in town and along the beach.
We drive to the middle of town and park near the water to have a look around.....but the wind is so stiff that we have a hard time walking anywhere near the water. The water is quite rough and waves are pounding the waterfront docks We quickly get back in the car and take the road along the beach to the north. At one spot, we are surprised to see a "fleet" of windsurfers out in the water, going at very fast clips in the rough water....I guess the windy day is good for some things.
We poke along the coast towards the next town, Piombino....stopping once in a while to get a first hand look at the rough seas. For our trouble, we get a lot of sand blown in our face.
Piombino is a steel town...the approach to town is dominated by a large electric power plant and miles of steel plants--with smokestacks and gigantic piles of coal. It is also the main ferry port for going to the island of Elba, about five miles out in the Mediterranean. We stop at the main ferry terminal to get information about the schedules and the costs; even today, the ferries are running.
We stop in the "centro storico", which is a pedestrian-only area inside the old town walls. Most of Piombino was bombed heavily during World War II, but the small historical center seems to have survived. The other side of the "centro storico" opens onto the sea and there are nice places to sit and watch the water and look at Elba. A castle dominates the town--it has just been restored and opened as a archeological museum--and there is a small fishing port in a protected harbor at the foot of the town. I wouldn't say it will ever be a big tourist attraction, but it is a reasonably pleasant town. We notice a poster advertising a memorial service the next day, for those who were killed in German concentration camps during World War II.
It is still too windy to walk around too much, so we get back in the car and start driving out of town toward to the north--looking for a town that is supposedly the center of strawberry cultivation in the area. We have some difficulty leaving the town--we drive around the modern suburbs and beach areas to the north, but we do get some nice views of the water while we are trying to exit Piombino.
Enroute to the strawberries, we head for the town of Populonia and the Gulf of Baratti, a smaller harbor to the north of Piombino. This little harbor seems to be protected from the winds on the other side of the headland. When we get out of the car and walk along the water, we are amazed that the wind is just a breeze and the sun is warm. It is a very pretty little harbor with many boats, a grocery store, a bar and a restaurant. We decide to take advantage of the change in the weather and get a table outside on the terrace, overlooking the water.
The restaurant turns out to be very good--we have tasty bruschette, spaghetti with clams (which is the best of the trip) and penne with asparagus and gamberoni, which is also very good. It is even more amazing to think that we could be enjoying a pleasant lunch in an outdoor restaurant with the weather that we had seen just an hour before. We also have a nice exchange with the young Italian couple from Volterra, who are sitting at the next table. They give us some restaurants recommendations in the area and we talk about traveling in Italy--they go out of their way to speak slowly and clearly so that we can understand their Italian without difficulty.
After lunch, we continue driving up the coast. We drive through the big resort town of San Vincenzo--hotels stretching out for miles along the beach; one of Italy's best-known seafood restaurants is there--Gambero Rosso. We then turn inland and begin to climb to Castagneto Carducci, the strawberry town. It is a very pretty town, with views all around, but no strawberries are for sale anywhere. We continue on to Suvereto along one of the most winding roads that I have ever been on in Italy. We pass through some nice hill towns and there are great views from the road as it climbs up and down the hills; this is yet another scenic area.
We finally find some strawberries at a stand just outside Massa Marittima and they are very fresh and pretty tasty. We drive down to the center of town for dinner again--to a Slow Food recommended restaurant called Osteria da Tronca. It is another cave-like setting, with arches and exposed bricks. We are glad that we had called for reservations, because a sign in the door announces that they are full--"completo". I have a mixed plate of salami and prosciutto and a pasta with a rich tomato sauce and Diana has a plate of cheese served with whole pears and some tortelli. I also order a "sformato" of cardoons (a vegetable that is a cross between celery and an artichoke)--it is a like a pudding that is baked in the oven. It is tasty, but the portion is gigantic and I can barely make a dent in it. The food is good, but we are very tired so it is not memorable; we are ready to get the check quickly after finishing and go back to the hotel early. We are glad that the car is close by and the we don't have to walk up the hill back to the hotel.
NOTE: We think that the portions that we are being served--especially the pasta course--are much larger than on previous trips. So much for the rationalization that it's OK to eat multiple courses, since the portions are small. Oh well.
Diana and Jim
We drive directly to Follonica, a large and modern beach resort. There is nothing particularly picturesque about the town, but it doesn't appear to be one of those tacky beach towns. The sandy beach stretched for miles on both sides of town and they have preserved long stands of pine forest which guard the coast line. There are seemingly hundreds of hotels in town and along the beach.
We drive to the middle of town and park near the water to have a look around.....but the wind is so stiff that we have a hard time walking anywhere near the water. The water is quite rough and waves are pounding the waterfront docks We quickly get back in the car and take the road along the beach to the north. At one spot, we are surprised to see a "fleet" of windsurfers out in the water, going at very fast clips in the rough water....I guess the windy day is good for some things.
We poke along the coast towards the next town, Piombino....stopping once in a while to get a first hand look at the rough seas. For our trouble, we get a lot of sand blown in our face.
Piombino is a steel town...the approach to town is dominated by a large electric power plant and miles of steel plants--with smokestacks and gigantic piles of coal. It is also the main ferry port for going to the island of Elba, about five miles out in the Mediterranean. We stop at the main ferry terminal to get information about the schedules and the costs; even today, the ferries are running.
We stop in the "centro storico", which is a pedestrian-only area inside the old town walls. Most of Piombino was bombed heavily during World War II, but the small historical center seems to have survived. The other side of the "centro storico" opens onto the sea and there are nice places to sit and watch the water and look at Elba. A castle dominates the town--it has just been restored and opened as a archeological museum--and there is a small fishing port in a protected harbor at the foot of the town. I wouldn't say it will ever be a big tourist attraction, but it is a reasonably pleasant town. We notice a poster advertising a memorial service the next day, for those who were killed in German concentration camps during World War II.
It is still too windy to walk around too much, so we get back in the car and start driving out of town toward to the north--looking for a town that is supposedly the center of strawberry cultivation in the area. We have some difficulty leaving the town--we drive around the modern suburbs and beach areas to the north, but we do get some nice views of the water while we are trying to exit Piombino.
Enroute to the strawberries, we head for the town of Populonia and the Gulf of Baratti, a smaller harbor to the north of Piombino. This little harbor seems to be protected from the winds on the other side of the headland. When we get out of the car and walk along the water, we are amazed that the wind is just a breeze and the sun is warm. It is a very pretty little harbor with many boats, a grocery store, a bar and a restaurant. We decide to take advantage of the change in the weather and get a table outside on the terrace, overlooking the water.
The restaurant turns out to be very good--we have tasty bruschette, spaghetti with clams (which is the best of the trip) and penne with asparagus and gamberoni, which is also very good. It is even more amazing to think that we could be enjoying a pleasant lunch in an outdoor restaurant with the weather that we had seen just an hour before. We also have a nice exchange with the young Italian couple from Volterra, who are sitting at the next table. They give us some restaurants recommendations in the area and we talk about traveling in Italy--they go out of their way to speak slowly and clearly so that we can understand their Italian without difficulty.
After lunch, we continue driving up the coast. We drive through the big resort town of San Vincenzo--hotels stretching out for miles along the beach; one of Italy's best-known seafood restaurants is there--Gambero Rosso. We then turn inland and begin to climb to Castagneto Carducci, the strawberry town. It is a very pretty town, with views all around, but no strawberries are for sale anywhere. We continue on to Suvereto along one of the most winding roads that I have ever been on in Italy. We pass through some nice hill towns and there are great views from the road as it climbs up and down the hills; this is yet another scenic area.
We finally find some strawberries at a stand just outside Massa Marittima and they are very fresh and pretty tasty. We drive down to the center of town for dinner again--to a Slow Food recommended restaurant called Osteria da Tronca. It is another cave-like setting, with arches and exposed bricks. We are glad that we had called for reservations, because a sign in the door announces that they are full--"completo". I have a mixed plate of salami and prosciutto and a pasta with a rich tomato sauce and Diana has a plate of cheese served with whole pears and some tortelli. I also order a "sformato" of cardoons (a vegetable that is a cross between celery and an artichoke)--it is a like a pudding that is baked in the oven. It is tasty, but the portion is gigantic and I can barely make a dent in it. The food is good, but we are very tired so it is not memorable; we are ready to get the check quickly after finishing and go back to the hotel early. We are glad that the car is close by and the we don't have to walk up the hill back to the hotel.
NOTE: We think that the portions that we are being served--especially the pasta course--are much larger than on previous trips. So much for the rationalization that it's OK to eat multiple courses, since the portions are small. Oh well.
Diana and Jim
