Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter trip - Day 3 - Pitigliano, Sovana and Saturnia

Another day, another day trip from our camping location on the coast. Today we drove into the interior to visit a series of hilltop towns and Etruscan sites. First stop was Pitigliano, sitting atop of tufa rock, and quite a good photo op. After finding a parking space (good thing our rental car was a tiny Citroen C1!), we walked across a small bridge into the historical center. There's not too much of interest in the actual town, except to wander around and take in the alleys and dead ends. There's a small Ghetto quarter (the town used to have a significant Jewish community), though we didn't tour that since there was an admission fee, but we did pick up a stick of sfratto, a large honey, nut and wine bar surrounded by some hard dough.
Our next stop was Sovana, just a few kilometers down the road. This town basically consists of one street, but it's a pretty one. Our first stop was actually a sandwich and wine shop for lunch, where I got a panino with wild boar mortadella, and Kristen one with cheese (a huge serving of cheese... pecorino, of course). We then wandered through this small town, with the highlights being a 9th century ciborium in the Chiesa di Santa Maria, and the Romanesque cathedral on the edge of town.
A little further, we stopped for the Necropoli di Sovana, a series of Etruscan tombs and vie cave, walkways carved into the soft rock. It was quite impressive to see the ruins of this ancient civilization (older even than most things in Germany). Even though erosion and decay has taken its toll on the structures, you can still some of the detail and decorations of the stone carving.
Finally, our last stop was the Roman town of Saturnia, or rather, the hot sulphurous stream outside of town. We decided to skip the fancy spa and hot springs and go for the free Cascate del Gorello. We passed it the first time, but were then able to see the pools and waterfall from an overlook on the road, and then realized why there had been so many cars in that field. Apparently, this is quite a popular destination for Italians to come to. Of course, while we arrived in our T shirts and bathing gear, the Italians were decked out in their bath robes. We both enjoyed the hot water and massage from the water flowing between the pools (a coveted spot), and Kristen also enjoyed (???) the bathing fashion of the Italian men.

1 comment:

Kristen said...

Very few men look good in Speedos.