A short drive from Castellina lies the medieval town of Volterra made famous most recently as one of the locations for the movie series Twilight.
One of the larger walled towns that we have visited, Volterra has a number of beautiful streets, museums and attractions that are steeped in history, including the ruins of a Roman theatre.
Parking outside the town you can gain entry through a number of gates but we chose to walk in through the Etruscan gate, Porta all’Arco. At first glance, it would appear to be just another gateway but this one has many stories to tell. Huge boulders of tuff stone make up the two sides of the arch which were built around 500 BC! A few hundred years later the archway connecting the two sides was built incorporating figureheads of Zeus and his two sons that have long been dissolved to nubs by time. In fact, it is thought the Romans first discovered the idea of the keystone in the construction of this arch.
Over the next few centuries, the arch had more brickwork added but remains unchanged from its original construction.
Legend has it that during the second world war the townspeople learned that the Germans were planning on blowing up the arch in order to slow down the allies advance on the area. Working to save this sacred landmark they removed the cobblestone from the surrounding streets and filled in the gate covering it with dirt and completely blocking it overnight. When the Germans saw the blocked entry they decided destroying it was futile and left it untouched. Later the townspeople unblocked the arch and repaved the street with the stones you walk on today.
Not far inside the gate, we came across a tiny workshop that produces bronze copies of Etruscan statues, most notably the slender depiction of the boy or girl.
Apparently, the original statue that these are based on was dug up by a farmer in his field who gave it such little value that he used it as a fire poker until someone clued him in to its possible value and age.
It’s now in an Etruscan museum in Florence and copies can be seen in many shops throughout Tuscany.
This particular shop has been producing bronze replicas for two generations, although the owner did not seem super happy that his father had left him with the business.
Walking into town, the streets are lined with beautiful shops and interesting architecture and like most ancient towns the main church is where you can find incredible artwork and dazzling interiors. We have noticed that the exterior of a lot of these churches are not as splendid as the interior and that is usually because they simply ran out of money to finish the exterior with marble having to leave them in simple stone work. The Volterra Duomo is exactly one of those churches.
Standing in awe looking up at the detailed ceiling and massive marble columns I noticed that the whole cathedral leaned noticeably to one side, adding it to the list of the many leaning structures in Italy.
Moving on we popped into the local tourist information centre to try to find a shop that sold a particular type of local Pecorino cheese that was made using rennet (the ingredient used to coagulate milk in the cheese making process) extracted from the artichoke flower.
Understanding that we were after something a little more than the regular tourist fare we were directed to a non-descript, almost hidden shop on the edge of town.
Walking through the door at Emporio del Gusto, we knew we were in the right place, stacks of crates holding beautiful tomatoes and rustic vegetables lined one side of the shop and all sorts of cheese and salumi filled the refrigerated display case. The customers that were in the shop looked at us as if we were lost but we waited patiently for our turn to be served.
The cheese we were after was sitting at the front of the display identified by an artichoke flower on its label and we promptly asked for a piece but before cutting it we were given a sample to make sure we liked it, yes, please!
Looking around I asked what else they sold that was unique to the area. “Everything!” she said. She was not kidding either because it turns out that this was a co-op set up for local farmers to sell their products directly to the townspeople. All of the goodies around us were brought in by local farmers, bakers, butchers and producers, nothing farther than five miles away. This is as fresh as it gets.
On a table, to one side a woman arranged slices of focaccia on a plate as a sample of what could be made with the farro that she grew and milled into flour on her farm called Serraspina. It was incredibly delicious, so good that I had to ask for the recipe which she was more than happy to write for me (included at the end of this post).
Recognizing our excitement and appreciation for what they were doing and the products they were selling, we were directed outside the shop to a vending machine unlike any we have ever seen.
For €1, using your own bottle, it would dispense one litre of ice cold milk that was unpasturized and straight from the farm. Not being able to pass this up we dumped what was left of our two litre bottle of water and fed €2 into the machine in exchange for the best milk you could ever imagine.
The recipe in hand along with our milk and a bag full of groceries, we bid farewell to our new friends as they placed one of our stickers in their window, definitely A Cook Not Mad approved!
- 700 grams farro flour
- 300 grams all-purpose flour
- 200 grams olive oil
- 20 grams beer yeast
- salt to taste
- pinch of sugar
- Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup warm water
- Add flour and other ingredients, mix and add enough warm water to make a soft, slightly wet dough
- Let it rise, punch it down, spread it out like a pizza dough
- Let it rise again and bake it, preferably on a pizza stone at 400F
- When it's warm out of the oven sprinkle it with salt and olive oil
Do you have farmers’ co-ops where you live?
Great post! Have never really been interested in visiting Volterra until now. Will definitely have to head there even if just to visit that coop shop with the cheese made with artichoke flower rennet. 🙂
The coop was a great find, I think you’ll enjoy it.
I’ve had milk straight from a cow before and it does take some getting used to. It really goes to show how much are tastebuds are missing the real sense of natural non-processed ingredients. Italy is the perfect place to live more organically. I definitely want to visit Volterra!
Your taste buds are reborn in Italy.