Next on the itinerary was an excavation site of
Etruscan (800-500 BC) baths which was supposed to be just off the road at
Larderello. We saw the signage easily
enough but then bumped a good few kms along another unmade road before
arriving at tumbledown farm buildings, with about 4 cars parked in the shade. We went for an exploratory wander around.
We started to climb the steps but the concrete was cracking all around so we decided best not to proceed - I had visions of one of us disappearing into a huge hole with two broken legs (one of us, not the hole!).
Presumably this was a byre given the feed troughs along the wall.
Nature will eventually reclaim this totally.
There was, however, no sign of any excavation works but as we were heading back to the car a Dutch couple pulled up so Ian enquired. As luck would have it he'd been on a guided tour that morning and pointed us the way bypassing the locked gates. After about 10 mins walking we came to a clearing where there were 3 groups, each of about 6-8 people, sunbathing and cooking on BBQs - we were worried for a minute that we might have wandered into a nudist colony but luckily not. It didn't look like much was excavation work had been done for a long time - a bad shot through the fence.
Close by were small bathing pools in the rocks
A very advanced Etruscan had created a pipe work system to get the water to the pools.
Ian bent to see if the water was hot, "Yes" said Frankie "It's nigh on scalding"
Just beside the car I noticed this log and could see a witch's face in it but Ian saw a ram's head (minus horns).
Slightly underwhelmed, we bumped our way back along the track to the made-up road and shortly after found our first fumerole (an opening in a planet's crust which emits steam and gases such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, and hydrogen sulphide).
There was a sign up saying closed and tours available at certain times, but we just wandered down and peered through the fencing. Not quite like the geysers of Iceland I'd expected.
On to the next fumerole which involved a steep climb up loose shale, but a lady coming down assured us it was worth the effort - it wasn't!
But we did at least avoid getting bitten or stung by this beastie.
Not having seen many fortified towns on tops of hills today, naturally we couldn't resist stopping in Massa Marittima, which despite its name is actually about 25kms from the sea.
Of course the first stop was for a beer/Sprite and I loved the shape of Ian's glass.
Piazza Garibaldi is one of the finest squares in Tuscany
The Duomo
A few street scenes
Doorbells
The lady on the RHS managed to appear in numerous photos and she had the most amazing hairdo - it looked like a purple Coco the Clown wig and she was wearing fluffy slippers.
We only had one hour on the parking so after a whistle stop tour we made our way to our final stop of the day - San Galgano Abbey, claimed as Italy's most impressive Gothic Ruin. Despite it being gone 1700 hours when we arrived the massive car park was still quite busy but we found a space without difficulty and walked the 1km to the abbey.
There's always one.
Or maybe two!
Our ticket also gave us entrance to the church on the nearby hill and the museum in a nearby town but we were too tired to consider either. Glad we visited late in the day as I can imagine it was heaving earlier.
45 mins later and we were home, enjoying the last rays of light from our little balcony.
