Our apartment (back of the house)

Views from our patio

Montecatini at night

Rolling the cheese race in Volterrra

Back of the cathedral in Volterra

Truffles!

Sun setting over Tuscany from Volterra

Mon 19 Oct – Wed 23 Oct 2015

After a 4.5 hour drive south we arrived at our next workaway in Tuscany. It was great to be back in a different part of Tuscany and the weather was so much warmer and sunnier! We stayed with a lovely Dutch couple, Lucas & Truus; we were their first workaway-ers! They had a lovely property with a stunning view of Volterra in the distance.

We arrived in the early evening and Truus made us a lovely pasta dinner. We were shown to our very own separate apartment with kitchenette and large bathroom – very welcomed after going outside to get to the the bathroom for two months at our last place! The fridge was already stocked with food. We made our own breakfasts and we had a light dinner in the evenings. Truus made the most delicious lunches that kept us full into the evening.

We worked from 9-2 each day and had a coffee break half way through. Lucas and Truss worked right along side us and taught us new skills in the garden and doing DIY. Natalie trimmed a lot of hedges and bushes for a few days and then helped Truus do a deep clean of the main house. Matt worked on a few maintenance jobs like painting the car ports, maintaining the stone path, replaced valves on the watering system, cleaned the storage sheds, helped with the cleaning of gutters and making a bonfire.

One afternoon, after we finished work, we walked up to Montecatini and poked around the little village. On our day off on Sunday we visited Volterra which was the site of an Etruscan settlement. We were so lucky to arrive during the cheese and truffle (not the chocolates unfortunately) festival! We watched the cheese rolling race – which was a hoot and then explored the town. We came upon a little market where locals were selling cheese, truffles and olive oil – we had lots of samples! As the time had just changed it got dark rather early so we decided to return the next day to see the other side of the town which we had missed, that included the Roman theatre.

We were originally planning to stay for two full weeks but our next place had asked us to come early in case the olives were ready to be picked! So after eight days we were on our way again.