We were woken up at 7am by Lucca trying to tell us that, it might well be the weekend, but his body clock doesn't change and it was past his breakfast time, thank you very much. I hauled myself out of bed to give the cats their breakfast, open their catflap and go and do 40 minutes of spinning on the turbo trainer.
It was then a lazy morning for all of us (Kerys and Ben not surfacing until 11am, and the rest of us sitting drinking tea/coffee and either reading or tinkering with the website under the shade of the garden umbrella in the beautiful hot morning sunshine).
Stuart and I had a quick trip down to Amanda's alimentari for some bread - not an exciting or lengthy outing, but it was nice to see the real world.
Our original plan for the day had been to head out in the early evening after an early dinner to Montecatini Terme, to have a brief nose around and then go to the trap racing at the ippodrome. That plan fell by the wayside when we realised mid-morning that the trap racing - which is on regularly throughout the summer - wasn't on this weekend. However, since it seems to have become a tradition for us to visit Montecatini every Saturday (we were there three weeks ago trying to find a mattress shop, two weeks ago trying to find Europcar to pick up a hire car, and a week ago trying to find Europcar again to return said hire car), and keen to keep up with tradition (not to mention avoid withdrawal symptoms), we decided we would head to Montecatini today anyway, but do so in the early afternoon instead of the evening and simply have a look around.
Sue had also been in touch to let us know they were going to a festa run by a local lions club in the evening, and we quickly jumped at the chance to tag along with them. Henry and Erik would be working there (serving food) so Ben almost bit our arms off at the chance of seeing them again, and we knew it would be lovely to spend the evening with Chris and Sue and a new experience for us all as well. So the plan was to get to theirs for 6.15pm so we could follow them down.
After lunch, therefore, once the morning's load of washing had been hung out on the line and we had taken down a change of linens for our apartment guests, we all readied ourselves for an afternoon out.
Thanks to the rather slow start to the day, it was already getting on for mid-afternoon before we left the house. Keen not to be late arriving at Chris and Sue's this time, we decided to head straight for the funiculare in Montecatini and not try to cram too much else into the afternoon. We all piled into the no. 182 bus (which actually accommodates 5 people very comfortably, unlike the other vehicles we've been driving recently) and headed in the direction of Montecatini Terme.
We weren't quite sure how to find the funiculare - knew we'd seen it on one of our circuits round the town with Sue the other week, so had a vague idea, but nothing concrete. Given our past experiences in Montecatini, this perhaps wasn't the best of starts but we've driven round that town enough times now to dare to feel quite confident about not getting lost. So we simply followed our noses and, would you believe it, drove straight to it!
We parked the car on a street just around the corner and walked the 150m to the funiculare 'station'.
The funiculare, which runs up the steep hill from Montecatini Terme to Montecatini Alto, was built in 1898 (at which point the two places were known as 'Bagni di Montecatini' and 'Castello', respectively). Two little carriages run up/down the hill on a single track at half-hourly intervals throughout the day. Somewhat alarmingly, they run at the same time (one coming up and one coming down), and for the briefest of moments the thought that they are going to run into each other flits through one's mind - until you realise that at the halfway point there is a division of the track so that the two can pass, before each goes back onto the single track to carry on its journey upwards/downwards.
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| Our carriage awaits. |
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| Montecatini Alto in the distance. |
We had a roughly 10-minute wait before we could clamber into the carriage and start the slow, steep climb up the hill (the incline reaches 38% at one point). The views that gradually reveal themselves as the train carriage higher and higher are simply stunning.
The trip to the top took around 10 minutes, and once there, we paid our money (€7 per person for a return ticket) and ambled towards the centre of Montecatini Alto.
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| At the top! |
Montecatini Alto is a very different proposition from Montecatini Terme. Whereas the latter is large, (relatively) sprawling, buzzing with traffic, shops, tourists, and packed with grand old spa buildings and opulent hotels, Montecatini Alto is a small, quiet hilltop town. It is probably the most 'touristy' place we have visited in these parts - with bars and restaurants packed into the pretty piazza at the centre and souvenir shops dotted between the bars and restaurants and down the little narrow alleyways.
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| Sculpture/monument to Saint Barbara - the patron saint of attendants in charge of explosives preparation and storage. |
We headed straight for a gelateria. It was another searingly hot day, and we all huddled into the shade of a building to finish our ice creams before heading back into the sunshine to explore a bit more of the town.
We walked up to a church, which we popped our heads into, took in the incredible views, then decided to head straight back to the funiculare so as not to miss the 4.30pm trip back down the hill.
Stuart and I decided that Montecatini Alto is definitely somewhere we will return to for a more leisurely stroll around - we only explored one half of the town today, so there is much more of interest to go and look at, plus the piazza with all of its restaurants seems like it would be a lovely spot to sit and relax for a few hours with a spot of lunch and a bottle of wine.
We piled onto the carriage for the trip back down the hill, but this time Stuart asked the attendant if we could go 'fuori' - outside. He said that was fine, so the five of us, plus a couple who stood in front of us, squeezed into the front of the carriage to stand and watch the scenery whizz past. Actually it doesn't whizz past at all, as the descent, just like the ascent, is slow and gradual, but it was certainly a different viewpoint to see it from the open rather than inside the carriage.
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| Our view on the way down. |
By the time we got to the bottom it was nearing 5pm, so we decided to head for home to freshen up, lure the cats in for an early dinner and then head to Chris and Sue's.
This time, we actually managed to get to Chris and Sue's for the appointed time (according to the clock in the bus, that is), and were met by Sue walking down the hill who was about to drive Henry and Erik to the festa so that they could start their preparations, while we sat on their terrace with Chris, drinking wine and chatting, and were joined by Sue when she'd got back from the drop-off. We all sat and chatted for a very pleasant couple of hours before it was time for us to head over to the festa as well.
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| Beautiful view of Pescia from Chris and Sue's. |
We piled into the bus and followed Sue and Chris in their little Fiat Panda to the place where the festival was taking place. We were glad they had made the suggestion that we should follow them down as we realised we would never have found it by ourselves!
We parked up in a field and headed across it to an enormous covered area amongst the trees set out with long tables and chairs, with cooking tents at the bottom and a large dance floor in the middle. The place was absolutely packed, and we were relieved that Sue had had the foresight to reserve us a table when she'd dropped the boys off earlier.
We soon spotted Henry and Erik rushing around waiting tables like little pros - very impressive. The food ordering system was quite bizarre - Stuart and Chris went to stand in a very long queue then called us over when they got as far as a menu so we could all make our selections. Once at the front of the queue, we gave our orders to a guy with a laptop, who entered our orders into his computer, we paid our money and were presented with three sheets of A4 printout, one showing the drinks, one showing the starters and main courses and one showing the side dishes we'd ordered, and sent back to the table.
We waited rather a long time before Chris called Henry over to ask why we hadn't even been served any drinks yet, let alone food, at which point Henry hurried off and sorted it all out for us, returning shortly afterwards with a trayful of cokes, bottles of water and carafes of wine. What a little star!
There was then a similarly lengthy wait for any food to arrive - but the drinks eased that wait a little. Eventually, Stuart's antipasti arrived, followed shortly by the salsicce (sausages) and fagioli (beans) that had been ordered by Sue, Stuart and me. We all tucked in - and I must say, the sausages were delicious and the beans (the famous Sorana beans) also really tasty. Unfortunately, Sheila, Kerys, Ben and Chris were still without food, and we had long since finished ours before the boys finally sorted things out and bought platefuls of pasta, pizza, pork, chips and more beans.
While the service had been a little erratic, the food was superb and well worth the wait, and the whole evening was such an enjoyable experience. It was something we would never have had the knowledge to find (or probably courage to go to) on our own, and it truly was a delightful evening.
We spent hours watching Italian couples waltzing around the dance floor, listened to the raffle being drawn, and eventually the 'disco' kicked in and even Chris, Sue and Sheila were tempted onto the dance floor to join Henry and Erik and their friends for a brief whirl.
As with every evening we have spent with Chris and Sue so far, the time vanished and Kerys was soon telling us that it was already Sunday. Chris decided to start his journey home (he had taken his mountain bike strapped to the roof of the Fiat Panda and was planning to cycle back to the house while we gave Sue a lift in the back of our bus), and we all started making noises about making a move shortly afterwards. Henry and Erik were to be given a lift home by another lady who was working at the event, so once Sue had made sure that everything was still OK for them to go with her, we decided to try and find our car again.
Henry and Ben had spent at least the last 40 minutes of the evening trying to wrangle another sleepover, whether it would be Ben sleeping in Pescia or Henry sleeping in Ben's room in Pietrabuona, and eventually Sue capitulated and invited Ben to go and sleep at their house again, much to the boys' delight.
We therefore dropped not just Sue, but Sue AND Ben back off at Chris and Sue's house before the rest of us wended our way home and straight to bed - yet another wonderful evening with a very late bed time!
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