September 2021 – John and Susan's Excellent Adventure

Le Caldane

The Etruscan Civilization arose in the area we now call Tuscany a few hundred years before the Roman Empire (https://www.worldhistory.org/Etruscan_Civilization/). About 3 miles from our apartment, there’s an old thermal bath built by the Etruscans. It’s called Le Caldane (pronounced la cal-donnie). The bath is no longer “thermal,” although you do see a few streams of bubbles emerging from the bottom. I guess it’s not a big enough site to warrant protection and preservation. At least one website reports that the baths were destroyed by Sienese troops in 1260 and rebuilt in 1400. I am going with the story that we were in a bath built at least 2,500 years ago- no wonder the hot water is no longer running.

Colle Alta

Colle Alta is the well-preserved medieval section of Colle di Val d’Elsa and sits on a ridge. I say “medieval” (500-1400A.D.); I guess, technically, it began in the medieval but didn’t really take off until late-Medieval/early Renaissance. You can see in the map (in the “Apt.” post) that the old part of town is long and narrow. You can also see in the “Apt.” post that Colle Alta hovers above our apartment. Although it’s not Florence or Siena, Susan and I think Colle is beautiful and has its own charm. And waking up every morning and looking up at a place like Colle Alta is one of the main reasons we are here. The following is a collection of street scenes and perspectives of Colle Alta from our daily walks. A note on photography- I don’t expect much argument when I say that I’m not a photographer. So, to compensate for the lack of quality, I have adopted the quantity strategy. I figure that this is a blog so the images are not taking forever to download and taking up space on your hard drive.

We pass the Pinocchio Fountain (now dry). Carlo Collodi was a seminary student in Colle prior to writing The Adventures of Pinocchio. Supposedly, this is where he got the puppet’s name.

They sure knew how to build a “wall” in the Middle Ages.

Main gate at west end of Colle Alta- suitably Medieval.

During our 2010 trip, a group of us ate pizza in this park while we watched a World Cup match on a TV strapped to one of these trees.

That’s the park shown above tucked in on the left.

I like this because you can see the location of a previous door- no attempt to hide it.

Medieval towns could have many of these towers. Their height was correlated with the owners’ wealth. Mostly, they didn’t last. But wait till we get to San Gimignano.

“New” Colle di Val d’Elsa from Colle Alta.

Apt. in Colle di Val d’Elsa

In 2010, we stayed in a villa outside Colle di Val d’Elsa with 17 friends and children. When it came time to decide where we’d spend the first part of our excellent adventure, the first place we considered was Colle. Susan went on VRBO and found this apartment on Piazza Arnolfo di Cambio- just below Colle Alta (the medieval section), near restaurants and stores, and 50 meters from the major bus stop with buses to Firenze (Florence), Siena, and smaller Tuscan hill towns (https://lovefromtuscany.com/hilltop-towns-in-tuscany/). We are not renting a car, which makes bus stop proximity critical. As this apartment checked all of our “boxes,” Susan requested a 3-month rental and the response was yes. So, here we are.

**“Colle Alta” is medieval Colle di Val d’Elsa. Our apartment is just below in the slightly newer section (late 1800’s/early 1900’s)**.

**From left to right: door to bathroom, living/kitchen area, stairs to second bedroom, our bedroom** **(the bedroom window looks over Piazza Arnolfo).**

**The apartment is 0n the 3rd floor. This is the view of Colle Alta from the stairwell.**

**View of Colle Alta outside our front door.**

**Susan is waving from the window of our bedroom overlooking Piazza Arnolfo.**

Beginnings

Susan & John’s Excellent Adventure began in 2010 on our first trip to Italy. Over about 3 weeks, we went from Rome to Tuscany to Cinque Terre. As we sat in the jet that would take us back to the States, we both commented that this was the first vacation where neither of us wanted to return. From that day, we’ve been waiting for retirement to remove the constraints on our time that would allow us come back for as long as European Union immigration policies would allow. Turns out, in our case, that’s 3 months. So, we’re in the Tuscan town of Colle Di Val d’Elsa (hill in the valley of the Elsa river) for the next 90 days.