Tuscany Day 3

Lots of stops today! After breakfast, and another successful squirrel-spotting expedition, we drove to Volterra, another medieval hilltop town ("MHTT") famous for its albaster craftsmen. It was difficult to find a park due to the number of other tourists, so nerves were getting a bit frayed by the time we got settled in an underground lot. Fortunately we were able to bury ourselves in the excellent Etruscan collection at the admittedly somewhat moth-eaten Museo Etrusco Guarnacci. Prize piece was the enigmatic Ombra della Sera (Shadow of the Evening), a curiously elongated votive statuette that would look just at home in the Guggenheim.

Also stopped by:

• Pinacoteca e Museo Civico for more Signorellis and Rosso Fiorentino's Mannerist masterpiece, The Deposition of Christ from the Cross;
• Museo d'Arte Sacra, where they have placed all the worn-out items from the local churches; and
• the local Roman theatre, one of the best preserved and dating back to the first century BC.

Last stop for the day, the MHTT of San Gimignano or "city of beautiful towers", as it has distinguished itself by building a number of large towers from which the locals waged war on each other. Anna and I went to the Collegiata, a 12th C Romaneque church with excellent frescoes everywhere. Old Testament scenes by Bartolo di Fredi, the life of Christ by Lippo Memmi and the life of St Fina by Ghirlandaio.

I also found time to check out the overpirced, but interesting, museum of Tortures and Witchcraft.

SORT-OF NZ WATCH: introduced myself to a guy in a Lion Red t-shirt. He was a German. :P