Yesterday Stefano and I had dinner with a couple of friends who live near Casole d’Elsa, which, hmmm, let’s see (what follows is for those who know their way around Tuscany or like to use Google Maps…), is about an hour and 15 minute drive south (slightly west) of Florence OR about a half hour drive south from San Gimignano OR about a 45 minute drive west from Siena. 🙂

Since we weren’t meeting our friends in Casole d’Elsa until 5 PM, Ste and I decided to drive first to the town of Certaldo, which was not too far from our meeting point. This is the hometown of Giovanni Boccaccio, the famous 14th century Italian author and poet…He wrote the “Decameron,” a title you might recognize even if you aren’t Italian…

Certaldo, like many other Tuscan hilltop towns, is divided into two parts: 1. the medieval walled town perched on top of a hill (= Certaldo Alta, which literally means “high” Certaldo) and 2. the modern and, er, much less attractive town (= Certaldo Bassa, or “low” Certaldo) located at the bottom of the (same) hill. What we did was park in the modern part of Certaldo and reach the hilltop part by cablecar. Now that was fun!

I wanted to mention that the old part of Certaldo was quite heavily damaged in World War II bombings…And one of the hardest hit buildings was Boccaccio’s family home, which, however, was entirely rebuilt in 1947. This rather austere-lbut-not-remarkable-looking terracotta brick building (in fact, we walked right by it without giving it a second glance, at first) is located in the middle of Via Boccaccio, the town’s main drag, named after him, of course…

The 360° views from the Boccaccio family home’s brick tower are magnificent (see photo no. 2, a view over the rooftops of Certaldo Alta). Stefano and I climbed up to the top terrace and were blown away by: 1. the views…goes without saying, and 2. the horrendous, overwhelming heat.

Yesterday, you see, was a particularly bright, sunny but also very hot day…the hottest day so far this year, I think. Taking photographs on top of that tower, under the midday sun, was therefore not pleasant at all…I began thinking that even my eyes were sweating. 😉 But the view was worth it…I just wouldn’t make that climb on midday in July or August…

We also visited the Palazzo Pretorio or Palazzo Vicariale, a beautiful palace that used to be the residence of the governors of Florence and is located in the highest part of Certaldo. Unfortunately, its strikingly picturesque façade, decorated with a variety of ceramic coats of arms, is being restored right now, so I don’t have any photos of it. 

Luckily, another lovely feature of this palace was fully visible: its inner courtyard (photo 3), also decorated with coats of arms and whatnot…AND the views over the surrounding countryside are equally lovely (photo 4, taken through a stained glass window)…

Almost the most enjoyable part about visiting the two towns of Certaldo and Casole d’Elsa yesterday was the complete lack of tourists. The much more famous town of San Gimignano is absolutely gorgeous, no question about that!, and I love to go there…However, at this time of year (well, at ANY time of year!) it is jam-packed with tourists, which is great for the economy but…well…you know!!!

My point is: other, not-so-famous Tuscan hilltop towns may not be as stunning as San Gimignano, but part of their charm and appeal is that they are not as crowded, and the other thing is that you will most likely eat well for a reasonable amount of money (= we had a very nice lunch in Certaldo, in fact…).

Furthermore, in these lesser known towns, you can still come upon groups of town residents sitting right outside their homes or outside the local cafés, gossiping and chatting with friends and neighbors…or working on various projects (watering their plants, knitting, watching their children/grandchildren play and so on…). You can see a bit of that in the first photo, which is a downhill view of Via Boccaccio. On the left, there are four elderly Certaldini sitting outside a café. These men were there when we arrived…and they were there when we left. Still talking and gesturing animately, the way Italians do… 🙂

By the way, if you look closely at that photo, you will see one side of the Church of Saints Iacopo and Filippo, where Boccaccio is buried (there was a wedding going on at the time, so we didn’t get a chance to visit the inside)…If you look more in the background, the second tower down the street on the right is the one we climbed…

The town of Casole d’Elsa (my photos of Casole begin with the narrow, plant-filled street view, i.e., photo no. 5) is where we finally met up with our friends in the late afternoon. It wasn’t as pretty as Certaldo, for sure, but it was very lively and colorful, and we enjoyed our visit.

The town was bustling with preparations for an upcoming “palio,” which, like the more famous palio held in Siena, is mainly a horse race (of medieval origin). It was fun to walk down the streets of rival contrade, or town wards, and take photos of the differently colored contrade flags waving in the wind…Photo 6 shows two flags from the contrada “Pievalle,” in addition to two Italian flags (celebrating the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification).

Another interesting feature of Casole d’Elsa: its buildings were decorated here and there with ceramic tiles painted by, I suppose, the inhabitants…And some of them were quite good, as you can see (last two photos)…

Just as we were about to leave Casole, clouds appeared out of nowhere, and a sudden downpour gave us an incentive to make a beeline for the car and drive off toward our friends’ house…

AND it also gave us an excuse to stuff ourselves with a yummy, homemade dinner, mamma mia! 🙂