Around Certaldo

As we prepare to leave this town where we have felt at home for the past month, we want to share some pictures of strange, amusing, and beautiful things we have seen in Certaldo.

In Certaldo, old folks ride bicycles. Both men and women ride around on bikes, particularly in the morning, fearlessly traversing the traffic circles, waving at each other and saying “ciao” as they pedal around town. Men are apparently not embarrassed or reluctant to be seen riding on what we would call a girl’s bike. Here is a photo of one man proudly pedaling around on his girl’s bike.

Between the Priest’s House and the town limits of Certaldo, there is a mysterious water pipe built in a hole on the side of the hill right next to the road. All day long, we see the tops of the heads of men and women filling up bottles with the water that comes from the pipe. We haven’t been able to figure out what it is. My best guess is that it is a natural spring and the water must taste good. Italians drink lots of water. It is always ordered with dinner and people buy bottles and bottles of water at the grocery store. I think many Certaldoans must use this spring water as their drinking water.

The gardens in this area are beautiful, full of all sorts of vegetables, and very well tended. Instead of tying the tomatoes to metal rings like we do in the United States, every tomato garden I have seen here has sticks that are built into the shape of what we would call a tee pee, and the tomato plants climb on those tee pees. In addition to lush red tomatoes, most gardens have huge cabbages, corn, squash, rhubarb, beans, onions, kale, and various other vegetables. The garden in the photo is on our way into town, down below the street. It is very large, and my suspicion is that the gardener sells the produce in markets around the area. But wherever you see a nook or cranny in a yard, you are liable to see a beautiful garden.

Bill regularly turns on the television, apparently hoping that by some miracle there will be something in English being shown. It never happens. The best that he can hope for is a sports program that doesn’t require knowledge of Italian. He recently has been enjoying the Tour de France for this reason. The other day, he optimistically turned on the noon news program, and the newsman presenting the day’s stories made us laugh until our stomachs hurt. For those of you who remember Dan Akroyd on Saturday Night Live back in the 80s (who this newsman remarkably resembles with his long hair and mustache), just imagine this man saying, “Jane, you ignorant slut.”

Each morning, there are several dozen scooters parked just outside the pastacceria we frequent. The past couple of days, we have noticed this particular scooter. It is an old Vespa, very small. However, it has a gigantic windshield and a cover that attaches to the windshield and goes over the driver’s head. The whole get-up looks very strange to us. But this scooter is just one of the many scooters you see flying around Certaldo and all of Italy, whether it is on regular streets, larger highways, or even the autostradas if the engine is big enough.

A month or so ago, you will recall that Bill got his hair cut at a local Certaldo barbershop. The name of the shop has made us laugh every time we drive by it. The shop is called Alex for Man. We are not entirely certain just who “the man” is, but I told Bill that since he has frequented the shop at least once, for that period of time, he was “da man!” The mix of English words into Italian store names always perplexes me. We recently noticed a business in Certaldo called the American Bar. Ah ha, we thought! Perhaps we can speak English to someone. Maybe they will have American newspapers. Well, what they had was one Budweiser tap and a picture of New York City on the wall. Other than that, it looked just like any other bar in Certaldo. They served the same Italian wines and beers. They had on an Italian radio station. Behind the bar, the nice gentlemen spoke no English.

And just one more time, take a look at Certaldo Alto, the old town on top of the hill. This photo was taken just 1000 meters or so from our driveway. I don’t think we’ve seen a finer example of an old, well-preserved medieval town in all of Italy. The best things about it are the views of San Gimignano from the town, the flawlessly preserved old buildings, and the small number of tourists you see when you look around the town. And, of course, now that I have even learned about Giovanni Boccaccio and his classic Renaissance book The Decameron, I can even be proud that he is buried in the floor of the church in Certaldo Alto.

As for just plain beauty, you can’t beat the vines heavy now with grapes which soon will begin to ripen, and the olive trees full of little olives that will grow and be harvested and pressed sometime in the late fall or early winter. Both of these photos were taken from the field right next to the Priest’s House. The fields of sunflowers are beautiful, especially in late afternoon as they raise their heads to look at the sun. This field pictured is on the back road between Poggibonsi and the Priest’s House. When you live in a community like Certaldo and an area like Tuscany, you never forget its agricultural nature and how the people rely on the crops grown in the area for their livelihood. Though the crops are different, on very many occasions I was reminded of the area of Nebraska where I grew up. Finally, the landscape photo is a picture we shot early one morning from our kitchen window. I love the haze in the vineyards every morning until the sun climbs high in the sky. Ciao Certaldo!