Massa Marittima in April

We are staying in Piombino for a week in April and arrived on Sunday. The weather is still poor on Tuesday morning although the forecast says it should improve. We drive to Massa Marittima which we have visited before but rather in haste. We remember the town enough to park easily just across the road from our first destination. It's not raining but it's cloudy and chilly and a museum is the ideal solution before lunch. This museum San Pietro all'Orto is quite small but well worth the five euros (four for Andrea who is over 65) entry fee. 

The first room contains stone sculptures dating back to 12th/13th centuries. The panels, mostly from the cathedral of San Cerbone, are bas-reliefs in grey alabaster, or more properly darkened anhydrite which depict various characters and situations: the twelve apostles, arranged on three panels,although only St. Peter is easily recognizable with his keys, and the massacre of the innocents, on two panels with underlying rosettes. Two other bas-reliefs depict Maiestas Domini, and others a warrior saint, a blessing bishop, the multiplication of the loaves. They are fascinating and a little mysterious, especially because of the dark grey, almost metallic colour. 

The second room houses eleven marble statues representing saints, apostles and prophets by the Sienese artist Gano di Fazio and Camaino di Crescentino, as well as 3 large sculptures attributed to Giovanni Pisano representing a horse, a crouching human figure and a griffin but the wooden Crucifix by Giovanni Pisano and the carved and painted wooden sculpture depicting Saint Cerbone are both worth a look as well.

The third room is dominated by the splendid Maestà by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. We linger a while to examine it in detail with the help of the explanation cards. There's nobody else in the museum and it's nice to have the time to study a painting in detail.

Upstairs, a large room is dedicated to some nice 15-16th century paintings and a couple of tombstones while the last has some religious objects. 

Heading back downstairs we get a glimpse of the organ museum next door but don't go because there isn’t time before lunch. 

Instead we go just a couple of minutes down the road to see the chiesa di Sant Agostino with some traces of frescoes and its splendid cloister.

A few drops of rain send us scurrying to the car. It doesn't matter. It's lunchtime. We drive to the Ghirlanda area of Massa Marittima where there is a Michelin starred restaurant. Instead, we go to Trattoria Sbrana. Eating out in places we don't know is always a gamble even with the help of TripAdvisor and Google Maps reviews. But, today we are lucky. An excellent tagliere which includes vegetables in oil which don't just taste of vinegar, and some typical liver pate crostini. For second course we choose trippa. Well, what can I say. The best, melt in the mouth slow cooked dissolving trippa I have ever eaten. We finish with coffee and including water and wine, the total is 55 euros for the two of us. We have eaten well. 

The rain has stopped so we park near the historical centre of Massa to explore at leisure. The cathedral dedicated to San Cerbone is open but we save it for later in case it starts to rain. The steps leading up are almost vertical and there are some nice views over the countryside and surrounding palazzi and sculptures from the side and back. We continue our stroll through the town. Massa Marittima is small but pretty, even on a cloudy day. It feels well cared for and there are posters up for various activities showing it’s an active community even if small. We head up towards Torre del Candeliere and the castle and wander the gardens behind where the olive trees are being pruned.

There’s a lot of up and down in Massa Marittima, not all of it intuitive. Back at the cathedral a wedding is about to take place. Americans, it would seem, not Italians, everyone is dressed in black except for the bride and groom. We are told to keep out of the way of the filming but still manage to take a slow look at the cathedral and one or two surviving frescoes. On the way back to the car we have another look at the Fountain Fonte dell’Abbondanza and its startling tree!

The weather seems to be clearing up so we drive to Follonica which I’m not convinced I’m going to like. It’s also a shock to be in a busy town centre after the peaceful other-world atmosphere of Massa. In fact, I don’t like Follonica. There are lots of fairly ugy apartment blocks, the view of the sea along the admittedly pleasant sea front is blocked by beach clubs, restaurants and then houses actually built on the sandy beach. Moreover, there is nowhere open to have a second coffee with a sea view! But, there are loads of people strolling. We find a cafè with a partial sea view between a building and a portakabin and then head back to base. An interesting day. Massa Marittima is beautiful and I have crossed Follonica off my list of places to see.