Today is our first day out and about in Umbria – and we’re going to Tuscany of all things! Well, what the heck? We’ve not been to Cortona yet, you know the town immortalized by the book “Under the Tuscan Sun.” We’ve met a couple who spend weeks there at a time, and Maggi and Richard just visited there last month, so we thought we’d try it out. The drive starts out fine, Ed manages to get out of the garage with me directing and we find our way out of the city really quickly. Then we are down the hill, and circling around Orvieto Scalo before hitting the Autostrada all the way up to Cortona.
It’s an easy drive up the highway, only a little over an hour. We successfully navigate our way through the little towns off the highway and up the steep hillside to Cortona - which is where we get into our first little scuffle with TIM. The app is fantastic – seriously one of the best we have ever bought – but you have to get used to how he operates and what he says. He always gives you warning about what to do, for instance, take the 3rd right. But then, a few minutes later he will say turn right. This isn’t necessarily at the 3rd right, it could just be a turn in the road, or it could be he is giving you a heads up. All of which is great, if you an think like an Android App, which we are just learning to do.
This long explanation is to set the stage for us following a “turn right” instruction, when it was really just a curve in the road. So, the great plans I had all laid out – researched the route, found the parking lot, got all discombobulated when we made the right turn and ended up on the other side of Cortona. In actuality (hind sight) we got a good overview tour of the town – we drove where I had planned to walk! Then made a u-turn and headed back down and around the walled city to the market, finally finding the parking lot I had scoped out. Unfortunately, Ed and I had a little “failure to communicate” moment – I didn’t clearly tell him we had arrived at the lot, and we had put in a vague destination into the GPS, so TIM very unhelpfully kept telling us to keep driving to get to our destination. Argh!
Eventually we sorted it out, but it took 4 circuits around the parking lot to finally wedge our little Panda into a teeny tiny space outside the wall. Thank heavens for small European cars, I’ve no idea how these people drive these big cars around this country (or why they’d want to, other than for ego reasons). Once into the city, we wander around, trying to avoid the tours and the crowds. Although not at busy as it could be – we are at least in the shoulder season – it is still a very touristy little town.
We meander up to the Duomo and take a few photos of the interior and scenic valley below the Piazza del Duomo (including the cemetery).
We back track our way to Piazza Repubblica,
… then follow the main shopping road down to Piazza Garibaldi (where we made our u-turn during the parking fiasco) to enjoy the fantastic views from the small park like area surrounding the Garibaldi memorial obelisk.
It’s late enough now, we think, to head to the restaurant we’ve chosen for lunch, the Birrificio Cortonese. This is a craft brewery with reportedly good food, and we figure we might as well continue our craft beer journey from Asheville to Cortona! As usual, we are early (it is hard for us to adjust our eating schedule to European times, we try, but we always end up being early for every meal time). The owner is just opening up, but he lets us come in and sit down anyway, and we at least can order a beer and wine for now. He’s very sweet – speaks very little English, but we can order in Italian – non che problema! After a few minutes, a woman arrives for work, who speaks more English, and we are effectively transferred into her care. We end up sharing a mixed antipasto platter and Ed finally gets his pizza fix with a shared a mushroom and prosciutto pie.
We’re both very happy and full as we wander back out into the narrow little town streets to complete our tour of Cortona. Our plans are to visit the cathedrale up on the hill, the Basillica di Santa Margherita. It’s a hike, about a 20 minute walk from the center of town – and all uphill. We can drive up there as well, but we decide to stress test Ed’s new hip and do the hike. Uphill we go! And boy, is it ever uphill. First we navigate our way through the windy little alleyway streets up past the Convento san Francisco,
Then up, up, up to the cathedrale itself.
It’s a great hike, with interesting architecture giving way to beautiful views overlooking the valley below.
The Cathedrale itself is lovely, but its the walk and the views that really take center stage for us.
After admiring the view, we head back down into town, and down further to reclaim our little car and head off to our next stop: Chiusi.
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