Wednesday, Nov. 1, Marcia and I decided to check out Arezzo, a fairly large town southeast of Florence. We had a light lunch but decided not to stay. Joe wants to spend the remaining time in Italy with great views of the Tuscan hillsides, so we stopped at the tourist office and asked about hotels and agritourismos in or near Cortona (yes, the town from the book, "Under The Tuscan Sun"). Most of the Italian tourist centers are very helpful and this one was no exception. After discussing what we were looking for, she called a villa she knew just outside Cortona, and we arranged to see it.
It took about 40 minutes to drive to the villa and it is amazing. The buildings are from the 19th century, but they were renovated and turned into this villa in 2004. It is called Villa Aurea (www.villaaurea.it) and is halfway up the mountain to Cortona (Cortona is at the top of the mountain). The villa includes a spa and Marcia has already scheduled our massages and treatments for tomorrow. In the warmer months, you can swim and eat outside which would make the place very desirable.
Our plan is to relax, walk a lot, and soak in the beauty of Tuscany for the next 10 days or so before driving to Rome for our final few days. As you can see from these photos, the Tuscan countryside around Cortona is beautiful. The valley seems to stretch forever as you view it from the top of the Cortona mountain.
Today we awoke to a beautiful, crisp fall day as we opened the shutters on our room windows. The rain from yesterday cleared the air and now you can see forever. We found the perfect place for R&R from the sightseeing we have been doing. We asked the people at the front desk about walking to Cortona at the top of the hill, and they thought we were crazy. It's about 2 km straight up. We'll drive it first and see how adventurous we feel. Here is a photo of Cortona.
(Note: the following blog episode is from Marcia, picking up where Joe left off above.)
We are now in the last two weeks of our wonderful adventure. We've had sooo many wonderful experiences, learned so much history, drunk too much great wine, and eaten tooo much wonderful food. Of course, our clothes are too tight, and we are trying to slow down...BUT NOW we are under the Tuscan Sun (where the book was written.) So we must explore more and eat and drink more.
We were staying just outside of Cortona at a lovely hotel\spa, but it was a little too boring and the toilets were too high for me (every room has handicap toilets). I had a nice massage and did relax a bit. The hotel had a restaurant, but it was not great. Therefore, if we wanted to go to dinner, we had to drive on windy dark roads... and we get lost enough in the daylight. (We can write a book on getting lost in Italy.) Getting lost while driving is part of the fun and experience.
This morning at breakfast, I decided we should stay inside the walls of the town of Cortona. We started to explore hotels in the town and found a few that seemed okay, but not perfect... too close to the church bells and bathrooms too small. (I should do a "real" review of hotels one day). We walked around the corner to look at one more hotel and there was the San Michele. It was a 4 star and looked quite fancy, so Joe thought it might be too pricey, but he agreed to check out a few rooms. The last room the manager showed us was a suite with a porch that had a 180 view of the Tuscan countryside. This hotel was a the home of some wealthy family built in the 1500s. We negotied a price.... and alas we will be moving there tomorrow.
The Hotel San Michele is a restored Renaissance palace. The historic building has served as the residence for the Marquis of Monte St. Maria family as well as the Palace of Justice in the 16th century.
Although the town of Cortona was made popular by Frances Mayes' book, "Under the Tuscan Sun," it has remained a true Tuscan hill town. It has many touists, but it is not full of tourist shops with T-shirts and junk. The people of Cortona live and shop there, and the restaurants are wonderful. Tonight I bought a 2 liter bottle of water for 0.29e and a bag of fresh fruit for 1.90e.
The hills in this town are sooo steep that we had trouble walking to the top. The locals, however, were slowly walking up the steep hills (steeper and longer than San Francisco) to the many churches at the top of the town. This is an Etruscan town whose history dates back to before the Romans (from about 500bc to 200ad). We'll give you more history updates after we explore.
This website has some Cortona history:
http://www.cortonaweb.net/eng/guida/index.php
Our room in Hotel San Michele is pretty much the penthouse suite. It's very large (about 30' x 25') with a large remodelled bathroom, AND a patio with gazzebo overlooking the Tuscan valley where we enjoyed glasses of prosecca watching a beautiful sunset. It is the most spectacular hotel room and view we have ever had. A great way to relax after a very active 7 weeks. Cortona seems to have achieved the perfect balance of keeping its roots while enjoying the success of tourism. With enough tourism, comes good and numerous restaurants and other services that travellers like. But some towns (like San Gimignano) have gone too far with trinket and junk shops everywhere. We may stay in Cortona for a while meeting the locals and touring the town and countryside.
This morning we awoke to the entire valley being covered in a blanket of fog. Being above it, we have a beautiful sunny day. The hill Cortona is on is about 1500-2000 feet in altitude.
The magic of Cortona has infected us. The people, the history, the beauty all combine in a very unique way that almost forces you to enjoy yourself. Marcia will add details soon, but as a few examples: the owner of our favorite family restaurant here in town (Giancarlo) now takes Marcia out for caffe and dolci while he talks about his family. The family that owns the local market and wine shop has given us a real education on olive oil and arranged a private wine tour. Many of the shopkeepers now say Buon Giorno to us when we see them. And every day we have lunch on our hotel room patio overlooking the Tuscan valley and basking in the Tuscan sun. Today we are meeting with another real estate person (Marcia has already met his children) to discuss renting an apartment here next Spring. We met the husband and wife local furniture store owners at dinner and stopped by their store the next day. Their store is 4 floors of a large circular building with their apartment on the top floor (the roof has their swimming pool). They invited us to their apartment for a drink where we met their daughter. Tomorrow we are having dinner with them at their favorite restaurant. They only speak Italian, but Marcia has been communicating with everyone in Italian with no problems. Fortunately I tend to understand much of what they say... but often I have no idea until Marcia translates.
We have decided to extend our stay in Cortona until Sunday, Nov. 12, when we will drive to Rome for the last 3 days of our journey.
Our wonderful time in Cortona continues. We are meeting more people and having the shop owners we meet show us around town and possible apartments if we return in the Spring. We went to dinner with 2 women from Texas that Marcia met, and the owner of the restaurant raises owls. We took this photo so you would believe us ;) The restaurant is on a ranch and looks more like Texas than Tuscany. And don't forget, you can click on a photo to enlarge it.
Our wine tour and tasting at Avignonesi winery was great. They make an Italian after dinner drink called Vin Santo where they first dry the grapes on mats for 6 months and then age them in small barrels for 10 years. They will open the 1996 barrels next May. The weekly Cortona market is today, so Marcia is there of course. When we got back to town, a real estate agent showed us an amazing house for rent with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms (that's rare) and an awesome garden overlooking the valley. It's not available next May and June, but we are thinking perhaps April.
[note to Toni: Our time with you at the villa you rented in Tuscany 6 years ago has always inspired us. Perhaps we can reciprocate... how is your schedule next April?]
We said goodbye to Cortona Sunday and to the friends we made there. It was sad to leave, but we know we will be back soon.
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