Driving Like an Italian

Yesterday was day 5 in Cortona.  Where has the time gone?  We slept in after the late night at the festival.  We decided to go to the town of Perugia mainly so Mike could get more comfortable driving in Italy.  He is doing good at the driving, but we are going further from Cortona a little at a time.  When I say driving like an Italian, I mean the other drivers, not Mike.  He doesn't pass in a no passing zone around a curve, doesn't tailgate, and stays in his lane when not passing.  Not to say that Italian drivers are bad, just more aggressive that us.  We did venture onto the autostrada (the equivalent of our interstate) yesterday and had no problems.

In Perugia we parked at the train station and walked UP for over 1 1/2 miles.  When I say up, I mean steeply up.  Refer to the picture.  That is how steep the entire walk was.  However, it was worth it when we finally got to the piazza.

Steep walk up to Old Town

Street on the way to the piazza  Some connecting
arches are actually ancient aquaducts.

The municipal buildings and fountain in the piazza.  The fountain was built in 1248 and 1249,  with the buildings being built not long afterward.

Mike in front of old municipal building

Mary in front of fountain

Old municipal buildings

Shopping plaza

The piazza looked like the Promenade of Perugia with stores lining the sides of the streets.  There was just no traffic in the middle.  There is even a Timberland shoe store here.

 A painting and a stained glass window on the side of an old church.

Painting on the side of a church

Stained glass windo

A church from the 1300's.  Since this was the weekend, there were young people laying out in the sun on the large grassy area.  Sorry ladies, I didn't get a picture of the handsome young man in his speedo.

When we got back our hostesses cooked us a most splendid dinner.  After the bruschetta (bread) flavored with garlic and olive oil from their own trees plus olives from those trees we had pasta with mozzerella, tomatoes, and fresh basil followed by eggplant parmesian with pollo (chicken) and beef on the side.  For dolce (dessert) we had homemade gelato (ice cream), apricot and banana with homemade chocolate liqueur creme to drizzle on the top.  Of course, we had local white and red wine to drink with dinner.  After dinner we had to test Patrizia's homemade limoncella.  Everything was so good.  We are eating lighter today.  We can't eat like we have the last three evenings everyday.  

So until next time,  arreviderci.

Being Italian (well at least pretending)

This is our fifth day in Cortona, and we finally know how to get around and what we need to do.  We have noticed that many of the tourists, especially on the weekends, are Italians.  Because of the way we dress, Mike and I don't look much different than they do.  And if we watch what they do, we can even act like them.  We just have to keep silent to keep pretending.  Many people had told us that Italians could be pretty rude, but for the most part, they have been extremely nice and helpful.  This may be due to the fact that we are staying in a small town that relies on tourists for the majority of their income.  Or maybe we have just been fortunate so far in the Italians we have come in contact with.  

Door into apartment

 I am writing in the morning again because we didn't get in until after midnight last night, but more about that later.    I am again typing by the light coming in the stained glass doors.  That is a picture of them on the right though it doesn't do them justice.  They are amber colored with dark red outlines on each small pane and the circle contain pictures of fruit in the middle.  In our walks we have seen many decorative doors and windows like these.

Walk up to Santa Margherita

Yesterday, we decided to walk to some buildings around Cortona since we knew we would have a late night.  First we walked to the Sanctuary of Santa Margherita.  This is part church, part convent on the hill above our apartment.  The walk was very steep, but pretty.

Santa Margherita

The church was very ornate inside and out.  There are no pictures of the inside because the sign indicated for no pictures to be taken, although Mike and I noticed that the four nuns that were there were taking some pictures and no one cared.  I guess if you are a nun in the church connected to a convent, you can take pictures if you want.  The walls had 13th century frescoes on them and the ceilings were painted a bright blue with different types of religious paintings on them.  At the front of the church on the alter area was the glass coffin containing the body of Santa Margherita.  The Catholics in the church seemed to be in awe of her.  I will have to research to find out about why she was so special to them.                                                        

Medici Fortress at top of the hill.

Steep steps

Path back to town

After going through the church, we walked around back and found a path through the property that led into the main part of Cortona.  We started to take the stairs down to the path, but I slipped on some loose gravel at the top and had a small fall, so we decided to take the long, less steep way down to the path.  You can see from the picture that the stairs had no hand rails.  I'm just glad that all I did was sit on my bottom with an ankle twisted under me.  It was a long way down these steps.  Along the path were altars with tiled mosaics of the Passion of Christ starting at the bottom with a representation of Christ in front of Pontius Pilate and ending at the top with a representation of Christ after being taken down from the cross, held by, we are guessing, Mary.  They were very intricate and pretty.  

One of the mosaics on the path to town

The trail took us to the lower piazza in town where we caught the bus on Thursday.  We passed by many other churches and even a building that is a part of the University of Georgia in the USA. 

Mosaic tile on the outside of one of the churches 

Pictures of a fountain in a park at the lower level of Cortona.  There were many local children playing in this park.

Fountain in park

Close up shot of the fountain

Typical Street in Cortona

After getting back to the apartment we rested for the evening we had ahead of us.  Patrizia, our hostess, picked us up in her car at 8:00 pm and took us to the small community of Pergo.  Here the locals had some tents set up with tables under them.  We joined Patrizia's daughter and son-in-law, Luccia and de Lucca, and 2 friends of Patrizia's.  deLucca (and I am just guessing about the spelling) had made reservations for our group of 7 people.  The table had a bottle each of white and red wine from a local winery and 2 large bottles of water.  I noticed that all the Italians added water to their wine, some added more than others.  After a while the meal began.  It started with the antipasto (duck liver pate on bread, some type of tomato spread on bread, proschiutto, salami, and duck sausage).  Next was the prima (first) course of soup with tiny balls of pasta and duck broth with parmesian cheese added on top, followed by the secondo (second) course of pasta with tomato sauce with duck meat, liver, and stomach.  Sounds strange, but it was really good.  Of course, the wine kept flowing as we ate.  When a bottle was emptied, another was put in its place.  I thought that I was full, but we hadn't even had the main course which was roasted duck.  When it came everyone ate like they had not eaten in a long time.  It was really delicioso.  I cannot believe how much Italians eat and drink, yet no one was fat or seemed to get drunk.  I guess eating so much and adding water to the wine kept people from getting drunk.  Just when we thought everything was ending, a server brought around bottles of Limoncello (a lemon drink with alcohol) and poured small glasses for everyone.  Then came dolce (dessert) of blackberry or apricot tarts.  Finally, small cups of extremely strong coffee for anyone that wanted it.  After that the party was over.  Of course by then it was 11:30 pm.  We had all been eating and drinking for 3 hours.  While all of this was going on, a young man would occasionally play the accordion and sing while a few people danced.  Since we were the only 2 people there that weren't speaking Italian, this was a truly unique and local experience.  We are so glad that Patrizia and Luccia asked us to join them for this festival of the wheat harvest.  

Time to get started on another day.  Tonight Patrizia is cooking a typical Italian meal for us. Can't wait.  Until next time,  Ciao, Ciao.

Lago Trasimeno and Beyond

It is morning in Cortona and I am sitting at the table with the light coming through the stained glass doors listening to the church bells ringing. One thing I love about Cortona is the many churches in and around town and the sound of the bells ringing.  The different churches do not ring their bells at the same time, nor does it seem at any set time.  We hear bells from inside the town, then behind us from the two churches up the mountain from our apartment, then below us from the valley.  Of an evening we sit on the front steps looking at the beautiful view in the valley, watching the swallows swooping to catch insects, and listening to the church bells.  It is so Italian and so peaceful.

Castiglione del Lago

Small street in the town

So on to yesterday's adventure. We decided to take our first expedition to the nearby town of Castiglione del Lago which translates literally "castle on the lake".  This is a medieval town on Lago Trasimeno with a large castle over looking the lake.  These two pictures show the outside of the town and a street inside the town.

Day 2 - The Adventure Continues

Sorry there was no post last night.  I was not able to access my blog.  We were so tired from our travels Tuesday and Wednesday that we slept until 11:00 yesterday.  After getting around we walked to the square in Cortona and caught a bus to Arezzo.  We had a car reserved at the Avis car rental there.  We really enjoyed the bus ride from Cortona to Arezzo through the little towns and countryside.  No one spoke English except us, but we were able to communicate well enough to buy the bus tickets and tell the driver where to let us off.  So far, everyone in this region is very friendly and helpful.

Mike looking at the view from the square where we caught the bus.

Rental car and parking space

We rented this car for 2 weeks.  Mike has to drive up this narrow, curvy road then back into our parking spot.   The only problem he had driving was finding the road back to our apartment.  He finally drove through the streets in the town which are very steep and narrow, but had no problem.  We walked out the road from our apartment later and found the better road here.

View from the top of the wall in the garden of our rental.  This house has a lower level that we are renting, and an upper level that Patricia, the owner lives in.  She has about 2 acres of gardens with the house and it is beautiful.  In the second picture, I am sitting on the medieval wall above the garden and house.

View of Cortona from top of  wall

Mary on wall

The gate in the wall that Mike has to drive through to get to the apartment.

Entrance into Cortona

For those who have seen or read "Under the Tuscan Sun", this is an altar in a wall like in the movie and book.  The villa in the movie, Bramesole is just above where we are staying about .5 km.

 Today we plan to drive to Lake Trasimeno which is one of the largest lakes in Italy and is about 20 km from Cortona.  Until later, Ciao.

Friday, June17, 2011, 8:24 am

Trip to Cortona

Started at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, flew to Newark, then to Rome, Italy, took the train to Camucia-Cortona, and after 20 hours are in Cortona at the apartment we have rented.  This will be short because we are both exhausted.

Flying was no problem even though our first flight was delayed because we originally had a 3 hour layover in Newark.  We got to Rome by 7:45 am Italy time.  Getting our passports checked and going through Customs was a bit of a let down though.  The passport guy didn't stamp any passports from the United States and at Customs we just walked through the door that said "No Items to Declare".  They didn't check our bags or anything.  We could have just been lying.  Not that I am complaining.

After that we bought train tickets from Fiumicino Airport to Camucia-Cortona Station from a guy that only speaks Italian.  Still no problem.  We were feeling pretty good.  Then we got to the train station in Rome.  Signs were bad, there was no place to go and ask questions, and we didn't find any place to buy something to eat or drink.  We finally found the platform (BIN) for our train.  We sat and sat and no one else was waiting.  We had asked one person who directed us to that spot.  When I asked again, a worker told us that the train was already there at a different spot so we had to hurry to get on.  No one checked our train tickets on either train.  I think Italians are more relaxed about stuff than Americans.

View of Cortona from train station

After all of this, we made it and are at our place for the next 2 weeks.  This is a view of Cortona up on the hill, between the 2 buildings in Camucia, from the train station.  Our apartment is toward the top of the hill overlooking the town.  This is about all I do for now.  I'll try to have better pictures and stories tomorrow.

Arreviderci for now.

So It Begins

After many months of planning and two days of cleaning and packing, all we have left is waiting for tomorrow.  Tomorrow, of course, is when we fly to Rome, Italy and then take a train to Cortona.  We will be spending 16 days touring Tuscany and surrounding areas.

I always enjoy the night just before a big vacation.  The excitement, anticipation, and yes, nerves about what is going to happen.  This will be the first trip Mike and I have taken out of the United States.  I'm even looking forward to getting my passport stamped!  I know, I am a nerd, but simple things like that make me happy.

So to friends and family who will be following my blog, I will do my best to post pictures and thoughts every day.  If I don't, just know that I am having too much fun to type on my blog.

Fun Day with My Grandson

This has been one of those days that make me appreciate everything in my life.  I started the day making cookies with Isaac.  We always have a good time baking together.  I really do think we could start a bake shop "Mammy and Isaac's Cookies".  We tried a new kind today called "Melt in Your Mouth Sugar Cookies".  They are good, but way to sweet for me and Mike.


Later in the day, Isaac and I went to the Aquatic Park.  Isaac swam, went down the slides, did back flips into the water, and played water basketball with other kids.  I mainly lay by the pool and read my book.  One of those perfect summer day activities.


It seems like summer, but I have 3 1/2 more days of school.  Weird.  Can't wait for school to be out so I can enjoy all the things summer has to offer.