Cortona
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Cortona is a hilltop town in Tuscany, about an hour east of Siena. It is the setting for Francis Mayes book "Under the Tuscan Sun". HERE's the view from a top the city wall. |
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The obligatory city wall. We marvel at them (and have nothing like this in the US), but it makes sense-
all the towns and cities without walls were raped and pillaged into oblivion- so all the survivoring cities probably have walls..! Cortona is not a "pedestrian-only" city, but this gate sure makes it look that way. |
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The city hall. It's a bit hard to see, but it's covered with various stone placques. Every time there was a new ruler, he stuck his family's placque on the wall...! |
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Cortona had it's share of step-covered hills, but it wasn't as bad as some of the others. HERE's a typical street scene. |
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We even stumbled across this school yard. We told the girls they'd be attending this school when we moved there, but they weren't impressed... |
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We had a terrific day in Cortona! It was overcast and breezy all day (so not hot at all). And there weren't many tourists...! So we sat down for a leisurely lunch... |
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... of bruschetta, caprese salad, and wine. |
| And i was able to get my obligatory embarassing vacation picture of MJ eating! Score! |  |
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On the drive there and back, we also saw acres and acres of sunflowers... Not sure what they use them for, but there were lots of them! |