Our train from Venice left late in the morning.  It took us three trains to get to the tiny Tuscan hilltown of Cortona, and it was absolutely gorgeous riding through the Italian countryside.  The red poppies were starting to dot the landscape and I saw so many little villages that I wish we had time to explore. 

When we got to our stop, it was late afternoon.  The train left us at a quiet, empty train station, looking up at Cortona on the hill.   We waited for a bus to come and it did,-  a gigantic bus that looked even more giant as it navigated through the tiny, winding roads up into the city.  It dropped us off along the main road in town, and we walked down it- past a gelato stop, pottery stores, a bakery, a hat shop.  And there was our hotel.

After staying in pretty basic and bare 2-star hotels in Paris, Nice and Venice, our 4-star hotel in Cortona made me feel like royalty.  Our luggage was attended to, our room was beautiful and roomy and our bathroom was triple the size of any of the bathrooms we had up until that point – and had a real walk-in shower! (not just a tub with a hand-held showerhead!) 

After checking in, we headed out to see what Cortona was all about.  And our first view at the landscape below literally took my breath away.   Now this is what I traveled across the ocean to see.

We were pretty hungry, so we grabbed lunch at a little cafe.  Funnel had a pretty un-photo-worthy sandwich, and I had tuscan bread soup.  It had potoatoes and beans and big chunks of Italian bread in it.  (I’ve been trying to find a recipe for it since we’ve been home – no such luck.  All the ones I’ve found have been tomato-based).

After lunch, we wandered around town a bit and headed up the long, winding road that went above the town and up the mountain…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 at 5:56 am and is filed under traveling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.