Funnel and I continued ascending the hill above the town of Cortona. 

At one point, we ran into an American and talked with him for a bit.  He’s a professor with the University of Georgia, which has a study-abroad program in Cortona.  He was currently there with a group of students, teaching a course on wine grapes.  He told us a bit about the area and made some suggestions of some places in Cortona to expore. 

The road we were traveling on took us to a church at the top of the hill.  As we were standing out front looking at it, a young, beareded priest in a long, brown, hooded robe came out to talk to us.  He was Italian, but his English was perfect.  He told us about Frances Mayes, the American author who wrote “Under the Tuscan Sun” and some other memoirs about Tusacany, and lives in Cortona.  (She’s the reason I picked Cortona as one of the places we would visit).  He was super nice, as were most of the Italians we talked to.    After he went inside, Funnel whispered to me, “He looks like Friar Tuck” . 

Behind the church, we found a path that led back down the hillside, into the town.  Imbedded in the walls were the “Stations of the Cross” that showed the story of Jesus and his crucifixion and resurrection. 

After our walk up and down the hillside, it was time for dinner.  Our hotel had made some suggestions for us, so we checked out one of them, Trattoria La Grotta. 

We had a wonderful candlelit dinner: I had really good chicken, Funnel had really good steak, and we split a huge pitcher of really good red wine that only cost 5 Euros.  I love how dinners are drawn out over there.  When you have dinner, that seat is yours for the rest of the evening – there is no pressure to pay quickly and leave so the next couple can sit down.  Funnel and I lingered for a long time over our wine, talking and playing a trivia game that we made up, which ended up turning into a Star Wars trivia game (maybe we had a little too much wine.. haha).

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