Today we traveled to Cortona, a sleepy little village nestled into the Tuscan Hillsides a little over an hour from Florence by train, which was made famous in the US by a book and subsequent movie called Under the Tuscan Sun. While the story varies between the book and movie, the gist is that the author came here for a visit, fell in love at first sight, bought a house, and never left. Not 5 minutes out of the train station and it's easy to see why.
The train from Florence is a regional one, so you can pretty much catch it any time during the day- they leave about once every hour or so. TrenItalia has an app with an English version, so booking and changing tickets is very simple. You can also get information on the app such as what platform your train will be leaving from, delays, etc.
We caught the train at about 1:15pm, and almost immediately hit a delay. We never did find out why (though in fairness, we were in no hurry so we didn't really try), but for some reason we got under way and then sat on the track between the main Florence station and the other Florence station for about 20 minutes.
Sometimes on the longer, more direct routes you can make up time like this, but for the regional ones you're pretty much stuck- they go where they go, stop where they stop, and there's no making up time.
Frankie had researched ahead of time and learned that while Cortona has two stops, the first one is closest to the city center (where we are staying), and therefore the best one for us to get off at. Due to the delay, we arrived at that stop about 20 minutes later than scheduled. I'm not certain if that contributed or not, which is why I am mentioning it, but also in his research Frankie found that getting a cab from the station to city center was simple. There's a stand right outside the train station, and cabs come and go from there with some frequency. However, be it due to the delay, or perhaps because it's the off season, this was not the case. We stood alone at the taxi stand for about 10 minutes and no taxi came.
Another new convenience we've found since our last visit, is that there's a taxi app you can use which let's you choose between ordering a cab or an Uber black, and compares availability and price. We haven't taken many cabs on this trip, but it has been handy and we've used it twice in Florence. So, Frankie pulled it up, and found that the nearest cab was 45 minutes away in Puglia, and uber black wasn't even an option. From the train station it's only about an 8 minute drive to city center, but the walk is an hour on a winding road up a very steep hill, and even though we had only overnight bags we decided that walking was not an option.
He had also read in his research that there is a bus you can take, and while the station is very small there was a little coffee bar that was open so we popped in to inquire as to times and tickets.
The lady there was great, and informed us that the next bus was in about an hour, or we could "call a taxi". We told her we had a taxi on the way and since 45 minutes was sooner than an hour, we decided to grab a couple of coffees and wait for the cab.
No sooner had we gotten said coffees did Frankie get a notice from the app that our taxi had canceled (no doubt because driving 45 minutes for a $10/8 minute fair was pretty undesirable). At about the same time a bus pulled up to the stop outside, so we went back to the lady and asked if that was the bus we needed. She said no, that she wasn't actually sure what bus that was (it may have been a private bus), and restated our options. We told her about the issue we had with the taxi and she immediately grabbed her phone and started making a call. After a couple of calls, she informed us that a taxi would be by in 5 minutes to get us. She also told us that in Cortona, you have to call (apparently even though it's a crazy busy tourist stop thanks to the book/movie, it's still a small enough town that the app doesn't cover the area). She pointed out the list of cab companies and their phone numbers at the taxi stand, and we snapped a picture before we left so we can easily get a cab back to the station when we leave on Sunday.
True to form, the cab arrived in about 5 minutes and we were on our way! As previously mentioned, the road to the city center is winding up a steep hill, so you get a really good view of the Tuscan hills and valleys on one side, and little houses nestled into this hillside on the other. It is definitely enough to steal your heart and make you want to buy a place and stay forever, and that's just on the drive up! Towards the top of the hill there is a large wall surrounding Cortona proper, and probably by design it's difficult to see any opening where one can enter. The cab made a sharp turn into an opening that didn't seem like it was wide enough for a vehicle onto a street that back home would have been no more than an alleyway, and just like that we were safely stowed into the most adorable, quaint little medieval town you ever did see. The cab made one or two more turns, climbing further up and up the hill, and dropped us right in front of the door to our airbnb, which is absolutely adorable and has a view out the living room window of the piazza below.
We took some time to settle in, and then ventured out to look around a bit. During the height of tourist season, we've heard this place is packed, but right now we've pretty much got it to ourselves with only a few other tourists and mostly locals, which makes it pretty similar to what Frances Mayes encountered when she first came here, and as I said before it's easy to see why she hasn't left.
Business hours in Italy are different than they are in the states, with most places starting around 9 or 10, taking a break for lunch around 1230 or 1, returning mid-to-late afternoon (depending on the area), and finishing up in early evening. In larger towns and cities like Florence and Rome, this is less obvious to tourists as restaurants and shops typically remain open all day. But in smaller hamlets like this, it's business as usual.
It was just after 5pm, so most of the restaurants were still closed and wouldn't reopen for dinner until around 7:30pm. There were a few clothing and souvenir-type shops open, and the pharmacy was open, but that was about it. There was a pretty ominous looking rain storm headed our way (according to Google weather), so we decided to take the short walk to the outer wall and take in the panoramic view of the quintessential Tuscan hills. We got a little side tracked when we noticed what looked like a cute little church just in front of the wall, so we popped in there for a look. The church was unlocked, but dark inside and given the weather we couldn't see much. Frankie quickly found a sign with a little coin machine which told us that for 2 euro we could get 10 minutes of light. Thankfully we had just enough change between us, so we paid the €2 and like magic, the lights came on, revealing a church which was neither little nor cute. I suppose compared to larger towns it's size wasn't much, but given it's one of I think 3 or 4 within the city walls, and given how small the city proper is, the size was impressive.
The art was simple, but plentiful, and it was decorated mostly with paintings and a couple of statutes. The altar was exquisite, and like many churches in Tuscany decorated /flanked by marble of different colors to produce a look that would rival a great palace.
One unique thing about this church is that it has a pretty ornate baldacchino, which you don't often see in smaller churches or churches in smaller towns. It also has one of the most beautiful lecterns I have ever seen. In my research for this post, I learned that this is in fact the cathedral, so I guess that settles it-this church is neither cute nor little, but is in fact kind of a big deal. 🤣
Once our ten minutes of light was up, we popped back outside and over to the wall to take in the view. Oh my, did that not disappoint!
This is it my friends. This is the view to beat all others. This is the stuff they write poems about. This is the view that has been painted over and over, countless times by countless artists. This is the view I've now seen at least a dozen times from different angles at different times of day during different seasons from various hilltop towns and it still never disappoints, never gets old, and never fails to take my breath away.
It's like a movie.
Pictures don't do it justice. Paintings are closer, but they still don't do it justice. Poems and the written word help if you've got a good imagination, but even they can't touch the tingly, awe-inspiring, gasp-inducing, feel-it-in-your-toes breathlessness that comes every time I see it.
This is the glory of Tuscany- the lazy, effortless rolling hills as far as the eye can see, broken up by adorable little valleys neatly arranged with houses, olive trees, vineyards, forests, and farms with the occasional, meandering river winding through. Even with the storm rolling in, you feel like you can see forever, and all that forever holds is more of the same- rolling hills with picture perfect valleys filled with foliage and skies that encompass just about every color on a painter's pallet.
One minute you're in an ancient town, walking up to a wall built by the Estruscans almost 2500 years ago, and the next all you can see for miles and miles is the most perfect landscape, and you can't help but think that if Heaven has a view, it couldn't be more perfect than this. If God has a back yard my friends, I guarantee it's Tuscany.
We could see that the storm had gotten exponentially closer just in the few minutes we'd been there, and we didn't want to get caught too far from our place when it hit, so we began heading that way, stopping here and there to take in more of the view, or catch little glimpses of this adorable town we get to explore for the next two days.
We waited out the storm in the airbnb, venturing out towards the end for dinner. Cortona has several excellent dining options, including some with Michelin ratings, but we opted for an osteria with more traditional Tuscan cuisine.
The place is adorable and the food is exquisite. We opted to share several things so we were able to try a variety, and with the help/recommendation of the waiter we settled on a menu fit for a king:
Pumpkin flan with steak tartare to start, followed by tagliolini pasta with duck ragu and caramelle pasta filled with pine nuts, pork, and raddicio, and a main course of pigeon filled with salami, celeriac, and grapes, in a Vin santo sauce.
The pumpkin flan was cheesey and delicious (as was the tartare, but the flan was definitely the star of that dish). Both pasta dishes were tasty in their own right, and very different, but the caramelle stole the show. It was light, and each bite was filled with flavor but not overpowering. The pigeon was absolutely delicious, and while I get why they stuffed it, I could have done with less of the stuffing and more of the bird, which tasted a bit like dark chicken meat, but richer.
We ordered a local dessert called millefleur. It was kind of a custard served in a Mason jar. I'd love to describe it more, but honestly I found it pretty bland and tasteless, so I only had a couple of bites.
Between courses at some point, I popped into the restroom and found that it is the stuff of nightmares... Dolls. So many dolls. In every nook. In every cranny. Hanging from the ceiling. Face down on the floor. Ahead of you. Behind you. Above you. Below you.
So. Many. Dolls.
It was terrifying.
I watched a documentary a couple of weeks ago on Max about a doll in Florida that is cursed. I'm not certain that any of these dolls are similar portals to hell, but I had a sneezing fit in the bathroom, and spent the rest of dinner suffering from a pretty severe allergy attack, so here's hoping it was due to something normal like the fresh flower bouquet on the table, and not a demon doll out to get me. I Googled demon dolls of Cortona and other variations and didn't find anything that would definitively lead me to seek out a priest for a quick exorcism, so here's hoping...
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