A Day in Cortona!

January 5, 2011

This morning I woke up at 7:15 so I could get ready and make it to the train station around 8:40ish so we could buy our tickets to Cortona and catch the 9:28 train! Danielle, Marissa, and I are now pros at using the machines in the train station to buy our tickets, and once we all had tickets in hand we realized that our train just arrived at the station, so we validated our tickets and hopped on! Our train was heading into the station Camucia – Cortona, which is about 5 km from the center of Cortona. I had google-mapped the directions from the station to the center of Cortona and it said it would be about a 45 minute walk, which I didn’t think was really all that bad. However, as we started approaching Cortona (a hill town) we realized we would probably die if we walked to Cortona because it would have been a 45 minute walk up and around hills. Luckily as we were getting off the train this girl who was an English-speaking student from Florence told us that her friend came here last weekend and took a bus up to Cortona for only 1 euro. So of course we decided that was a tremendous deal and would save our legs, which were still quite sore from yesterday. We got on the bus without a ticket because the area around the train station was quite deserted, and we noticed it was primarily used as a turn-around point for cars. The bus driver pulled over at the first Tabacchi shop so we could buy our tickets and hop back on the bus that took us up and around and around and up…basically there wouldn’t have been any way possible to walk up to Cortona from the station. 

Once we got dropped off we were amazed at the view..it was so beautiful and we were so high up! It was still hazy from being early in the morning because we arrived before noon, but the countryside was breathtaking and we were ready to start exploring! Last night I brought up a couple maps on my computer and took a picture of them for reference walking around the city since we don’t really have any maps of different cities besides Florence and Europe as whole. But the three of us basically decided that we would wander in whatever direction our hearts desired because we had all day to get back to the bus stop and pictures of maps to help us. So we took a right and started going up this huge slope and the higher we got the more incredible the view was! We didn’t want to stop and turn back around so we kept walking further and further up the super cobble-y road that was extremely steep. Along our walk we discovered these stone arches that had a mosaic-type picture on the inside…they seemed to line the entire path we were walking and we assumed they were some sort of religious figures, but weren’t quite sure what they meant. However, the more we walked we realized that they had numbers underneath of them, and I believe they were probably depictions of the Stations of the Cross! I thought they were pretty cool but when all of a sudden we thought the pathway ended it actually just took a turn to the left and we discovered an even bigger incline. We climbed all the way to the top to discover we had climbed to the tippy-top of Cortona! And at the very top with us was Convento di S. Margherita – one of the most beautiful churches I have seen so far with by far the greatest view! We hung around the church for a little while and walked down a couple of the little paths near it and discovered one of our worst nightmares – the bathrooms that are basically holes in the ground…gross! After taking some pictures we decided to head back down where we came from since the map didn’t really indicate the church and I didn’t want to get us lost. 

We walked back down and were walking around a couple streets when we realized that whoever created the streets of this town must have been on drugs because they were so curvy and places that we thought were alleyways were actually streets and one street changed names within a hundred feet…clearly our map was very deceiving. We took a break on these steps which I discovered were the steps in front of the church of St. Francis! I walked around the church for a little bit when the girls and I agreed we were starving and we needed to find the city center in order to find a place to eat. I sat on the steps looking at the picture of my map when I realized we were on a road that led right down to the city square, but we were highly unaware because the street we had to walk down looked like an alley and basically dropped almost vertically down into the city center. But once down the alley we literally were in the square of the city and it was so lively – people were sitting on the steps of the townhall or just standing around talking with one another – highly unlike the quiet and deserted streets that we had been walking around. 

From the center of town there were streets that split in almost every single direction with food and museum signs pointing in literally every single direction, so we had to just pick one way and go with it if we wanted to eat at some point during the day. We walked along and found this cute trattoria that this older Italian couple were standing outside of. We read their menu outside and Danielle and Marissa spotted gnocchi in a truffle sauce, while I had been craving pizza and saw a huge list of pizzas…this was the place for us! The lady came and took our order and I asked her which pizza was the best and she told me the very last one which was a pizza with tomato (meaning red sauce), mozzarella, onion, and prosciutto (ham)…sounds good enough for me! They brought out our dishes and my pizza was enormous just like every other pizza you order in Italy. Danielle absolutely loved the gnocchi in truffle sauce, while Marissa wasn’t too sure of it. I instantly started devouring my pizza which literally had big round sliced of onion placed all over the pizza with long slices of ham that looked like bacon laid all across the top. Knowing me I ate every single morsel of the pizza as well as a few bites of Marissa’s gnocchi..so yummy! 

I was extremely content and we headed out of the restaurant to discover a sign for a chocolate store. We headed in that direction and found a tourist office that Danielle and I stopped in to ask about our bus tickets…we weren’t sure if we could use the same ticket to get back to the train station, or if we had to buy a new one. The woman told us our ticket was a one-way ticket and sold us tickets for the bus ride back to Camucia – Cortona station. Just a little ways down the street was the chocolate shop. We walked in and it smelled so heavenly I don’t think words could describe. Our eyes wandered all over the store as there was a case of large desserts, a case of pastries, a case of chocolates, little gifts that had chocolates inside, hot chocolate…basically anything you could think of! We started talking to the owner and he explained a lot of the different little treats and told us what his three favorites were. I ended up getting a little chocolate coffee mug that was filled with this coffee flavored cream that was the consistency of caramel, as well as this little cookie-type pastry that had chocolate in the center. Each of the little treats were only 70 cents a piece, which is an outrageously good deal! Especially for how DELICIOUS they were! After we said our grazie’s and ciao’s we decided to walk to the end of the street which had another amazing view! We walked along the edge of the town and just sat on top of this wall for the longest time just enjoying our surroundings and soaking up the sun. 

Once we had our fill I asked if the girls were ready to head to Bramasole (the house from Under the Tuscan Sun). We realized we were a lot closer to the road than we had expected and set off in the right direction. My research and directions indicated that to get to the Bramasole house, which is actually the original house that the author Frances Mayes lived in, you had to walk all the way through the Giardini Pubblici, at the end of the garden there would be a tennis club, and from there you were to walk uphill about 1 km and the house would be on the left-hand side. The Giardini Pubblici was absolutely gorgeous and was basically a pathway in the middle of two lines of trees that extended for forever and ever. On the one side was tall earth, while on the other the ground just dropped off and you could see all of the land and houses below…again, another stunning view. At the entrance of the garden were some statues and fountains, a large stone auditorium/stadium-type seating, as well as a little playground. It seemed like the rows of trees never ended though, and we continued walking, walking, and walking some more when we finally found the tennis club! We curved around the tennis club and started uphill. I was told by the lady in the tourist office that the house number for Bramasole was 151, and when we started walking the first house that we saw was number 170 with no other houses in sight. Marissa and Danielle were quite skeptical and thought this was going to be a long hike, and Marissa pointed to a house across this valley to our right and swore that that was probably the Bramasole house. However, I didn’t give up hope and persisted that we keep walking just a little further, just a little further. It seemed like we had been walking wayyyy over 1 km when we decided to take a break on this stone and the girls were hinting at maybe walking back when I leaned forward and was like “waitttt…I think that’s it!” I popped up and low and behold right around the bend from where we were sitting was Bramasole! It even had number 151 outside the gate to confirm what I thought I was seeing! Aunt Lisa would be so proud! I took quite a few pictures and made the girls who were halfway down the street heading back to the center of Cortona take my picture in front of it because it was definitely an accomplishment worth documenting! Finally we were able to turn back around happy and go back to the bus stop because we had had our fair share of Cortona! Back down the hill past the countryside view, back through the never ending row of trees, and onto a bench to wait for the bus which was to come in about 15 minutes…perfect timing! 

We got on this little bus along with about 20 other American students who were from a university in Oklahoma. The one girl told me that they lived in Arezzo, which I guess is only about 20 minutes from Cortona. We all arrived at the train station and Marissa, Danielle, and I validated our tickets and found out that there was a train going to Santa Maria Novella (our train station) that was to arrive in less than 10 minutes…perfect timing! We were so happy to get on the train and off our feet, have a snack that we packed in our purses, and relax until we made it home. Once the train pulled into station we quickly hopped off and got out of there – we couldn’t wait to just go home! However, we all realized there were a few things we needed from the grocery store, so we stopped at Conad on our way home. I made my last two mini hot dogs and ate my leftover pomadoro rice for dinner. Danielle and Marissa have me hooked on watching the show Pretty Little Liars with them online, so we watched the last two episodes and realized we couldn’t handle ourselves any longer…it was time for bed! What another rewarding and successful day!

Chiesa Di S. Marco (the church of Saint Mark)

Early morning haze, but it's still so beautiful!

One of the arches with the different mosaic pictures inside which I think are the Stations of the Cross.

The incline up to the top...almost there!

The last arch before we arrived to the top at the church.

Convento Di S. Margharita

Another smaller church next to S. Margharita

The disgusting hole-in-the-ground bathrooms!

The crazy winding and curvy streets of Cortona.

Chiesa Di S. Francesco (the church of St. Francis)

The public square or Cortona.

My amazing onion and ham pizza!

My mini chocolate coffee up and chocolate filled pastry from the chocolate shop!

The view at the end of the street that the chocolate shop was on.

There are many Etruscan sights and tombs around Cortona.

From one of the lowest points of Cortona looking up. See that church at the very top
of the hill? That would be S. Margharita..the first church we visited.

There was a fitness gym at the top of this building...having the view from the top
of this building would be the greatest incentive to working out EVER!

The entrance to Giardini Pubblici.

The stone auditorium/stadium seating in the garden.

The endless row of trees.

The beautiful countryside we walked along on our way to find Bramasole.

We made it!

Bramasole!

So happy to have finally found Bramasole!