Notable Times: Europe 7: Cortona and back to Siena

On July 5, 2022, Linette, Sienna and I drove a little over an hour through the beautiful Tuscan countryside.

Cortona

Soon we arrived at the charming hill town of Cortona.

As we ascended the road to the town, the views were wonderful.

Even Linette couldn't take her eyes off of it! (JK, she did great).

In the distance we could see Lake Trasimeno, which was the site of Hannibal's ambush of the Roman army in 217 B.C.

We had to hike up a bit of a hill from the parking lot to get to the town, but we were surprised to find escalators that kindly took us on up.

At the top of the climb, we arrived at Piazza Garibaldi, where we were rewarded with a shaded bench offering a spectacular view.

As we walked through the cute town, we saw beautiful alleys and stairways.

The Piazza della Repubblica is apparently the center of town.

We got some fruit to tide us over until lunch.

The narrow streets were flanked by tall buildings, as usual.

Cortona was originally an Umbrian city, later conquered and enlarged by the Etruscans. Parts of the Etruscan city wall are still visible as the basis of the existing wall that still surrounds the town. Rome later colonized the town, and then it was sacked and destroyed in the Gothic War (535-554). It later became its own city-state and then got conquered, sold the Medici family in 1411, and eventually became part of the Kingdom of Italy, along with the rest of Tuscany.

One way to increase square footage is to overhang the street a bit.

I thought this mailbox was cute. "Speedy delivery!"

From the northwestern corner of town right next to the Cortona Cathedral, there was another great view of the other side of the valley below.

From there we could see a big cemetery (Cimitero della Misericordia).

We went into the Cortona Cathedral, and it was very nice. It was built over the remains of an ancient Roman temple by at least the 11th century. It was strange getting used to things that were 1000 years old or more.

Here Sienna attempts to decipher inscriptions on the floor.

The pulpit was ornate.

Next we hiked along the outer row of houses. Just to the left of those cars is the top of the city wall, looking down on the street below.

I saw these socks hanging along the wall and thought that was funny.

We reached another city gate and got another look at the walls from outside. (The path we were walking on above was just to the right of this, right up by the top of the wall).

Back inside town, we found a square and decided to eat there.

I had something grey called a hamburger (it was fine), and Linette got the caprese salad (tomatoes and slabs of fresh mozzarella).

Afterwards, Sienna and I went next door to the Gelateria Snoopy, where we got some really great gelato.

The "Tabacchi" (tobacco) shops are where you get postage stamps, mail letters, and get postcards.

Meanwhile, Isabel had taken her test in Belgium, and had taken an overnight train to Milan. She was working her way towards Florence and then on to Siena.

So we wended our way back out of town, enjoying the sights along the way.

We opted not to hike to the very top of town where there is a fortress and another church.

There was no escalator going down, but it was an easy walk in that direction.

And the views along the way were great.

We drove on a pretty but narrow road to go visit the Monastery of St. Francis "Le Celle".

The parking lot was next to an unassuming building with a little gate that was open.

Through that gate was a stone path that led to a big complex of buildings.

We crossed a bridge that went over a dry waterfall.

The Convent de Le Celle is a 13th-century Franciscan Convent, where St. Francis of Assisi himself lived for a time, in this very room.

There is a cypress grove there, and a fun stone bridge that spans the river.

Here you can see the walkway leading up to the parking lot above, just beyond the small building.

I walked down to the bridge below.

The ivy, heat, bugs and smells reminded me of my childhood in Kensington, California.

Here's a little video that might give a sense for what it was like to walk along there.

Meanwhile, Sienna was just chilling on a stone wall in the shade.

We checked out the little chapel there on our way out.

In the book Under the Tuscan Sun, author Frances Mayes describes her experience as a recently divorced woman, of buying a villa in Tuscany, just outside of Cortona, and fixing it up, while becoming immersed in the local culture and community. A movie was made based on her book, and I watched that on the plane on the way to Europe.

So while we were in the area, we dropped by the actual villa that she restored. She and her husband still live there about half the time, spending the rest in their other home in North Carolina. (She is now 82).

The villa is named Bramasole, and the author's name ("Mayes") is still right there on the mailbox. Linette was having a delightful experience there, so she decided to write the author a letter.

She stuck it in the mailbox, and we'll see if she ever hears back from her.

On our way back from visiting there, we saw this fixer-upper villa for sale. Interesting...

After that, we drove to the bottom of the hill, where we could see Cortona looking down on us.

There were some Etruscan tombs down there at the Archeological Park of Sodo, so we checked it out. It wasn't especially extensive, but it was kind of cool (though also extremely hot outside).

I'm not sure we were supposed to go inside this one, but we were clearly the only ones there, besides the receptionist sitting in the air conditioned visitor's center.

The tunnel had thick stone slabs.

Inside were a bunch of spreader bars holding up the excavated stones to keep them from falling over.

Once inside in the shade, Sienna read a description of the tomb from the pamphlet we got. These tombs date back to several hundred years B.C.

Another tomb was in rougher shape.

But this beautifully-carved staircase showed how the mound used to look all the way around it.

Finally we walked over to another tomb that had 7 chambers in it that we could walk through, though a swarm of flies appeared to be guarding the entrance.

Here's a little video of entering the tomb from the outside:

The pigeons seemed to especially like this one roof.

I learned that young sunflowers follow the sun during the day (by growing faster on one side and then the other), and then turn back around at night to prepare to follow the sun again. A study showed that they'll do this rhythm even if you put them in total darkness, indicating that it's an internal circadian rhythm. But once they are full grown, they keep pointing east, attracting morning pollinators like bees. I also learned that the Spanish word for sunflower is "girasol" (literally, "turn-sun"), which I thought was cool.

Pienza

The guy at our AirBnB in Siena heard that we were driving to Cortona, and he recommended that we stop in the little town of Pienza along the way, so we did.

Pienza is located in the Val d'Orcia, a beautiful valley in Tuscany that runs along the Orcia river. Pienza was inhabited by the 800s A.D., but when a guy who was born there became Pope Pius II, he had the entire village rebuilt "as an ideal Renaissance town" and renamed it Pienza ("city of Pius").

It was yet another adorable medieval town with narrow streets and fun arches.

It sat on a hill with great views of the valley below.

Linette stopped to smell the flowers, and Sienna tried to catch a butterfly on her finger.

It was a toasty day, but we often found shade.

It is a tiny town, so we soon found our way to the main Duomo (cathedral).

It had impressive pillars and arches that were somewhat novel for the time.

The ceilings show how the various arches interact to support each other.

I wonder if this is where the conductor puts the hymn book when leading the choir?

I liked the maze of walls around the place.

Here is a little model of this part of town, showing the cathedral with its bell tower and, off to the left, the town hall with its tower adorned by battlements.

And here is the actual town hall just outside.

Like I said, it was a very hot day, so we got gelato (ice cream) and a granita (lemon slushie).

In the U.S., it seems like houses are built on the sides of hills, but in Italy, the put them right on top, where they have a spectacular view, and where everyone can see them. Fortunately, they're beautiful to look at, so this works out great.

Hello, friends!

The Val d'Orcia really was gorgeous.

Siena

We drove to the northwest corner of Siena, where we could park for free, and went to go find Isabel, who had arrived a few minutes before us. Along the way, we saw part of the old Fortezza Medicea (the Medici fortress of Siena), which was built in 1563, just after the final defeat of Siena by its long-standing rival, Florence.

Right next to the fortress, we found Isabel, just back from her whirlwind trip to Belgium for a university exam.

We gave her a quick tour of Siena.

And we found a random place to eat dinner.

We retraced our steps through some of our favorite roads, like this one with the double arches.

It was fun to have Isa with us again.

Here's Sienna doing her imitation of the ceramic fish.

Here you can see the three girls dwarfed by the Duomo.

The sunset was hitting the cathedral, and it looked so beautiful. (The girls are on the front steps).

The angel at the top has wings and a spear, so you probably don't want to mess with it.

As the sun started to set, we felt like we were starting to say good-bye.

The other place we took Isabel was the main square (Il Campo). Sienna took this shot. :)

Everything seemed subdued in the warm colors of the sunset.

In the day since we were last here, they had apparently cleaned the dirt off of part of the race track.

Sienna was into saying good-bye.

Aww. Siena is sweet.

Sienna mailed some post cards from Siena. Maybe they'll arrive someday.

I bought a postcard and sent it to my folks, since Dad is a postal man himself. I sat out in the middle of the square to write.

While I was there I looked over to see where the girls were.

Well, well, well, what have we here?

I got some peach gelato that I found incredible, and the lemon gelato was so smooth. This might have been the best gelato of the trip.

On our way back to the car, we heard the drums again and saw the end of a procession of the Dragon neighborhood strutting their stuff once more.

As we drove around the outside of town to get back to our AirBnB on the opposite side, we stopped to get one last picture of a Siena sign.

And we caught the sunset again from our window.

And here's a little poem to summarize our time in Siena.

"Siena is hot"—a hundred degrees,

"Siena is cool", at least with a breeze,

or in a stone church, or with a gelato,

(if you haven't had one, then you really ought to).

Siena is surrounded by a medieval wall,

she hasn't grown much, so "Siena is small",

but look at the Duomo, and it's pretty tall,

and so is the tower that's by the town hall.

The Duomo has stripes made of black and white stone,

and sculptures and paintings right up to its dome.

We'll miss the cute streets and the great ice cream cones.

We weren't there for long, but it still felt like home.

We love Siena.

UPDATE: While we were exploring Siena, I had a little tune going through my head with some of the above words, so I ended up making a song out of it, and then making a music video out of the song. Andrew Wilson happily lent his opera voice to help me with the end of the song. I wanted an Italian-sounding mandolin, and my sister Sharon reminded me that her old college roommate, Amy Daves, played the mandolin in a band. Amy was kind enough to provide a tremolo for the end of the song. Finally, Rick Steves Europe had a clip of the Palio (horse race) that was perfect, and they were gracious in granting me permission to use that.

So without further ado, here is the video of Sienna in Siena: