Ciao from Cortona!
Cortona is just over an hour train ride from Assisi. It cost a whopping 4 euros (= 6$ CAD); no wonder so many people travel by train here - it's so affordable! We arrived in Camucia where we were to take a local bus up the mountain to Cortona. Only problem is, we arrived during sieste! Nothing was open except for a little bar, where we were told the Tabacchi would open at 3pm. You have to buy bus tickets in advance here; they don't sell them on the bus. It was 2:45 pm, so we found a bench in the shade and waited. And waited. And waited. By about 3:25, I called our B&B in Cortona to let him know we had arrived, but were still waiting. Turns out he had to come pick up his son at daycamp and he could pick us up himself at the stazione de treni. So it all worked out perfetto!
We were both pretty tired when we arrived at our B&B... The heat is quite draining, but who cares - I'm in Italy!! The heat drains me in Ottawa too... :-) We strolled around a bit, had dinner (a delicious locally made pasta called "pici" in a sauce of tomato, cream, bacon & rosemary - ymu!) and went to bed quite early. I slept for 10 hours and woke up refreshed and ready to go. Or I should say, ready to climb. Cortona is on a mountain and there is only one street in the whole town that is not on an incline. Not surprisingly, that's where most of the shops are.
Although there are some similarities, Cortona is very different than Assisi. It's more rustic and a bit darker. The "streets" are less refined (stones are bigger and rougher) and many of the buildings are taller. And it's obvious that people live here... This morning, we saw people tending their teeny-tiny gardens, sawing wood in front of their homes, running errands... We climbed up to the Sanctuary of St. Margaret and to the medieval fort for some stunning views. We'll likely go back tomorrow (Wednesday) morning in order to have more time to meditate in the Basilica. We had to leave today because they close from noon 'til 3pm.
Cortona is not very big and it won't take us 3 days to visit the whole town. We'll either enquire about day trips to neighbouring towns, or we'll simply take it easy and relax in the piazza with cappucino e gelato!
A presto amici...
Pace e bene,
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1 comment:
Ah yes, the sieste. Meditation, and dealing with the Italian pace. There's something deep there JAG. Sounds like you're in the correct from of mind. Of course, if want to crank it up a little bit, head south: the further you go, the hotter it gets, and the more sieste takes over. La vita รจ bella, no?
Keep it coming.
Giacomo
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