Blogs from Cortona, Tuscany, Italy, Europe

Italy, Day 9, Wednesday, October 12, Chianchiano and Cortona Before leaving for Cortona, we visited the Etruscan Museum of Chianciano. The museum was built over an Etruscan archeological site, but I have heard over and over that if you put a shovel in the ground in Tuscany you would very likely come up with an Etruscan relic. Etruscans are called the ‘mystery people’ because the only thing left to inform us about how they lived are their remains in cemeteries. The Necropolis of Tolle, located near the Castelluccio di Pienza, is one such cemetery. The Etruscans date back to roughly 700 BC. Those Etruscans who lived on the coast traded with Egyptians and Greeks (the Greeks populated much of the southern part of Italy at that time) to get such treasures as ivory and gold. Their ... read more

Under the Tuscan Sun Cortona, Italy 8/24 - 9/4: Our journey to Cortona and another workaway experience had a wonderful start. Coming from Florence, we took a train and made a stop at Arezzo for a little day excursion before arriving into Cortona in the evening. Arezzo, where the Oscar winning movie “A Beautiful Life” was filmed, was the essence of Tuscan beauty. It is a walled city, with many stone fortifications still in tact, which fosters a feeling of antiquity while walking through the cobbled streets. The houses are made with the same ancient stone, many looking unchanged for hundreds of years. Flowers are ever present delicately hanging from beautiful terraces and balconies, while flags bearing the coat of arms of Arezzo are adorned proudly on every corner. We gladly wander the streets, following the ... read more

Moral of the story - remember to check the time reception opens if you want to get off early. Suzy was unhooked from her umbilical cord, Sion was sitting ready in the passenger seat, water was taken on board and the loo was empty. Only problem if you needed to get away before 9 you needed to pay the night before . Doh as Homer Simpson says, Standing outside the reception it was obvious we had 50 mins wait before the cash office opened and we could pay , pick up our ACSI card and passport and move on. The time was spent watching a lone jogger running a circuit around the road, we worked out how long it took her to do a circuit and then got bored. We watched walkers taking their hunds for ... read more

We started the day early, but didn't get out the door of the hotel until the 10 am. We were going to wait for the hotel shuttle, but a taxi / limo was dropping off a family from Canada and was able to take Francesca and I to the Roma Termini. Then we could make the 11:13 train to Cortona. We got into the termini without any incident. The lines to the biglietti (ticket) windows were terribly long. We wanted to be sure to get our return ticket and information on the schedule. When I checked on line the day earlier, there seemed to be trains running into the late night. It didn’t seem that this wait would be in our best interest. We opted to purchase tickets at the automatic Biglietti (ticket machine) with a ... read more

We woke up at a ridiculous 3:30 in the AM. Due to good planning we were on our way to catching the 4 AM airport shuttle in time for our 6 AM flight; until Dan realized he had forgotten his passport. We were only on Victoria street; (and thankfully only halfway up at that) so had time to rush back to the hostel and grab it. We were still able to make the 4:15 bus. We zipped through check-in and security at the airport and only had to wait about half an hour for boarding. Ashley quickly passed out as soon as we took off, while Dan read most of the flight (except for a 15 minute nap while he tried to listen to a podcast). Landing in Italy was a little bumpy, but there was ... read more