Today we ventured even further from the villa and visited the cities of Castiglion Fiorentino and Cortona.
Castiglion Fiorentino is a medieval city built upon an Etruscan city dating back to the 4th century BC.The city features nine arches in the Piazza del Comune overlooking the valley to the northeast. If you squint, you might see Carol, Chris and Carrie below the center arch.The view of the valley to the northeast from where Carol and company stood in the previous picture. The tall tower on the right is part of the Collegiata di San Giuliano Catholic Church.We climbed to the top of Castiglion Fiorentino and walked around the Piazzale del Cassero. The panorama above shows the view to the north including the library on the right, the Torre Del Cassero in the center, and Carol, Chris, and Carrie on the wall to the left.Chris fearlessly climbed on the ruins of the fortress wall and took in the view of the valley to the west.Carrie and Carol joined Chris on the wall for this picture. Castello di Montecchio Vesponi is visible in the distance about 2 miles to the south.Carol and Carrie emerge from the base of Torre Del Cassero (Cassero Tower). The tower was built around 1350 and still houses a bell placed at the top in 1804. It also supports a few mobile phone antennas which standout as modern touches on an otherwise ancient structure.We then walked back down to the nine arches and ate lunch at Antico Caffé La Posta. The view out the window was stunning and iconic of Tuscany.This was our first meal out on our own in Italy and Dave managed to order everything in Italian (that is to say, the staff could understand his attempt at speaking Italian).Carol had a beautiful fruit parfait which tasted as good as it looked.Our drive out of Castiglion Fiorentino took us down this street that, much to our surprise and relief, had an outlet big enough for our car. Many of the neighborhoods in Italian cities had strong identities and unique flags, as shown in this picture, to distinguish themselves.
Our second destination of the day was the city of Cortona. Cortona was featured in the book Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes. We walked into the city through the Ghibelline Gate which is the only surviving gate from the original Etruscan settlement and dates back to the third or fourth century BC (although we marveled at the entrance, we neglected to get a picture of it).
We walked several blocks up hill to the Piazza Repubblica where we did a little shopping and found the town hall mentioned in Under the Tuscan Sun. “A fourteenth-century town hall with twenty-four broad stone steps dominates the Piazza della Repubblica. The steps server as ringside seats at night when everyone is out having a gelato – a fine place to take in the evening spectacle below.”Right around the corner is the Piazza Signorelli. A fountain was temporarily placed in the piazza for a scene in the movie Under the Tuscan Sun (the fountain was placed in front of the bank shown on the right in the picture above).Next, we went back to the Piazza Repubblica and took Frances’s advice and had a gelato.In this shot you can get some sense of the incline of the city.Back at the villa, Steve and Susie arranged an authentic Italian meal from a local caterer.It was an enjoyable end to a great day of touring. Buona notte!
