String Of Butterflies: Arezzo and Cortona

Italy blog post#6

While in the region, Brie and I wanted to see more of Tuscany. Picking the where and for how long was the difficulty. We ended up falling for description of Arezzo and Cortona, described in a 'tour' with the Tours in Tuscany group. Their description:

"In Arezzo, clients will visit the recently restored fresco cycle by Piero della Francesca of the Legend of the True Cross. Medieval walls, Renaissance palaces, Romanesque Churches and a museum of the home of Giorgio Vasari court artist and architecture of the Medici of Florence adequately round off the morning tour. The city's quaint streets bustling with locals were the backdrop for Roberto Benigni's oscar-award winning 1999 Life is Beautiful. Every first week-end of the month it houses the most interesting outdoor antique market. Cortona, once an Etruscan town, is situated at 600 mt. (about 2000 ft.) embracing a view over the whole Valdichiana and the Trasimeno lake which has been the theatre of the famous Hannibal's ambush of the Roman army back in 217 BC. The Tuscan hilltown made famous by Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun, is a lovely afternoon visit with its vistas, pristine streets and local shops (http://www.toursintuscany.com/excursions/arezzo-cortona.php)." While we were mistaken in thinking we were going on a guided tour, and not just a shuttle service (with our driver answering Brie's questions about the region), we never would have gotten to see these towns without the 'tour,' and I might add they were quite lovely towns.

We were taking this trip on a Sunday, a day when most things are closed in most of Europe. Nevertheless, in Arezzo, this Sunday was antique Sunday, the first Sunday of every month. Arezzo is quite well known as the place to go for antiques. We climbed up the high hill to the cathedral, passing by many booths that were being set up. We quickly slipped inside and realized we would have just a short time (15-30 minutes), to peek around before Sunday mass. This was by far not the grandest cathedral, quite a simple one as compared to some of the other ones we've seen. The church itself was built over the burial spot of Donatus of Arezzo, who was martyred in 363. In the 1200s, Pope Innocent III had the cathedral moved inside the city's walls where it now stands. The façade was designed by Dante Viviani, and the side of the church is part of an original medieval building built in sandstone, the apse windows date back to the 1300s. Even though the church lost the relics (ick) of Donatus to another church, there are many features, including a large arch that are dedicated to him.

Looking back at part of our hike

Interesting signage

Arezzo cathdral

The front of the cathedral

View of the antique market from the cathedral

Cathedral organ

The arch for Donatus

Inside the church

The ceiling

The old garb of Medieval times

Another steep street

Random door knocker

A view of the countryside

The beautiful leaves

A random wall with coat of arms on it

Antiques market

Dogs chasing the pigeons

Back up to the park

Antiques market

Antiques market (notice diving helmet at the bottom right)

After we viewed the cathedral, we wandered about the park surrounding the area, and watched dogs chase mass amounts of pigeons and watched them fly off in mass. Why people keep feeding these flying rats is beyond me. They are not skinny pigeons by any means, they waddle a little extra as they are nice and plump. We then proceeded to walk down to the Piazza Grande, where the bulk of the antiquities market was being held. We even saw an old diving helmet from the first half of the last century. All along the way, everyone was walking their dog, and the dogs were dressed up in pretty cute clothes too to keep them warm. This was a trend throughout Italy, dogs dressed better than some people being totted around with their owners, if I would have thought of it sooner, I would've taken more photos of dogs and their owners. After a quick bit, it was time to meet up with the driver again, and off to Cortona we went.

If I thought Siena was on a hilltop, it had nothing on Cortona. There was 1 flat street way towards the top. All the rest you had to take a long hike to get anywhere. I could easily see why they filmed Under the Tuscan Sun here, it is very beautiful. We walked around for about 10 minutes before debating where to try to have lunch- should we do more traditional or should we do something with a menu that was a little more innovative and unique? We went for unique of course, and it was a very good choice, Il Preludio, if you are in the region, you should definitely got there (http://www.ilpreludio.net/ristorante_cortona_toscana/cucina_tipica_toscana.htm). Shortly after we arrived, two very large families sat in another room, so we must have picked a good place to eat! The meal started with complementary rose Prosecco, I think Brie fell in love at that very moment with the restaurant. Our driver later told us that Italians generally only drink wine/ alcohol at their meals, but for Prosecco, they will drink that at any time. Then they brought out a crostini with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and they rubbed fresh garlic across the crostini, mmmmmmmm delicious. Next came our appetizers- I got a lukewarm puff pastry with Parmesan, truffle, potatoes, and lentils. Brie got a cheese soufflé with spiced pear compote and black truffle. They had yummy looking bread brought out as well, we think one was pistacio, Brie had a sun-dried tomato one. For the main meal I had tortelli stuffed with mushrooms and hazelnut, with artichokes on the side. Brie had pistachio and mascarpone stuffed pasta with mushrooms. Our wine for the meal was Avignonesi vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2010. Even though we were stuffed to the gills, truly and seriously, no joke, we wanted dessert so bad but we knew we would be sick if we did, we had the lemoncello they brought out for us. Happy sighs from the both of us. Just writing about our lunch makes me want to go back again. My top 3 appetizers of the entire trip were the first night in Venice (shrimp with pear and Parmesan etc), the one in Siena (with the Pecorino cheeses), and the one in Cortona. They were some of the best I've ever had for that matter.

Going down

Going up

City hall

A long street going down

Brie's delicious appetizer

My scrumptious appetizer

The interesting bread options

After lunch, we practically rolled up the hill. We looked at some side streets before deciding to climb up this side street which led up a main street to the top. On the way to the top (we almost got to the very top, or at least, I'd like to think so), my cat-dar turned on (think radar- for cats :) ), and we started cat stalking as we saw 3 or 4 different cats along the way, and they were just wanting their picture taken. Before long it was time to head back to the van, and just as we were about to get in, a dog and another cat crossed paths, boy that cat held it's ground! Soon we were driving to another high spot next to the church Santuario di Santa Margherita. We took a quick walk through, and Brie lit a candle to one of the saints. Shortly thereafter it began to sprinkle, as we drove back into Florence. Before dinner that night we got gelato again at the gelateria Perche no!, where I think I had a tiramisu flavored one and Brie had a Baccio flavored one (I think). After this we decided for a light dinner back by the Mercado area at Osteria Zaza. There was someone outside trying to get tourists in, and we were already more or less thinking to eat there for dinner anyway since it was close. Inside was nothing special, we each got a trio of soups Tuscan tomato soup, ribolita soup (a local specialty), and farrow and barley soup. It was served so lovingly (not) in a 3 way split cafeteria like plate. Wow, I want to eat here again (deeply sarcastic in case you didn't notice). We had Vernaccia di San Gimignano white wine. During the trip we tried to drink different local wines, more specifically, we tried as many wines as possible. Our night ended here. The next day was spent in Florence, which shall be the next blog.