Garden Diary: Cortona and Arezzo.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Cortona and Arezzo.

4-11-11 PERGO: This morning, after breakfast at Castillo di Monterone, we drove to Cortona in Tuscany. Another hill town, this one built of dark gray and taupe sandstone. Some of the sandstone is impressively weathered, probably confirming an age of several hundred years. The hillside is steep, the town wall largely intact, more churches per block than Seattle has Starbucks. Fabulous views over the valleys below including the big lake between Umbria and Tuscany, Lake Trasimeno. We had a great lunch, different bruschettas.

We found the car, no problem, and found our new place, La Corte Dei Pape, in a suburb of Cortona. After check-in, we went to Arezzo, which is a big city with a preserved old town. The old town is up the hill, of course, wrapped with a wall, made of stone and well stocked with churches. A lot of the buildings as plastered and painted, as they were in Cortona. We saw famous frescos in San Francesca by Piero delle Francesca [no relation]. The Grande Piazza with churches, stores, houses and a long loggia is just beautiful space.