In the garden of our accommodation in Cortona

The complex has a pool! Very welcome after sightseeing

Taken from the town of Cortona, once again on top of a hill giving fabulous views

Looking at the hilltop town of Cortona from our accommodation

It was quite the climb from the carpark just to get to the walled town

The climb was worth it when you get these views

This was the walkway that followed the wall around the town leading to the church on top of the town

On the walk up to the church there were many shrines to worship, all with mosaics.

Bully waiting for me to look at the Cathedral 😆

A little market where the locals come to buy their veges

The people who live here must be very fit! Hard to see how steep these are in a photo

These were plaques around the internal walls inside the cemetery, some dated this year

We decided to come up this alleyway, not sure why

Some of the streets were interesting, imagine driving and parking your car here

Exhibition of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali artwork in Cortona

I had a porcini mushroom pizza - delicious, always served with olive oil & balsamic vinegar

Cortona - Tuscany

Aug 30–Sep 1 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

For a long time I have always dreamed of staying in Tuscany and immersing myself in the local culture, I am now living that dream.
We are staying just out of Cortona in a complex of apartments, surrounded by trees with a pool. Our apartment is ….rustic 😆 has everything we need except a toaster, electric kettle and a microwave. No dishwasher but that is a first world problem. Quite a few of the apartments we have stayed in do not have toasters, obviously Italians don’t toast their bread. We must be starting to miss home as we have cooked chops with roast veges last night and one pot mince tonight. The bed is comfy, that is very important. Plus, they have the US Open on the TV so all is good. The pool was welcome after a day of sightseeing,

The countryside is beautiful, today we visited the hilltop town of Cortona about 5km away. We actually went yesterday but all the carparks outside the walls were full so we decided to leave it until Monday, we thought (wrongly) that there wouldn’t be so many visitors on a Monday so left it until today. We got there at 9:30am and all the carparks were full, we think the workers in the town must fill them up. We ended up parking down in an olive grove and walking up to the town. The town was not overrun with tourists so we had a lovely leisurely visit.
We decided to walk around the old walls to get to the top of the town where the Santuario di Santa Margherita was located, the church dates back to the 14th century.
On the way up the walk there were many shrines where people could pray and give their thanks, they were decorated with beautiful mosaics.
This town was like a maze, we just wandered down until we got back to the main street where we had lunch, porcini mushroom pizza for me and a green salad for Neil. All meals get served with a bottle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
The town was setting up for “Cortona on the Move” 23 exhibitions, 73 artists. We visited an art gallery that was displaying Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali artworks. I think Neil described it as interesting 😆
There are a lot of lizards here, last night Neil had a go at catching a baby that decided to walk up our apartment wall, he was too quick for Neil so is now residing behind the fridge.
The temperature is between 24 - 27 degrees, very pleasant.Read more