Cortona - Tuscany Day 2-3

We travelled to Lago Trasimeno a lake only 20 minutes from where we are staying, the 4th largest lake in Italy at 128km2. Only two minor streams flow directly into the Lake and none flows out. It is only 5m deep and in the past malarial mosquitoes prospered. To combat the malaria some mosquito larvae-eating fish were imported from the US during the 1950’s.
Although billions of larvae are eaten, there are still many mosquitoes and other insects. When we visited a breeze was blowing so we didn’t notice any mosquitoes but we certainly didn’t linger other than coffee and croissant for morning tea.
We proceeded to drive in a loop, initially looking for a vineyard so we could sample some local wines but unfortunately they don’t open until later in the day so we missed out on that. We are not too worried as all cafe’s & supermarkets carry all local wines. Chianti is the local red that is produced. The secondary roads in Tuscany are very rough! The road we took to find one vineyard was worse than going on a gravel road and we ended up in a farmers farmyard, he kindly pointing us through the yard onto a track and there was the vineyard which looked upmarket and beautiful but was unfortunately closed 😆
We saw the Tuscany rolling hills today with medieval villages, vineyards, olive groves and tall cypress trees lining the driveways and around the casa’s. The farmers are busy ploughing up the fields for their crops.
There were warnings for thunderstorms again, the clouds built up but all turned to nothing. Neil and I have realised we have had hardly any wind in our time in Italy. That will change when we get back to Pisa Moorings!

There are fields of sunflowers everywhere. When the back of the sunflower head turns yellow/brown, the petals have fallen off and the seeds are plump, black and easy to remove when pulled with a fingernail, it is time to harvest the seeds. At this point the head has drooped. They are all at this stage here and are being harvested.
We saw one crop that we didn’t recognise. Popped a photo into Google and got this information. It was Sorghum, a versatile grain primarily used as animal feed and a gluten-free human food. Its plant stalks can be used as biofuel, and some varieties are grown for forage for livestock. Apparently we grow it in northern regions of NZ but I didn’t know that!

Yesterday we drove out onto the plains and saw many more crops being grown including a lot of fruit trees and berries. After visiting a couple of villages where we failed to find a cafe we headed for hills. We did notice that there are quite a lot of empty dilapidated houses, we wondered if property is being bought up to make bigger farms, like in NZ, and these houses are no longer needed.
We ended up in a tiny village called Palazzo del Pero where a delightful older gentleman served us, only after I asked via Google Translate if he had Soy or Oat milk (I am dairy intolerant) for the coffee, he threw his hands up in horror, No No, so I asked for Tea, he frantically looked around then No, No so finally I asked for a espresso, his face lit up, Lungo (long black), we smiled at each other. My long black was a third of the way up the cup with no extra hot water but it was lovely. The only food he had was a jam tart so we ordered two pieces. He rushed off to heat it up and it was delicious. It was a big restaurant and he was setting it up for lunch so they obviously get very busy later in the day, it was a gorgeous place.

We went out to start the car and it wouldn’t start. It actually would not turn off completely either, the symbols were still showing on the dashboard. After trying different things we got out the information to call the Peugeot car company, who we leased the car off, as you are not allowed to do anything without letting them know. Our phones wouldn’t connect to the number. I have since figured out why but that didn’t help at this stage. In desperation I said “why won’t the damn thing turn off” and pushed the start/stop button one more time - and it turned off. We looked at each other in amazement, got out of the car for a bit of a breather then got back in and pushed the button and away we went.

Neil decided we were going to head to Montone which he thought was in a valley on the loop we were going on to get back to Camucia. I was still feeling anxious about the car perhaps stopping and not starting again so as we headed up many switchbacks up a hill my anxiety went up a few notches. Neil and I have now been to many villages and they all have their own charm. Montone had just had festival week so the town was at its best for us. It was enchanting, quiet, pretty, wandering in the streets was like going back in time and everything slowed down. This town was definitely at the top of our list. As we were walking down the alleyway towards the Piazza an older gentleman starting talking to us, I got him to speak into Google Translate, he was saying “Our village is very beautiful, enjoy” He then popped into a house further down the alleyway.
We had lunch at a restaurant called L’Antica Osteria di Montone. A lady came out to serve us and spoke in an Aussie accent, she had married an Italian and came here in 1993 but her accent was still strong. I didn’t realise how much I missed having a conversation with someone (other than Neil). Neil had the beef shoulder and I had Chianti carpaccio (local beef) with black truffles. Both were delicious.

We have now been helped by 4 Aussies’s on our travels who all speak fluent Italian, one who told us how to order our food at the service area (order your food at the cashier, then present it to the people serving food, not easy when you don’t have a clue how to say the names of the food 😆), one in the bakery who ordered for us, one in the supermarket who got the low fat milk for me, and now our lady today at the restaurant. Thank you Aussies.
After spending a leisurely couple of hours in Montone we headed back to the car with fingers crossed. All was good and we headed back home through many fields of tobacco (identified after another photo google search) It is being harvested as it is the start of Autumn here.
Home in time for a swim in the pool, our rustic accommodation has turned out to be very relaxing. We are cooking our own meals at night, getting prepared for our return home in 12 days.Read more