Before I start with last night's dinner, here are a few pictures looking up and down just a part of the stairway, as well as an interesting shot of the door in our shower!
Okay, let’s start with last night’s dinner! We headed over to one of the local piazzas to the Antica Trattoria, which opens at 7:30 p.m. We were, of course, the first ones there…so what else is new? Because of getting laundry done, we missed lunch, and had to make due with some gelato from the next door gelateria...it wasn’t a problem, but we were ready to eat dinner! We started by sharing bruschette mixed, which included one with olive tapenade, one with tomatoes, basil and garlic, and one with mushrooms and a smoked cheese – great! Linda ordered risotto with radicchio, mushrooms and parmesan cheese. I had ravioli stuffed with cheese and spinach and served with a truffle cream sauce …wow. For dessert, we broke from tradition and each ordered our own …which we then shared! Linda had a torta with red fruit, and I had some cream puffs with chocolate, all washed down by two bottles of sparkling water and a nice bottle of local red! All for 41E for the two of us! Hard to believe that such wonderful meals are so incredibly well priced! Back to the B&B and to bed about 10:30 p.m. after a very lovely day!
Awoke about the usual time (7-ish) and went down for breakfast at 8. Jeanette makes quite a breakfast, let me tell you! Not only did she have the usual – prosciutto, salami and two types of cheeses, with wonderful rolls, she had cakes, pastries, AND was offering home-made waffles, eggs and bacon! Several guys staying here at the B&B ordered it ALL! UGH! There was one couple here from Georgia, and two couples from Minnesota; also a single gal from China.
We hit the street about 9:30 to stroll through the weekly market and head to the Etruscan Museum at 10 when it opened. I thought the San Gimignano market was better; this seemed to focus primarily on clothing and shoes (although an interesting booth selling undies!), although there were several cheese trucks, one or two vegetable vendors, and a fresh fish vendor who was actually frying up calamari and shrimp all morning! There were also several full-size pigs or boars that had been cooked and were being sliced up for sandwiches for lunch!
The Etruscan Museum was fabulous, but unfortunately, yet again, NO photos! GRRRRR…..We saw things that we’ve not seen before, such as portable handles for jars and pots made of metal in the form of deer with antlers – just magnificent! There was also an amazing bronze chandelier that had ports for 16 separate flames that was incredibly detailed and was believed to hang in a church or temple. We really literally had the museum to ourselves – and if it hadn’t been for the security cameras that were watching us, I would have definitely broken that rule!! From there, we headed to the Diocesan Museum which is famous for a beautiful Fra Angelico painting of the Annunciation. His angel had the most beautiful gold wings! Again, really wish I could have provided it for you to see! When we stepped outside after Museum #1, it had gotten just incredibly foggy here in town! Just amazing – like it did one morning in San Gimignano, but quite a bit thicker! We hoped it would burn off as it did yesterday.
We wandered through some interesting shops here in town, including a very interesting antique shop – they had all sorts of stuff – good and junk – for sale, including some beautiful Venetian Murano glasses going for somewhere between 300-400E EACH! Whew! Then back to the B&B for a brief rest – good to get off the feet every now and then!
Out again about one, this time to go for a ride in the countryside! We programmed Emmy (our GPS) to Montepulciano, and headed cross country and then UP to the city – yet another charming hill-top town. Parked the car and took a nice walk – along the wall; beautiful views; hazy a bit, but the day has turned out to be really beautiful! Visited several churches, then headed back and out. Linda suggested going to Lake Trasimeno, so we pointed the car east. Really a terrific idea! The lake is just beautiful! We parked the car at a park on the lake, and had a nice walk along the quay. Not too many people on a really lovely afternoon, but there was one man who brought a radio-controlled helicopter (probably 2 ½ feet long) and scared all the seagulls! Whatever!
From Lake Trasimeno we headed back to Cortona, arriving about 4:15. We actually found a very tiny parking space, and between Linda’s guiding, and my driving, got into this little parking spot between trees! UGH! Back up the hill, stopping for more gelato (is there a pattern here, do you think?) to take us through until dinner at 7:30 p.m.
Now having a bit of a rest – watching SKYTV and actually watching ESPN’s College Game Day! Lots of football games today – no idea if we’ll be able to watch any of them, but just having more than three channels in Italian is kinda nice!
More later!
Lots of love!
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