Impressions…

• We needed to be in London for a Beach Boys concert. We don’t really care for London, so we decided to stay there only the night of the concert and use the rest of our time to visit Tuscany. We have friends who have told us lots about Cortona (they live there part of the year) and so we decided to go there.
• We flew into Milan and out of Bologna. From Milan, we spent one night in Bogliasco before driving to Cortona.
• Cortona is a walled city. We wisely decided to park outside the wall and walk to find our apartment. Later, our friend walked in front of our car clearing the way for us to get through the gate and on the street outside our apartment. I’m not sure how we would have done that without him – there was a crowd of pedestrians inside and outside of the gate.
• The walk from our apartment to the city center was long and uphill. We knew in advance that it would be, but it was steeper than I expected.
• We’re not much on tours, but we decided to take a winery tour. We thought it would be just us and the guide, but found out that another couple was joining us. They were very nice, but 5 of us in a small car made things very crowded. We did enjoy the scenery. There were some great views in some of the places we visited.
• Our only real mistake was deciding to take the train to visit Florence.
  • The station at Cortona is very small. There was no attendant and the ticket vending machine wasn’t working. We got on the train not knowing what else to do. One person on the train said we should get off at the next stop and buy a ticket. Another said we could pay the conductor as he came by punching tickets. That turned out to be correct. He did not appear to be happy about it, but we were able to pay without incident.
  • Coming back was also a challenge. The station in Florence is big. There was no one we could find to tell us what to do, and we couldn’t see any clear indication of which train and track number would get us back to Cortona. After walking up and down the station, we found what appeared to be the correct train. Fortunately, it was.
  • Florence itself was a disappointment and we decided to leave after about 2 hours. Maybe if we had stayed longer we would have found more interesting things to see and do.
  • The most interesting thing in Florence was a restaurant called Deanna. We didn’t eat there, but we took Deanna’s picture outside the restaurant.
• One evening our friends took us to a restaurant for a glass of wine. The servers allowed us to sit on the patio even though there was no one else there. The views of the sunset from the patio were just great.

Don’t miss…

• Views of the countryside from Cortona, especially at sunset
• Wandering around the town
• The market in the city center

If you drive…

• Park outside the wall and walk in until you are comfortable getting through the pedestrian traffic.
• Special notes about rental cars:
  • They gave us a full-size SUV with manual transmission. With the diesel engine, there was a lag between pushing on the accelerator and the transmission engaging. That made it very difficult when you had to stop while going uphill. I would never again take anything bigger than a compact.
  • We attempted to trade for another rental in Florence. We could see the signs for the airport but could never get in the lane that would take us there. After circling many times, we gave up and drove on to Cortona. No more driving in Florence.

Beaten path index: 3 (See the key here)

• Cameras: 3
• Language: 3
• Path: 3
• Tourists: 3

Other than our friends, we didn’t see or hear other US tourists. Still, Cortona can’t be considered too far off the beaten path.

Priority for a repeat visit (1-5): 5

• We’ll just stay in Cortona and enjoy it.

Links
“Everything about Cortona”
Cortona – Under the Tuscan Sun
http://Cortona.com
Cortona Travel Guide
Lonely Planet Guide
WikiTravel Guide

Appartamenti Belvedere

We will not stay anywhere else. If you’re looking for a modern hotel, this is not for you. It is perfect for what we like – it’s very old, there are only a few apartments, it’s inside the city walls… We had the “Dream” apartment on the first floor (2nd floor US). It was spacious and well-equipped. We would want that same apartment next time for the beautiful view over the city wall. Their website is here, but we booked it on booking.com. In this photo, the door on the right in the courtyard leads to the stairs. The lower of the two small balconies is ours. Our windows overlook the wall where cars are parked, which is where we parked after getting inside the walls. You can see clotheslines – there were almost always someone’s clothes drying above the courtyard.

Locanda al Pozzo Antico

We had dinner here 3 of our 5 nights in Cortona. It was that good. On the first night, we met the owner, her husband was our server, and her son checked on us several times because his father didn’t speak English. At the end of our meal, the son brought us a glass of grappa (brandy). He told us that his grandfather had sold his vineyard and used his remaining wine to make grappa. And, ours was from the last bottle which made it very special. When we were ready to leave, the owner brought out her mother to meet us. The food was great and I had what was probably the best wine I’ve ever tried – Il Mosso, a Malvasia. It is from what must be a very small Tuscan vineyard and can’t be found here. All in all, this restaurant is reason enough to go back to Cortona.

Some of our favorite photos

Other photos

Some of the places we visited (Careful – if you’re using a scroll wheel it will cause the map to zoom)