Day 9 - Cortona to Assisi

Our hotel was situated at the base of Cortona (bottom of the hill). Randy started the day by hiking up to the top where the Basilica of Saint Margherita was located. The valley below was covered in clouds, so it was quite the view. He was able to enter the Basilica and take some pictures. When we drove up the hill later in the day, we found out that a construction crew was repaving the parking lot, so the church was closed.

After breakfast, we took a quick trip back to the Cortona Cathedral which we had visited for about 5 minutes on Monday before it closed and we had to leave. The Cathedral is also by the edge of the town, so we had a good view into the valley. The earlier fog had started to burn off, so it was another picturesque view of the valley.

Next up was to visit the local archeological museum in Cortona dedicated to the Etruscans. The Etruscans inhabited much of the area in present day Tuscany around the 9^th century. Much like the Greeks, they were never unified as a group but existed as a bunch of independent city states that allied with each other to fight off enemies, or to fight each other. Around 500BC they began to be absorbed into and come under Roman rule, but still "survived" as a group until 0AD. Randy recently watched a Great Courses lecture series on the Etruscans and became fascinated with them. They greatly influenced Roman culture, and many of the things that people consider "Roman" actually come from the Etruscans. Gladiator fighting is one example. Another is the style of their architecture and how they built their temples. The museum was laid out with artifacts found in various Etruscan temples that have been excavated in the area. Pottery, metal work stone carvings, etc. were displayed. We will also visit Orvieto in a couple days, which is another Etruscan hilltop village.

Model of an Etruscan tomb

An Etruscan chandelier. There is a mirror

above it so one can see how the little lamps would have been filled with oil. Pretty amazing.

With our brains full, we sat down at a small cafe in the town market and relaxed and chatted for a while, enjoying the pleasant weather and people watching. Unlike Florence it was not crowded. We then bought some sandwiches for lunch and drove up to the top of the town. Even though we could not get into the basilica, we enjoyed our lunch on benches overlooking the valley.

Ordering sandwiches from a to go window.

Then before heading over to Assisi, we drove by the house named “Bramasole”. It was purchased and renovated by the American author Francis Mayes who wrote “Under the Tuscan Sun”, among other books, and made Cortona an even more popular tourist destination when the book was turned into a movie.

Assisi is about an hour drive from Cortona and actually in the state of Umbria. So we aren't in Tuscany any longer. Just outside of Assisi, we stopped for another wine tasting. It was another family-owned farm. [Maria] was one of the owners and she treated us to some delicious snacks as we sipped various samples of the wine from a patio overlooking the valley around Assisi. It was beautiful.

We then headed into Assisi and checked into our hotel, strolled around town for a bit and then enjoyed pizza for dinner in an old building with Roman ruins visible through the glass floor of the restaurant.