Our friend and locatore, Mario, figures largely in this account of the past week. Mario works for the city and invited us along to a private tour of the fortezza, which is under renovation,with the head archaeologist. This could also be defined as Tom's Paradiso. Of course when renovating something in Italy, one finds ancient Roman ruins underneath and the Fortezza was no exception--they uncovered a Roman villa with mosaic floors that they did not previously know existed.
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| excavation at the Foretzza above, Fortezza below |
After a tough day at the archaeological site Tom wanted a hamburger. We were worried we had lived in Italy so long we had forgotten how to make a burger, but luckily there was a recipe on the package of hamburger buns. Imagine our chagrin to learn we have been making the classic burger WRONG all these years by leaving off the cucumber!
On Saturday we headed to Cortona courtesy of Mario who picked us up and acted as our tour guide for the trip. Cortona is the beautiful hill town made famous in "Under the Tuscan Sun." It is an old Etruscan town later taken over by the Romans and eventually a Ghibellinian city state. Parts of the old Etruscan wall remain but most of the structures date from the medieval period. There are 4 Etruscan tombs in the area around Cortona which unfortunately were not open on Saturday.
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Apartments built on top of the etruscan wall
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| Visit to the Archaeological museum |
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| /Tom and Mario at the museum |
While wandering around town we saw a little procession celebrating blood donation.
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| A drum player after Kelly's heart |
We also visited the Duomo and a piazza with a panoramic view of the chiana valley.
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| at the duomo |
Left: this couple spent 20 minutes taking selfies on the wall while Tom and Mario spent an equal amount of time taking panoramic shots.
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| valley view with Lake Trasimeno in the distance |
The last stop was at a capucin monastery built in the traditional tuscan fashion at a site chosen by St. Francis of Assisi (whose tunic, pillow and bible are on display at the church of St. Francis in Cortona).
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| sunset from the monastery |
To cap off a great day we headed to dinner with Mario and his family, Loretta and their two daughters Julia and Laura and our friends Giuseppe, Marissa and Pepe.
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The restaurant was at the football academy. We started off
with delicious brushetta |
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| Cin cin. Giusseppe, Marissa, Loretta, Julia, Laura, Mario, Nancy |
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| The beautiful Meucci sisters |
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When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
that's amore.... |
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| Marissa slips a treat to Pepe |
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| and Giuseppe models Tom's new hat! |
And after all that, we caught the second half of the Husky-Illinois game on tune-in radio--a great victory. Buona notte!
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