My first trip to Italy was about 20 years ago. I was with my Mom and my sisters, and our reason to be there was to visit my niece, Kate, but I also used it as an excuse to get beyond the village. It wasn’t the first time I felt something pulling me out of place. I left Pittsburgh at 21, eventually finding my true home and putting down roots in the Pacific northwest. I need to be able to walk out my front door and into the forest. My first trip out of the country exposed the travel bug in me.
I remembered an article in a travel magazine I had read a few weeks before we left, while sitting in a Dentist’s office, about traveling in Tuscany. It said if you only visit one hill town while there then make it Cortona. So when we found ourselves in Florence for a couple days I said I wanted to take the train to Cortona, and my Mom and sisters got on board with me.
Scenes from Cortona July 1999
For me it was love at first sight. I am an alley rat by nature, and the steep, narrow, old stone pathways immediately pulled me in. My sisters and I zigzagged our way up through the town to the Basilica di Santa Margherita at the top. The views of the surrounding countryside were intoxicating and a wedding was just leaving the church. We wound our way back down, along with the noisy, happy crowd. It truly was the most romantic place I had ever experienced. I vowed someday to return with my romantic partner. That turned out to be Charlie, and he fell in love with Cortona as well.
All days in Italy seem to start with bells. Every city, town, and the smallest of villages have churches that ring their bells throughout the day. Our goal for our first day in Cortona was to hike up to the the same church my sisters and I had hiked to 20 years earlier.
Cortona is very compact and moving through it involves a series of stone steps and narrow cobbled vias and vicolos which take off in all directions. Medieval homes open onto the tiny streets. Flowers spill over the windowsills and ivy climbs the walls. Every old crumbling alleyway beckons.
We reached the church, the Basilica di Santa Margherita where we drunk in the sweeping views of Lago Trasimeno in Umbria, and the surrounding Tuscan countryside. We made a video for my sisters, and headed up to the Fortezza Medicia above the church. Originally an ancient Etruscan fort, after centuries of renovations and demolitions, it retains little of its original self, but has a rich history and great views. We wandered into a courtyard where there was a little bar, so we stopped and enjoyed a glass a wine, on top of our hill town, listening to Pavarotti and American pop.
Heading down from the Fortress we heard Bocelli coming from an open door and were drawn into an art exhibition of pen and ink drawings by Luigi Agnelli, and his wife, Kate, Their works are minutely detailed and each has a story within. I felt like I was wandering in a forest of fairy tales, fantastical places, and life journeys! Some drawings have color highlights, and all had a pair of signature cats. The artist, Luigi, was there, an adorable, expansive being who told us all about his work and hugged and kissed us when we were leaving. Check them out: www.landk.it
Like many Italian towns, Cortona has a lot of churches. We stopped at another on our way back down, much smaller and humbler than the others, but as Charlie and I agreed, with its own unique beauty and big spirit. We lit candles for our Moms beneath a statue of Mary.
As the sun was setting, we had dinner on our terrace, lentil soup and crusty Italian bread. It rained during the night and we woke up the next morning to a double rainbow outside our bedroom window, and the beginning of another perfect day in Cortona.
