Under the Tuscan Sun. . . and the Tuscan Clouds

Fact:

If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion,
it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death. 

Have you ever read Frances Mayes' book, Under the Tuscan Sun? It's also a movie. I haven't read the book, and the movie was just okay. It's about her real-life experience living in a run-down house in Cortona, in the south part of Tuscany. In fact, she still lives there with her husband part of every year.

Today, Lindsey and Meghan and I took a trip to Cortona. We bought our tickets for the 9:13 train, at about 9:11. Possibly a bit earlier. But we still ran to catch the train in time. It was about an hour and half ride, and there was some confusion about whether we needed to get off in another town to change trains, but luckily, we made it there easily.

The train station is a pretty far walk from the actual city of Cortona, so we had to find a Tabacci and buy a bus ticket. The bus dropped us off right on the edge of the actual town, and the first thing we saw was an excellent view of the countryside. We were pretty hungry, so we first set off to find lunch. We chose a Rick Steves-recommended place, and he hasn't disappointed us yet. We did have to wait for it to open at noon, so we spent about an hour walking around the town and taking pictures. During this walk, we needed to find a bathroom. Incidentally, we found one built into the town wall. I mean, why wouldn't there be a bathroom built into the wall?

Why yes, that door is very short.

Here's where we ate:

Trattoria la Grotta

Here's what I ate:

Bruschetta al pomodoro

Plate of deliciousness

The pasta I had is called pappardelle al sugo di cinghiale; big flat egg noodles with wild boar sauce. Yes. I ordered something called wild boar sauce. I wasn't feeling the spaghetti today. I went outside the box. Turns out wild boar sauce is delicious! Lindsey had some moon-shaped pasta with pistachios and a cream sauce. Meghan had ricotta and spinach in some kind of red sauce. We shared some local red wine. Everything was perfect, and I was stuffed by the end of the meal.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around. We wanted to go to the Etruscan Museum, but it was closed because they are preparing to open a special exhibit tomorrow. Instead, we just went to the Diocesan Museum. The main event here was Fra Angelico's Annunciation.

This isn't my picture; we couldn't take pictures there. Thank you, Google.

We also visited the Church of St. Francis. But the majority of our time was spent just walking around looking at the pretty town. Since our visit would not be complete without hitting up at least one bakery, we made sure to do that on our way out of town. (Never mind that we ended up waiting around forever for the bakery to open following its siesta; it was totally worth it.) I had a shortbread cookie-ish thing, and a pastry filled with jam and walnuts. We took the 4:30 train home and were back around 6:00. It was a really good day and it didn't even rain like it was supposed to (probably because I remembered to bring my umbrella). It was a bit cold, a bit cloudy, and very windy, but it definitely could have been worse.

Cortona is a very quiet town with not a whole lot except the beautiful old buildings with green shutters, dilapidated brick walls, cobblestone streets, pretty countryside views, and apparently, delicious places to eat. I'm glad we decided to visit. It was a relaxing day.