Day: May 14, 2015

A few more photos taken on our tour of Monte San Savino. It takes me about ten minutes to load each photo, as I have to load each one individually because of the Internet and about one in three have an error message so I have to start over!

We had such a wonderful time visiting Monte San Savino. Francesco was so kind to come and pick us up, show us all of the sights and take us all the way back to Cortona! (it takes about 40 minutes to get there). It is such a lovely, quiet town.

Monte San Savino originated around 1100. it is located in Tuscany in the Arezzo province. It is a beautiful, peaceful, undiscovered town. it is my understanding that the town would like more attention and tourist visits, which it surely deserves.

We had an amazing time walking around the town and seeing all of the historical buildings. Then we met up with Maria Vittoria and headed for lunch. Had a great feast that included plates of meats and cheeses and bruschetta. Next course was three different types of pastas, then John and Francesco ate beef too! finished off with coffee and tiramisu. We then headed to see one of the agritourismos that Maria’s family owns…..beautiful! We then drove way up into the hillside to view the Castle of Garganzo. It has a 13th century gate and 14th century Roman church. it was considered to be a fortified Tuscan agricultural hamlet. One of the things it is famous for is that it is where Dante was exiled to when he suffered for not going along with the politics of that time and refusing to pay taxes. It is still in beautiful shape, but they have closed it so you are only able to tour the outside.

It is a great area and I would recommend anyone taking the time out to see it, if not to stay there. The people are warm and inviting, the town is lovely and the area is not to be missed.

We have been so busy the last few days that I haven’t had a moment to sit and upload any photos. I will, hopefully, have a little time today to catch up and post some photos of what we have been up to.

We did attend the Festival in Cortona, had a nice time catching up with our friend Vanessa, and spent a wonderful afternoon with our friend Francesco and his lovely lady friend Maria Vittoria touring Monte San Savino. Then we headed by train to stay in Orvieto for five days. Yesterday we went in to Rome to the Vatican for the Popes Wednesday blessing. After we were there for a couple of hours we decided to walk to Trastevere. We walked through there then headed to Campo di Fiore then on to Piazza Navona. In all we figure we walked at least 8.5 miles! Therefore I am laid up with a swollen knee and have time to write.

John is headed to do the underground caves walking tour, and since you won’t catch me in caves this is a perfect time for me to rest and catch up!

I wIll do separate blog posts for each area so none of them are too long and it won’t overtax the internet too much!

The first photo is from our tour around Monte San Savino, the second is of the valley that surrounds Orvieto and the third is a small portion of the Duomo here in Orvieto.