Month: October 2019

This morning, as I sit here eating breakfast in this little ancient apartment we rented in Cortona I must admit I am a bit overwhelmed with emotion.

Tomorrow we leave. Time to leave these kind, loving, gentle, hard working, noble people I have come to know as friends. Time to leave this tiny town perched on the top of a hill, this little piece of heaven on earth.

The part of me that enjoys the comforts of my home, the big fluffy couches, big screen television, two full bathrooms with jacuzzi tub, looks forward to the journey home. But my heart says otherwise.

How can I leave this place, these people, and not know if I will ever see them again?Will I ever walk through this town again and wave at those familiar faces? Ever again stroll down to take just one more look over the magnificent valley and wonder what the weather is like on the lake today? In one more day it won’t make any difference to me that the sky shows rain in the distance. It won’t affect me that the trains are on strike for the day or that there is another religious festival planned for Saturday. I will be thousands of miles away, living in “creature comforts” but I will be lonely. I will have left a big part of my heart here in Cortona.

For all of the years we have been coming to Cortona we had just passed by a small door, never bothering about what was inside. One of the locals told us we had been missing something really beautiful. We toured it a couple of days ago and it really is beautiful. Some of the most magnificent ancient works of art. The lower oratory frescoes are from 1554!

Arrived in Assisi for the day. Our friends had never been in Italy before so this was one town we figured they had to visit. I do feel a bit like I am visiting Disneyland as it seems a little fake. It is a beautiful city though and visiting the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi is magical and emotional. Our favorite restaurant had closed for lunch so we stopped in to a pizza bar. Then on for gelato and Johns meringue and we headed down the hill. A good tip when visiting is to take the bus to the very top and then walk down the town to the bottom, much easier.

We arrived in Cortona almost two weeks ago. It is always a special time for us to be able to be in this most beautiful town with the most lovely people. Whenever we arrive up at the top of the hill that Cortona sits on and start walking down Via Natzionale we feel like we are home.

As we walk along, dragging our suitcases, there are Massimo and Danniele from Cafe Tuscher smiling and giving us a warm hug. If he is not in there with them having something to drink, we are pretty sure we will soon run into Ivan. He is the owner of the tobacco shop and Il Pozzo, the beautiful gallery that carries unimaginably spectacular photography, leathers, gifts etc. As a “coming home” ritual we always share a drink. We see the Mollesinis who own the grocery store as we stop by for some groceries to take to the apartment. It seems like we are in there just about every day, but we always enjoy seeing them. We usually stop and say hello to Rob and Emma who own Bar 500. Other friendly, familiar faces gesture to us and we know we are home.

Lunch or coffee with Judy and Len, if they are in town is always fun. Judy and I met through our shared love of photography and Italy many years ago. Her blog page is blogginginitaly.com. She loves research and detail so her blog posts are educational as well as fun.

Visiting with our special friend Maria is like spending time with family. Within no time we have caught up on happenings, children, health etc. and we are settled in for the evening playing cards.

Soon to meet up again with Vanessa who we met as a teenager. Now grown and married with two children she is a busy young woman. We do manage to get together with her and her beautiful, loving parents and grandparents for visits when we are here each year. Then we get to see Francesco who is a lovely soul and amazingly talented pianist. We met him many years ago and have enjoyed keeping in touch with him through the years.

I think you can see why it takes a while to update on here what we have been doing. We have been settling in, back here, at home in Cortona.