Douglas Easton Travel Blog
April 13, 2008

Cortona, Tuscany, Italy

Our second tour of the summer, Tuscany, has just begun, with a delightful surprise for our
guests: we're all staying in an enormous, restored 15th-century farmhouse at the top of Cortona, with sweeping views of the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside 1,000 feet below.

Cortona lies within easy driving reach of the great towns and villages Tuscany's and Umbria's most famous sites: Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano, Florence, Siena, Arezzo, Assisi, Gubbio and Perugia. This morning we set out to tour jewel-like San Gimignano, from whence, reputedly, Italy's best gelato hails. (We decided to do a taste test, just to be sure.) In April, the crowds which can turn a visit here into an unpleasant experience still have not yet arrived, and we licked our ice creams contentedly as we strolled unjostled by fellow visitors.

We then drove thirty minutes to Siena, where we entered its awesome Duomo, gawped at its spectacular piazzas, and dug into a fantastic lunch of crisp-crusted white pizza; luscious gnocchi with porcini sauce; succulent grilled duck; and an unforgettable tiramisu.

The drive back to Corona was nothing short of sublime. At the suggestion of our villa's owners, we deviated from the main route and took an empty stretch of road between Sienna and Asciano. We were stunned by the magnificence of the rolling, green landscape dotted. We passed, atop the many hills, grand villas, commanding imperial views of the vineyards and olive groves below. Swaths of mustard flowers, of an unimaginably deep yellow, frequently interrupted the deep green of the lush grass.  As the sun descended beyond the horizon, it left behind a sky painted in fiery orange, pink and mauve... a storybook ending to a magical first day.


Past Travel Blogs:
 06/08/10
 09/24/09
 09/09/09
 09/04/09
 08/27/09
 08/09/09
 07/19/09
 05/06/09
 04/25/09
 04/08/09
 04/02/09
 03/08/09
 03/06/09
 02/22/09
 02/10/09
 02/04/09
 02/02/09
 11/18/08
 11/12/08
 11/10/08
 11/06/08
 10/30/08
 10/20/08
 09/28/08
 09/16/08
 09/10/08
 09/03/08
 07/06/08
 05/30/08
 05/23/08
 05/11/08
 04/30/08
 04/20/08
 04/08/08
 02/24/08
 02/16/08
 01/24/08
 01/08/08
 01/04/08
 01/03/08
 01/02/08
 01/01/08
 12/30/07
 12/29/07
 12/28/07
 06/01/07
 05/26/07
 05/22/07
 05/18/07
 05/04/07
 05/02/07
 04/10/07
 04/08/07
 04/03/07
 04/01/07
 03/31/07
 03/30/07
 03/26/07
 03/23/07
 03/20/07
 03/18/07
 03/13/07
 03/08/07
 02/17/07
 12/15/06
 12/13/06
 11/22/06
 11/09/06
 11/04/06
 10/30/06
 10/25/06
 10/18/06
 10/12/06
 10/06/06
 10/03/06
 09/28/06
 09/24/06
 09/17/06
 
Douglas Easton Travel (310) 657-0263 FAX (310) 657-0253 email - info@CelestielleGroup.com