Instead of sitting around enjoying the nothingness of a Orvieto Sunday, I joined 3 others for a spontaneous adventure. Our mission: to make it to the giant Carnivale celebrations in tiny Foino, about 9k outside of Cortona.
Spontaneity means no planning, so we simply hopped the first train we could to Cortona.
And here, at the other end of the train tracks in Cortona, is where we discover another Italian Law of Nature:
The bigger the party, the less likely Italy is to provide any way to reach it.
On holidays, there are very few-- if any busses-- including those going to the holidays' festivals. Standing at the base of Cortona, we find out the bus to Foino doesn't run on holidays and a cab ride was slightly more than we wanted to spend. So Cortona it is...and we weren't disappointed in the least.
Despite its terrible curse of being the location for the truly mediocre, yet somehow popular, book/movie "Under the Tuscan Sun", Cortona was stunning (the small town used to be a relatively unknown spot until this story brought throngs of overly romantic and idealistic readers). Even the 8k walk up the hillside to the actualy city center couldn't keep us from smiling. After all, this was our walking trail:
One of my best lessons from Cortona was that walking opens your eyes. Watching Tuscany fly by from a bus window is an injustice to you, to its beauty.
Behind a grimy bus window, how can you take a moment for this:
We arrived in Cortona, winded but rewarded with the beginnings of the sunset.
We stumbled on Cortona's Cathedral, whose humble facade reminded us of the city's formerly unknown status...compared to our Orvieto cathedral, Cortona's main church was simple, nearly forgettable in the sea of Italian churches. Yet our accidentally perfect timing illustrated the Cathedral's strength. The simply rose windows of the facade had an unbelievable effect: Streams of light from the Tuscan sunset were aimed precisely to create stunning sun spots, intentional highlights.The main rose window sent a perfect highlight on the Cathedral's main stained glass portrait of Christ behind the altar. It wasn't until we noticed them shifting over time that we realized they were actually the setting sun, not artificial and planned.
After dinner, we wandered until we found a fantastic little restaurant in the fancy new basement renovation of a Medieval palazzo. The food was incredible (ricotta and almond stuffed ravioli in curry sauce, truffle and pear risotto, eggplant souffle, wine, some unidentified heavenly tomato paste-like thing) and our waitress spoiled us with complimentary extra wine and starters.
We enjoyed such a long dinner that we wound up missing the last bus down the hill. Our luck continued though when a taxi showed up right next to us as we were just calling one. So we grabbed the last train to Orvieto, with one last glance at the valley around Cortona:
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