Cortona
On Saturday November 5th, Joel and I went to Cortona by bus. Cortona is a little over a half hour away from Castiglion, and is another medieval hilltop town. We left early in the morning with the intent of seeing the town, then having lunch with my friend Carol Smith from the Mediterranean Garden Society. We figured it would be a rather mellow, calm day, and that we'd be back to school relatively early. Little did we know it would be another Italy adventure.
According to the map, this turret was part of the original wall of town.
This beautiful church was about 3/4 of the way up the hill to town. It seems early renaissance, and is in a stunning location.
Here is a town bell tower at the entry to town from the bus stop.
Most of the bells have a beautiful patina on them.
The colors and layers of age on the buildings was gorgeous. This wins as my favorite.
We walked around the perimeter of the town. The wall here may look just a few feet tall, but on the other side it was perhaps 25 or 30 feet tall. Amazing. The view out to the countryside is magnificent.
We were lured out of town by this beautiful church. We found a gate, and with our little tourist map we proceeded to try to find the curch.
Another apparent early Renaissance church, it is beautiful in its simplicity. The dome and peach color of the top glowed in the diffuse light.
You could really see the ageing of the stone on the side of this church, adding to its mistique. There was a small trail on the side of the church we decided to explore. According to the map, we could hook up with the road, and head over to Le Celle. The tourist map made it look very close, and showed a beautiful building with a creek. We decided to try to find it.
The road over to Le Celle out of Cortona looking back at the tower.
The fall colors are spectacular. Here you can see some typical Tuscan farmhouses with the forested tops of the hills behind them.
We walked and walked and walked....
And finally reached Le Celle, which turned out to be the monastery of St. Francis of Assisi! It was on of the most beautiful places I've been to. The buildings seemed to rise out of the earth just like farm wall terraces. Beautiful little garden areas are tucked in between some of the buildings. I think I could definitely have lived here..it has the most peaceful, tranquil feeling.
Walking down to the creek.
The buildings rise out of the bedrock stone of the creek. The entire site seemed so in tune with its surroundings.
This is the inside of St. Francis' chapel, and his 'cell' or le celle, was at the rear.
View up at the terraced gardens.
This is the lower bridge.
Here is the main chapel at Le Celle. All of the wood was hand carved. Although very simple, this is one of the nicests, warmest churches I've been in.
At this point, we had walked an hour out to Le celle, and by the time we wandered around it a while, it was already past 12:30, and we needed to be back to Cortona for lunch at 1pm. We figured we could run the whole way back, and maybe be on time...luckily we waved down a cab, and the woman who hired it kindly shared with us and drove us back to town. We got back in plenty of time. Must be the good karma of being at St. Francis' beautiful home.
The clock tower in Cortona.
We met Carol for lunch and had a wonderful time. After our two hour truffle ravioli wine lunch marathon, Carol took us up to the top of town in her car.
We also drove by Francis May's real house..she's the author of 'Under a Tuscan Sun', and her real house looks nothing like the one described in the book or shown in the movie. It's in a canyon which means 'place where the sun never reaches'..the poor house is falling down. The movie was filmed in Cortona, and a fountain was added in the piazza by the hollywood directors. The fountian offended the neighbors, especially for it's terrible proportions. Legend has it that on night the women of the village had had it, and came over and castrated the statue in the fountain to show their displeasure!
After delighting us with stories, Carol took us up to the cathedral and fortress at the top of the hill.
The fortress
The Cathedral from the fortress.
Carol then kidnapped us and took us back to her house by the lake. We ended up staying for a wonderful dinner and conversation. At around 9, we were taken town and dropped off at the train station, where Carol said 'hate to love you and leave you'...she's so silly. We caught the train back to Castiglion, no problem. Another wonderful day in Tuscany.
According to the map, this turret was part of the original wall of town.
This beautiful church was about 3/4 of the way up the hill to town. It seems early renaissance, and is in a stunning location.
Here is a town bell tower at the entry to town from the bus stop.
Most of the bells have a beautiful patina on them.
The colors and layers of age on the buildings was gorgeous. This wins as my favorite.
We walked around the perimeter of the town. The wall here may look just a few feet tall, but on the other side it was perhaps 25 or 30 feet tall. Amazing. The view out to the countryside is magnificent.
We were lured out of town by this beautiful church. We found a gate, and with our little tourist map we proceeded to try to find the curch.
Another apparent early Renaissance church, it is beautiful in its simplicity. The dome and peach color of the top glowed in the diffuse light.
You could really see the ageing of the stone on the side of this church, adding to its mistique. There was a small trail on the side of the church we decided to explore. According to the map, we could hook up with the road, and head over to Le Celle. The tourist map made it look very close, and showed a beautiful building with a creek. We decided to try to find it.
The road over to Le Celle out of Cortona looking back at the tower.
The fall colors are spectacular. Here you can see some typical Tuscan farmhouses with the forested tops of the hills behind them.
We walked and walked and walked....
And finally reached Le Celle, which turned out to be the monastery of St. Francis of Assisi! It was on of the most beautiful places I've been to. The buildings seemed to rise out of the earth just like farm wall terraces. Beautiful little garden areas are tucked in between some of the buildings. I think I could definitely have lived here..it has the most peaceful, tranquil feeling.
Walking down to the creek.
The buildings rise out of the bedrock stone of the creek. The entire site seemed so in tune with its surroundings.
This is the inside of St. Francis' chapel, and his 'cell' or le celle, was at the rear.
View up at the terraced gardens.
This is the lower bridge.
Here is the main chapel at Le Celle. All of the wood was hand carved. Although very simple, this is one of the nicests, warmest churches I've been in.
At this point, we had walked an hour out to Le celle, and by the time we wandered around it a while, it was already past 12:30, and we needed to be back to Cortona for lunch at 1pm. We figured we could run the whole way back, and maybe be on time...luckily we waved down a cab, and the woman who hired it kindly shared with us and drove us back to town. We got back in plenty of time. Must be the good karma of being at St. Francis' beautiful home.
The clock tower in Cortona.
We met Carol for lunch and had a wonderful time. After our two hour truffle ravioli wine lunch marathon, Carol took us up to the top of town in her car.
We also drove by Francis May's real house..she's the author of 'Under a Tuscan Sun', and her real house looks nothing like the one described in the book or shown in the movie. It's in a canyon which means 'place where the sun never reaches'..the poor house is falling down. The movie was filmed in Cortona, and a fountain was added in the piazza by the hollywood directors. The fountian offended the neighbors, especially for it's terrible proportions. Legend has it that on night the women of the village had had it, and came over and castrated the statue in the fountain to show their displeasure!
After delighting us with stories, Carol took us up to the cathedral and fortress at the top of the hill.
The fortress
The Cathedral from the fortress.
Carol then kidnapped us and took us back to her house by the lake. We ended up staying for a wonderful dinner and conversation. At around 9, we were taken town and dropped off at the train station, where Carol said 'hate to love you and leave you'...she's so silly. We caught the train back to Castiglion, no problem. Another wonderful day in Tuscany.
posted by Kim True | 10:18 AM
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