Cortona ed Arezzo

It's one of my and K-Bravo's last Saturdays in Florence, so we decided a few weeks ago (during that long train ride from Assisi with the Frenchies, to be exact) to go on a day trip to Arezzo. I had heard from quite a few people that it was worth a visit, and when we asked our teacher about it he recommended stopping by Cortona too, so, just like that, we had a vague itinerary. There's no other type in Italy.

We took the 9:13am train from Florence to Arezzo (perfect for a one-hour nap) and upon arriving decided to take the bus to Cortona first. Finding the actual bus was no small feat since we got pointed to a bus loop with many bus stops but no clear schedule for Cortona. It wasn't until we asked around for the third or fourth time that we got pointed to the exact location. We had about 20 minutes to spare so we each had a latte macchiato (which is the same as a caffe latte--I never knew!) and shared a pastry. (Those who know me know that I cannot have coffee on an empty stomach because it would cause either heart palpitations or insomnia. Some Italian I am!)

The bus ride was a lengthy 1 hour and 15 minutes so by the time we arrived it was just before 12:30pm. We wanted to take a leisurely stroll towards food but when I checked the timetable I realized that we only had around 2½ hours in Cortona unless we wanted to leave after 7:00pm. This meant we would need to hustle!

Cortona from Piazza Garibaldi

Piazza della Repubblica

Cortona is a small Tuscan town with a steep and steady uphill climb. I later learned that this is where the movie Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed, and the American woman who Diane Lane's character is based on (the film was adapted from her book) still has a home here with her husband. Here you will find lots of churches, windy streets, sweaty tourists (such as yours truly), and a stunning panorama--especially from atop the Fortezza del Girifalco.

Tuscan landscape and Lake Trasimeno, seen from the fortezza

Our exploring took us a bit longer than anticipated and our culinary rule of thumb of following small streets to find un-touristy restaurants was futile since Cortona was full of them (small, windy streets that is). Since we did not feel like asking someone to cook us lunch in their home and we had a 10% off dining coupon from the fortezza, we made our way back towards the Piazza della Repubblica where we found La Locanda nel Loggiato, recommended by Rick Steves and thus full of American tourists.

K-Bravo's cannelloni

We sat on a patio with a view of the Piazza della Repubblica and a quarter litre of red wine. K-Bravo had the cannelloni (his first cannelloni ever!) and I ordered tagliatelle with duck ragù. I was surprised to see it served in a bowl made of bread!

Tagliatelle with duck ragù

Something I often take for granted is salt. Bread in Florence is unsalted. To make the long story short, Spain besieged Florence in the 16th century, cutting off their salt supply. Florentines began making their bread without salt and when the siege ended they never bothered to revert to their old recipe. Italians are slow to change--just look at their computer/internet usage--it's decades behind North America's! But now back to food. I just wanted to say that bread in Cortona was salted.

For our second course we shared the cinta senese (roast pork ribs). They came with two accompanying sauces, one of which looked like Venetian glass. The meat was tender, succulent, and delicious. I thought of how much Nicky would have loved to eat it the whole time.

Cinta senese (grilled pork ribs), a specialty of Siena

My seat had a clear view of the town hall's clock the whole time, so as it got closer and closer to 2:45pm and my three times asking for the bill were still unanswered, we decided to pay at the cash register. They still hadn't processed our bill yet and with less than five minutes to spare, we were starting to panic. As soon as we paid we made a run for it and luckily caught our bus. Upon reviewing the receipt, however, I noticed that our 10% discount was only applied on our 2€ water and not our 40€ bill, meaning we only saved 20 cents!

We napped the whole way back to Arezzo, and when we arrived we were feeling groggy and our contact lenses were dry (don't you hate it when that happens?). We first stopped by the Roman amphitheatre.

Unfortunately not much remained of it other than the walls. We walked through many piazze with churches, eventually coming across the Piazza Grande ("Big Piazza"--how creative). It reminded us of the Piazza del Campo in Siena.

Santa Maria della Pieve

On our way to the Duomo we got to see a bride and groom leave the church and get pummelled with rice, pasta, and glitter--all uncooked, of course. My travelling sisters and I saw a slightly more glamourous wedding-exit in Siracusa two years ago (that is if you don't count the bride's unflattering skull cap).

Wedding at the Duomo (we weren't on the guest list)

Though Arezzo was a quaint town, it didn't wow us as at least I had hoped. I think we were just tired after a lot of walking and a full meal. And I'm sure that if Rick Steves had an Arezzo section I would have been more interested. A guide can really make all the difference.

Ciao, Arezzo!

We arrived back in Florence in time for aperitivo with B at Chiaroscuro. I wasn't as impressed with their food as I had been my first time there but they did have these amazing salty donut-like pockets filled with tomato sauce and topped with mozzarella and basil. I had a glass of Sicilian Nero D'Avola red wine and we each finished our "dinner" with a nocciolino (hazelnut-flavoured caffe macchiato), which has been on Pleuve's list of recommendations for me to try in Florence. Well, Pleuve, it was worth the wait!

B and I did some night-sightseeing en route to La Carraia for her third (and my first) gelato of the day. We ended up seeing some remnants of Notte Bianca, first stopping by the Palazzo Strozzi with its "Tape Florence" art installation--huge tunnels made of tape. Tunnels we could enter!

Tape Florence at Palazzo Strozzi

Having fun in a tunnel of tape (Photo courtesy of B)

Our second stop was Ponte la Carraia (the Carraia bridge)--you guessed it, steps from Gelateria La Carraia--to sit on beanbag chairs flanked by trees that were put there for last month's Notte Bianca. It has become a very popular spot with locals and tourists alike; however, it is only here for another couple weeks.

Trees on Ponte la Carraia

After chatting and gelato, I managed to get one of my favourite nightshots of Florence thus far. It would not have been possible without using the wall to steady my arms for the photo.

Chiaro di luna fiorentina

Today's word of the day is chiaro di luna, meaning "moonlight".