We have uploaded some new pictures. You can see them here.
Day Six started out with our usual trip to the bakery. Shelley and the kids went today instead of me and found out the names of the ladies working there. Signora Maria and Signora Chinsia ( Maria's daughter ). Maria had made us some special tarts that were a delicious blend of pastry, cream and fresh fruit. They were very good. We actually waited to eat them until the evening.
Our first town of the day was Castiglione Del Lago. We had lunch at La Cantina, a pretty decent pizza place right in the middle of town. The food was good, but the service was less than stellar. In addition, it was our second time being hit with the "table charge", where they basically charge you to sit down. I am not sure why this bothers me so much, but it does. Anyway, after lunch we headed down to the lake. The wind was still blowing pretty hard when we got there and it made the visit to the lake shore a pretty short one. The kids managed to find a playground and spent about a half hour running around the area. We walked around the town center a bit longer, then decided to head out. We were not that impressed.
On the way back to our place, we saw the signs for Cortona. This is the village where the book 'Under The Tuscan Sun' took place, so we decided to give it a go. Cortona was one of the larger towns we have visited so far. The hills and streets were very steep, and the scenery was spectacular. We wandered into the piazza to find our daily helping of gelato. We found a place called Gelato Snoopy. We all got a single scoop and sat down in the piazza to enjoy the people walking by. This gelato, by everyone's measure, was the best of the trip to date. It was so smooth and creamy, and the flavor was incredible. After gelato, we headed up to the top of the town to Basilica Santa Margherita. We felt obliged to visit it for two reasons: (1) It is at the very top of the village and has an amazing view of the valley and (2) we have our own Margaret. We stepped inside the church at 5:30 and daily mass was just starting. I don't know much about the rituals of Catholic mass, but the service was very moving. The priests and nuns were singing as they entered, and they sang a good bit of the various prayers. The sounds of the singing echoing through the church were quite inspiring. The basilica was also one of the more beautiful buildings we have been in since we have been here. We were not able to take pictures because of the service, unfortunately, but we did get some pictures of the outside.
We wandered back down through the town streets, by a convent where nuns were milling about in the sanctuary. When we got back to the town square, we stopped for some free wine tasting at a local wine shop, then stopped at a cafe for a glass of prosecco to celebrate our anniversary.
There were quite a few Americans in Cortona, probably the most we have seen in any village. I am sure this is directly attributable to the success of the book. There was also a fair amount of both real estate development and a good bit more shopping and commercial stuff. Neither good nor bad, but certainly different from the towns we have visited so far.
We stopped at the store on the way back to Podere Ampella to pick up supplies for dinner. We ate at home, enjoying the sun setting right over the mountains out our back door. The kids ran around playing football and enjoying being out of the car for a bit.
As Shelley said, we will have a hard time topping this anniversary celebration.
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