Day six...tues

Woke to amazing sunshine. Another glorious day. Today Paul drove to Cortona..a 20 min drive. Another hill town surrounded by a wall. Found a great parking spot and started to walk up. First stop was for Gelato.  Started walking by all the shops on both side of the street. Arrived at the main square. We found a neat wine shop and got a nice bottle of wine..Syrah from Cortona. Very nice. Started to explore the town and climbed up the streets and down the streets. And found a church. Surprise ,surprise .. Then we found a street that we thought led back to stores but ended up going to another church. We started climbing and climbing and then refused to give up.  We were almost there and we met a couple from Toronto who said it was worth the effort. The church was beautiful and worth the climb. We thought we would see what was on the next hill up and wished we hadn't bothered. Then we had to walk all the way down which is sometimes harder. Met up with Bob and Delores and had lunch. Paul and I went into a little bar and had a great coffee. I walked out first and Paul tried to leave but had forgot to pay so he got stopped. Too funny. Another beautiful day with lots of walking. Home for a light dinner and skip Bo.the boys beat us two games.

Day five, Monday

Market day in Foiana della Chiana, only 7 kilometres from the villa. Wonderful little market, we found the smaller food section first. Paul braved the line up of local mamas at the meat stand. One dear in particular, holding ticket 71, to Paul's 70, decided to jump the line since clearly Paul was the tourista. That was fine and when served the owners were more than gracious with the lack of Italian. Hand sliced proscuitto that was excellent, pecorino cheese, a thick slice of porchetta and a bag of mozzarella di bufula. We filled our bags with bread, foccacia, a couple of tablecloths and a couple of handbags for Marylu.

We continued on to Montepulciano, another wonderful hill town, more tourists, but the streets are highways compared to Orvietto. Lots of great little shops on the long climb to the Piazza Grande. Bread, antipasto, cheese and wine on offer in many of the wine shops. I won't mention the soap Bob.

Classic dinner with finds from the market and wine ... bread, proscuitto, porchetta, tomatoes, olive oil and a peach flan.

Day four. Sunday

Woke to an amazing sunrise coming through the red curtains. Maybe tomorrow we will  open them and watch.  It's 8 am. Shower and dress and check Facebook to get a message from Mike. He was just going to bed. He said good night I said good morning... Breakfast of a coffee and croissant with cherry jam..yummy. Today we are doing the ! The four magical villages. They are all up in the hills. Will post pictures .  One town we stopped and had a coffee that was the best coffee I have had in my life. I will never forget it. We stopped  for lunch at the last one. I had vegetable and bean soup with onions which they bring raw on a side plate. Then I ordered maccharoni which came as flat long pasta with a fresh tomato sauce . It was amazing. Paul had mushroom soup and a dish of wild Boar. Delores had ravioli with a weird sauce and Bob ordered a plate of different cheeses and a duck dish. We bought a bottle of their house wine to bring home. It's now 4:15 and we are back at villa deciding what to do about food for dinner. No stores open. Hmmmmm

Light dinner of pasta el pesto with sliced tomatoes and salad. And wine, followed by a game of Skip Bo.

The four villages are all small hill towns where you park outside the original walls and then walk up to the narrow streets. Everything is clean and picturesque, can take a million pictures:
Petroio - we drove through the tiny cobbled streets of this town.
Castelmzuio - part of The English Patient was filmed here. The cafe we had that terrific coffee from, Locanda di Casa Mustia, was down in a half basement, half full of people including the local priest who apparently likes to fuel up before delivering his service. We saw him 20 minutes later with a broom and dustpan.

Montisi - a small town consisting of a million photo opportunities.

Trequanda - We parked and then started walking up the hill. We were looking for the restaurant Conte Matte that had been recommended to us. In a rare departure from his usual behaviour Paul asked for directions ... there were three people chatting and with a 'scusco' and the name 'Conte Matte' one of the party excused himself from the conversation and started walking us up the hill to the restaurant, very quickly. He was happy to take us to the other side of town, the conversation was pretty much Italian and one-sided until he learned that we were Canadian and between us we had a few words of French.  What a wonderful welcome to this tiny village.

For a Week Here

Guess the jetlag is still an issue for Delores and Paul as they're taking advantage of the villa and its comfy amenities.  We will have to plan our later jaunts and need to decide whether to eat in or go local.  Decisions, decisions.

La Colonica..Italy

Day three. Sat. La Colonica..Marciano Della Chiana

We all woke up in the middle of the night but got back to sleep at different times. Paul and I got up early and went for a walk through the town while it was still very quiet . Had a coffee at the shop by the church. It's garbage day so we had coffee with the garbage men. Beautiful morning. Took some more pics on way back..just can't resist. Got back and packed up with Bob and Delores and had a yummy breakfast at the B& B then headed north with Paul driving. Stopped at Cortona high on the hill but couldn't find a parking spot. Will have to come back..it looks amazing. Stopped at the Co op to get some wine ,cheese, bread and stuff so we don't starve on Sunday . Drove north to Marciano Della Chiana and our Villa La Colonica. Very nice villa backing on to an olive grove. We will be very happy here. Delores and I had Bellinis and the guys had red wine with cheese and bread,apple ,grapes and olives...yummy. It's a gorgeous day. Delores and Paul are now sound asleep..  4:14 pm for a nap. ..to be continued

Orvieto , Italy