Under the Tuscan Sun

We went on our first day trip to CORTONA today! It's a rather short trip so we slept in and left on the train at 11:30 this morning. Buying train tickets is a whole new experience for us because, unlike the US, you don't just buy round-trip tickets. You can but it's not necessarily given because plenty of people go back and forth for work and whatnot. When we arrived, the train station was completely vacant. There was no one around. There were no employees "manning" the station. Nothing. We knew that once we exited, we'd have to take a bus up to Cortona because the city's on the side/top of a huge hill (part of the Apennines). A lady there at the bus stop helped us figure out how to get tickets and we were headed to CORTONA!

It's kind of a weird feeling to just show up somewhere, not knowing where to go or what you plan to do when you get there. We walked around for awhile until we found the chiesa di San Francesco. It was reconstructed in the 1600s, which is evident when you look up at the rafters. I was very sure they were going to fall on top of me.

We decided we were hungry so we set out to find some grub. If you've ever been a tourist in a foreign country, you understand the sick feeling you get in your stomach when you know you have to walk into a restaurant where all eyes will be on you. So we found this little pizzeria, took deep breaths, and walked in. Shortly after we were seated, a couple came in and it took 2.5 seconds to realize that they were American. After a couple exchanges, we found out that they're retired Californians who just "decided to pick up and move to Italy for a year." Oh, okay. Is that how it goes in California? You just feel like transplanting to a new corner of the Earth? Honestly, I'm fine with it. Even if it means I have to go by myself. Nevertheless, here was lunch!

I had passed by a scarf that I loved in the doorway to a shop and decided to go in and buy it. It turned out to be a leather shop, which is somewhere I've been wanting to visit! Either Danielle or I (probably both) said, "It smells like leather;" to which the shopowner said, "I suppose it would since you're in a leather shop." What a sassypants! We didn't know whether to be surprised by the comment or the fact that she was a Brit who spoke lovely English. She asked what we were doing in Cortona and we told her we were from Oklahoma, studying abroad in Arezzo. She then proceeded to tell us how studying abroad was how she ended up in Italy... She met her husband! It should come as no surprise to any of you that I was warned a million times before I left about this future husband that I was sure to meet. Unfortunately or fortunately (and I'm not sure which), there are noooo college aged boys who are even remotely attractive, if we see them in the first place. If they are, they might just awkwardly rubberneck us until we're out of sight. Anyway, I ended up buying a beautiful, green, expensive leather purse that I don't even remotely regret buying, mom. Then the lady gave me the scarf. Sweetheart.

On our way out, we asked her where we could find "Bramasole," the house from Under the Tuscan Sun. She smiled that knowing smile, as I'm sure she's very used to tourists asking that question. She said it was about a 20 minute walk that required you to go through parks, around tennis courts, down roads, blah. We were like, "Okay. Okay. Ain't no thang. 20 minutes. We got this." I don't know in what world that walk would ever be 20 minutes. Maybe on one of those motor scooters that everyone seems to find so hip here. 45 minutes later... We were like, "Maybe we've gone too far. Maybe we passed it. Maybe it's up around this corner." Three times we said, "If it's not around this corner, we're going back." FINALLY, we found it. She had warned us that we'd see manicured lawns, which is actually helpful since most people don't manicure lawns here. So here's the beautiful Bramasole. If it's different than you remember, though, it's because they didn't use her actual house to film -- only one like it.

 Finally, here's one of me with some beautiful Tuscan landscape.
Wish you were here!