Day Twenty Five: Escalators and an Italian cooking class

Today we drove from Greve, about 70 miles, to Cortona. "Cortona is one of the oldest hill towns in Tuscany and is featured in Francis Mayes book Under the Tuscan Sun, later made into a movie. Its medieval streets are pleasant to wander and you'll be rewarded with fabulous views of the countryside along the medieval town walls" (http://goitaly.about.com/od/cortonatuscany/p/cortona.htm).

I have wanted to go to Cortona since I saw the movie Under the Tuscan Sun. And after doing research I found that it might be one of the easier hill towns of Tuscany to explore because of its escalator. Don't get me wrong there are just two escalators and there is no guarantee that they will be working. But better than nothing. Also when we were there both escalators were only running up, not down so you we had to manage the steps and walk down. At least we had some help going up. To park we followed the P parking signs and the signs for the escalator. Only one lot is close to the escalators that go to Piazza Garibaldi.

The hill towns of Tuscany are built on hills, go figure right. These towns were built this way to protect them from invaders. The towns have narrow streets and limited access with cars, most towns have car parks on the lower levels of the towns surrounding the hill. Therefore, you have to walk up steps and inclining pathways to get to the town. Just be aware, do your research and know your limitations. I did ok in Cortona. The escalator did help, but like I said before it only covers a small section of the hill and there are steps to it from the car park and I believe there are steps after it.

We spent some time walking around the little streets, doing a little shopping, stopping for a cappuccino, and enjoying the atmosphere of an old italian hill town. It is a well known and popular destination, due to the popularity of Francine Meyers book and movie, but the crowds were manageable, we just took our time and enjoyed. For those with limited mobility I would just do your research and study/bring a map. Know what streets you'd like to see and what sights you would like to go to, otherwise you can get "lost" going up and down streets and walking unnecessary amounts.

Piazza Garibaldi

This is where the escalator will bring you to, and it's a beautiful place to see panoramic views of the Tuscany region below. Jen and I had lunch at Tonino's in the Hotel San Luca right off of the Piazza. We were seated on the terrace which had amazing views and we had wonderful food. We started with three different kinds of bruschetta, Jen had a pasta dish and I had a salad.

Italian Cooking Class

After our visit to Cortona we headed back to Corte di Valle to get ready for our cooking class. We had arranged with the owner to participate in a cooking class on site (it was extra). The class was led by her (the owner) and included three other ladies from Polond. One who translated and spoke Italian, Polish and English, the other two girls spoke a little english but mainly just polish so it was interesting.

To start we made our own pasta and then made a filling out of potato and saffron (grown on sight). Then we rolled out the pasta and made Ravioli di Patate allo Zafferano (raviolis stuffed with potato and saffron). We also made some fettichini noodles with the left over pasta.

We then made Tiramisu for dessert and sautéed some chicken in a white wine sauce to go with the pasta and raviolis.

Everything was delicious!! The potato raviolis were just topped with a little butter and parmesan cheese and that's all they needed they were so flavorful and yummy. We had some wine from their vineyard and the rest of the pasta and chicken. Then we had our yummy dessert we made. It was a excellent night.