Capuchio Designs

Friday, June 4, 2010

Perugia

We spent the morning in the upper village of Perugia with a local tour guide.

The Cathedral displayed beautiful artwork on its ceiling and walls. There were stunning views from the upper village of the town below.

We were on our own for lunch so we went into a little market and bought some rustic bread, pecorino (best in the world!) cheese, and some chicken for a picnic on the church steps.

I was amazed at the impractical shoes some ladies were wearing on the uneven cobblestones.

I especially loved window shopping in this particular store.  Yarn is marvelous no matter where you are.

Being a college town, there was evidence of graffiti.

Parts of Perugia were very pretty, so we went off exploring lots of little streets and alley ways.

Tuscany / Cortona
After lunch, we paid for an extra excursion that took us to the home of Frances Maye, the author of Under the Tuscan Sun.  Our first stop on the panoramic drive to Cortona was a recently unearthed Etruscan Temple.

The cypress trees are very indicative of Tuscany. Cortona is visible in the distance.

Along this country road walk to the Etruscan sight, was a river bed lined with the most lovely, vibrant, poppies. Tuscany was draped with these beauties in many, many fields.

The drive to Cortona was wonderful!  It was very picturesque, and had a Tuscany feel, with its cypress and olive tree- lined country roads.

The lower part of Cortona was larger and more modern. We stopped at a junction where there was a small hotel and a restaurant with elderly Italian men enjoying a game of cards.

At this junction, we continued on foot, following a local guide named Giovanni. He should have been a comedian, as he had us laughing the entire time. We walked about 10 minutes down a quaint, hilltop, graveled narrow road, while admiring the gorgeous views of Tuscany down below on the left.

At first, I wasn’t paying attention / looking up, and almost walked right past Frances’s restored “Villa Bramasole (yearn for the sun).”   When I noticed others in my group had stopped, I turned back around, looked up to my right,  and then I saw the Villa …  it literally took my breath away!  It exuded such beauty and tranquility.  Everything I envisioned Tuscany to be!

Frances Maye restored this dilapidated old villa, so that now it is tidy, painted a goldish-orangey-yellow, and was the prettiest villa I saw in all of Italy. Her garden has more than 90 varieties of roses and the grounds are impeccable. There is no security around it which I found surprising, just a lovely iron fence.  Giovanni told us that she should of named it “Under the Tuscan Shade”, since there isn’t a whole lot of sun in the location of her Villa.

This cut out in the wall was where the old Italian man in the movie would place flowers each day. It was a shrine of some sort.

After this visit to Bramasole, we went into the town of Cortona where Giovanni got us oriented, then we were on our own to explore.

There were many attractive signs and places to photograph here.

We had some blood orange gelato which tasted like sherbet and came displayed beautifully! A little party in a cone. It made me smile.

Discovering the public gardens was very interesting. Its canopy of densely grown trees was almost eerie. In the center was a fountain of two women wrapped in fishes, and an ancient rock stadium off to one side.

We people watched from this vantage and saw a little old Italian couple out for a walk. We often saw this during the ritual of “passeggiata” which is a pre-dinner stroll, to “see and be seen”. Very endearing.

Perugia

Perugia was once again our stop for the night.  We went  to the upper village to enjoy a freshly baked pizza on the church steps in the piazza.

Ciao! Tomorrow is Venice!

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