Coffee, juice, showers and packing. It’s clear and dry and a good day for a drive. I bid farewell to Catrina and Lorenzo… and to Pinto who is so distraught that we are leaving he just lays on the ground, and to Luna with whom I have formed a true friendship… she can’t even look at me when I say goodbye. I shout out to Missy the cat, where ever she is and we are Cortona bound again.  

It is a lovely, leisurely drive with no wrong turns. (well… one. But if you make only one wrong turn here you get to count it as none.)

We arrive in Cortona in time for lunch. The best parking here is in a big public free lot that almost always has space. It is a few stairs, a little path and two escalators to the Via Nazionalle entrance to the city. Cortona’s front door and only about 20 yards (“meters” in Italian) to Jeanette’s place.

Our arrival in Cortona is celebrated by the authorities shutting down the escalators from the parking area to the city entrance for maintenance. Yay! Slow and steady wins the race and after about 20 minutes of doing our best sherpa impressions we appear at Jeanette’s door just as she is about to take Carlotta and Daisy for a walk. Perfect.   

We had booked the one room with a washing machine so we could get things cleaned up for the next week. (We only do carry on so once in a while …. ) Jeanette had to move some reservations around so we weren’t able to get the room with the washer but true to her wonderful helpful style she took our bag of dirties before our suitcases even made it to our room and through a load in her own washer. 1 hour and 20 minutes later clean clothes drying on a rack in our room in front of the open window.

We settle in to our room and head out for a slice and some… shopping. Oh joy.

Some hours later… Salami and cheese and beer in the room while we catch up on a little reading and correspondence before dinner. Half way from Jeanette’s to the piazza it is sprinkling rain and looking ugly so I trot (not really, I walk pretty quick though) back for my jacket and an umbrella. This of course insures that it won’t rain at all for the rest of the night.

The first restaurant we look at is recommended and new but looks a little too new… too, innovative. The second place hangs out a “Completo” (no more room) sign as we are reading the menu in the window. Pane e Vino is familiar and has room. The food was OK… the wine was good… nothing special but we’re fed.

A few minutes taken at the piazza in front of the duomo to look out over the valley and the cemetery all twinkling with votives after which two weary travelers are ready for bed.

Note… Cortona rocks on a Saturday night. We drift off to sleep around 11pm to the sounds of soccer chants from the bar at the end of the street and the peels of laughter and shrieks of children chasing one another up and down.

Thank goodness for earplugs.