Travel day today.

Showers, packing, and breakfast before the car arrived to take us to the airport to pick up the rental car. Yes the airport. As backwards as it seems, picking up a rental at the airport is less expensive than in town here. The opposite of the US. Also, the airport is a pretty straight shot on to the A1 Autostrada… no driving anywhere near the fun of the streets of Rome itself.

I ordered a Ford… I got a Giullieta! I love Alpha Romeos, I don’t know why but I do. This one has lots of zip and on the Autostrada it glides along at 150kph as smooth as a good panna cotta.

But soft, what light through yonder windscreen breaks? it is the east and the Giulietta is too much fun…

One stop at an Autogrill for a bit of lunch and we get into Cortona in the early afternoon. There was a parade when we arrived!

At first I was flattered but then I was told it is the last day of the crossbow festival! Teams from the five neighborhoods of the town compete. There’s medieval-ness everywhere. The drum corps and the flag throwers are very impressive. The falconers were cool and for once there were no pigeons in the piazza. Huh.  Layers and layers of velvet and everyone in tights and cloaks. It’s 90 degrees. I wonder if it wasn’t pestilence and fighting that killed people back then but actually it was heat!

The final competition finally starts, there are probably 2000 people watching. The first archer is up and the crowd gets quiet. Boing! I am flabbergasted. All five of the archers on the first round put their bolts (arrows) in a square about 4 inches across from about 100 feet away. I wouldn’t want to piss off a medieval crossbowman, that’s for sure.

Best part? Our neighborhood team won!

Dinner at an old familiar place… one of the first places we ever ate in Corona, La Grotta. D has the picatta Limon and spinach, I have the grilled lamb and asparagi. All is right with the world.