Monday morning! Remarkably rested and ready to hit the breakfast room. Now, I’m kind of a traditionalist when it comes to breakfast. Coffee. That’s my breakfast. If possible, a good Italian espresso…. which IS possible today! So while the others start with cake and eggs and melon and Jeanette’s home made croissants. I have an espresso dopio. Then, I have another. Just because it’s a special occasion (first full day of vacation) and because Jeanette made them and she is AMAZING , I have a buttery… flaky… fresh croissant with honey.

We’re off!

First on the agenda is a nice walk up to Basilica di Santa Margherita. A lovely day, sunny and warm. About 1/3 of the way up I stop to take a photo of a cat. (really? How odd… I know) A little old lady pops out of her house and starts chattering away at me and smiling and pointing at the house across the tiny street that is being renovated into which the cat disappeared. As far as I could figure out, the building was purchased by a American drummer (picture a little old lady in an apron miming a rock and roll drummer) who paid way too much and meanwhile the house has been taken over by cats. She thinks this is hysterical. Cortona as you may or may not know is a Tuscan “hill town.” So, that nice walk up to pay our respects to the beautiful basilica and the rather dusty, shriveled little mummified Ms Margherita who has been sleeping in a glass box on the alter for… a while, is about a mile and a half of stairs … up. It’s worth it though, she told me she was glad to see us. Did I mention it was hot… and I was thirsty… and I had a lot of espresso?

The poppies are everywhere this year. Great fields of them and little patches whereever you look. Lots of other flowers too but the poppies are my favorites. On the way down we see lots of wild flowers and the attendant buzzy flying things. Something struck me as odd though. There were all these critters flying from flower to flower, sticking their faces in and moving on, but they weren’t making any sound. No buzz… about the size of a healthy american bumble bee I moved in for a closer look. Hummingbird hawk-moths! (Macroglossum stellatarum for you Nancy) I’ve seen them before but only in ones or twos and never so small… there were bunches of the little buggers. Hard to photograph though.

Back into town for a little lunch. Pizza… it’s what’s for lunch. Prosciutto, ruccolo, and grana padano. I am fortified.

Off to Sansepulcro for the afternoon. A nice town, they have some pretty churches, we somehow found the shopping district and the Museo Civico Sansepolcro, Museo di Piero / Palazzo della Resistenza was very interesting. You could watch an art conservator working on restoring a fresco, there were may very nice Pieros and a very odd but cool display of locks and keys.

The Renault has a GPS in it. We’ve been using the same map of Italy since 1999. never been lost. We’ve discovered some creative routes to some of our destinations, but that’s a different story. Today we decide to give Sean, the Irish male voice of our GPS a try. He did pretty well. Not necessarily the route we would have picked but he got us where we needed to go and we got to see more pretty countryside his way. Something to be aware of in the future though… if you use a GPS and all you put in is the name of the town you want to get to, it will take you to the middle of said town. If you put in the name of a Tuscan, walled hill town, it will take you where cars, especially cars with tourists in them, ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO GO. Ooop.

Back to Cortona to freshen up, a bit of wine on the rooftop patio and off to dinner.

Tonight …. slow roasted duck with grilled eggplant, peppers and sauteed spinach. A simple Sangiovese house wine and another perfect Italian day.

Oh… and lemon almond mousse, a very light fluffy ‘cheesecake’ with strawberries and tiramisu for desert.

We’ve started looking at real estate ads…