Our first visit to Tuscany was with a group of friends in the late 90s at a villa in Chianti. There was one day when we needed some “us” time, so when our friends decided to visit Volterra for the day, we opted to go visit a town on completely the other side of Tuscany. The day trip ended up being Cortona. From that first trip, two memories remain vividly associated with Cortona.

The first was that view over the Val di Chiana from Pizza Garibaldi. It was early July and the sunflowers were streaking the fields yellow as Trasimeno glittered green in the background. The sky was a clear blue and hills were scorched brown with the distant woodlands a dark grey-green. The cicadas were chirping in the cypresses below and the swallows above were screeching with delight as they swooped through invisible swarms of insects. The scalding sun was melting the tourists’ gelato faster than they could lick it off their cones and during which they posed for their family photos in front of the stone balustrade.

....that view over the Val di Chiana from Piazza Garibaldi.

I have seen the same view coloured a bright spring green. I have seen it obliterated by thick fog and by endless rain. 

I think my favourite impression is when dark grey clouds clouds stack themselves above the Apennines. They flash orange and blue from within, with thunder rolling a few seconds later and then, if it gets that far, that hot sub tropical rain hits the piazza, evaporating almost immediately.

The second impression of Cortona is unsurprisingly my second memory: walking along the flat Via Nazionale, looking up and down at the picturesque scenes that the steep side streets painted with their shadows in the strong sunshine. The stars of the show managed to repeat themselves after each corner without ever becoming repetitive or predictable. Perfectly positioned flower boxes. Pointed arched doorways with the inevitable triangle that forms between the bottom of the doorway and the sloping street below. Cats calmly grooming themselves always just out of reach of petting hands. These streets remain a delight, with some directions being easier than others.

One memory reassociated itself many years later. It had been demoted to the charming, but anonymous Tuscan Town status. Not due to its generality, but because of the vast number of memories this part of Italy has generated for us.

This demotion, however, was addressed on the day that we first met Alison and Nicola in Piazza Garibaldi. Our day started with a re-appreciation of the big view as well as seeing homes in the hills above Cortona. At the end of our day however, Nicola suggested he could drop us off at Santa Margherita so that  we could walk down through town to where our car was. We had barely set off on the road down to Cortona when we happily rediscovered Severini’s Stations of the Cross. We just looked at each other and smiled broadly.