September 29, 2015 (Tuesday)
Our last full day in the Tuscan countryside was dedicated to the towns of Cortona and Montepulciano, although my initial wish was to include Montalcino as well. The journey from our accommodation Bertini Falls The drive to Cortona was a bit long (almost 2 hours), but it was worth every minute.
Cortona
The city is cute, like all the others we visited in the previous days, but what I liked most was the view.
If you want to know more about our complete Tuscany trip, see this post here.
Look how beautiful the view is from there:
We stopped the car on a street zig zag very close to the entrance of the city, as that's where we saw several cars parked, so it seemed like a good option. We crossed a park until we reached the entrance of the city, which is where the viewpoint from where we took the photos above is located.
We continued along the main street, which is lovely, and entered the tourist center which is in a square. I had read that it was in Cortona that the movie was filmed. Under the Tuscan Sun (2003), So I wanted to ask for more details. To my surprise, they gave us an explanatory pamphlet with several details about the film, that is, it really is an attraction of the city! In this same square, for example, the scene with the fountain was filmed, which no longer exists, and there is also the square where the scene with the fair was filmed.
I found out that the house in the movie is known as Villa Laura, but the house described in the book is the Villa Bramasole. Both are outside the city, so we decided to leave them for the end of the tour. (see below!!) We passed by San Domenico Church and in Cathedral of Santa Maria, which are very small, but cozy.
We strolled through the streets without rushing and I was enchanted by the decorative Tuscan crockery on sale in several shops. Each one more beautiful than the last!
We thought about sitting down at a restaurant for lunch, but again, we bought a pizza al taglio to continue traveling and see as much as possible. I still had hope of being able to see Montalcino and Montepulciano on this same day, but Celo was already more pessimistic than me… lol.
The house from the movie Under the Tuscan Sun
We got in the car and went straight to the house in the movie. We followed the directions on the brochure, but I can't find it on Google Maps now. If you want to know, the instructions were: go down Via Gino Severini, pass the Hotel Oasi Neumann and continue down for half a kilometer. You will find this beautiful house on your right:
Montepulciano
After seeing the house, we drove for almost 1 hour until Montepulciano along a charming road, with many well-kept and charming wineries. It made me want to have one! 🙂
We found a parking lot right at the entrance to the city, before the wall, and that's where we parked. Another cute medieval city, with lots of little shops, restaurants, cute little churches and a wonderfully peaceful atmosphere. It's a shame that the cathedral was under construction.
We bought our homemade pasta and local wines and since it was getting late, we decided to go straight home, without stopping in Montalcino. After seeing so many similar towns, I'm starting to think it would be just another one... Or is it?
This was our last day exploring the small towns of Tuscany. What an incredible region! We left our accommodation the next day and headed to La Spezia to explore Cinque Terre, on the coast of the Liguria region.
If you want more details about our two-week trip to Italy, check out the links below:
- Italy – Rome, Tuscany, Bologna and Cinque Terre (14 days -SUMMARY)
- Italy – Rome and Vatican (4 days)
- Italy – Bologna (1 day)
- Italy – Tuscany – Summary (4 days)
- Italy – Tuscany – San Gimignano and Volterra (1 day)
- Italy – Tuscany – Florence (2 days)
- Italy – Tuscany – Lucca (1 day)
- Italy – Tuscany – Monteriggioni and Siena (1 day)
- Italy – Tuscany – Montepulciano and Cortona (1 day)
- Italy – Tuscany – Pisa (1 day)
- Italy – Cinque Terre (2 days)
If you want to know more about our other trips around Italy, see below:
