Reading and Roaming
PASTA If you like pasta and/or pizza, you’ll never go hungry in Italy. We have been enjoying the pastas in particular and the fresh truffles. The Chief Penguin is truffle-obsessed; I’m just very fond of them. Consequently, we have both had tagliolini (the thin spaghetti-like pasta) with black truffles and a couple times with some early white truffles. The …
Continue reading “Italy: Eating Out in Tuscany”
Yesterday was our last full day in Arezzo. We’ve enjoyed being here and have had some of the best meals of the trip so far. That’s partly the result of seeking out trattorias rather than cafes or pizzerias. In Cortona, we had lunch in town, but took advantage of the tasty appetizers followed by cookies and vin santo …
Continue reading “Italy: Arezzo to Pienza”
ARREZO’S PLACE We arrived in Arezzo yesterday for three nights. Arezzo is not as much on the tourist circuit as Siena, Cortona, and other Tuscan towns. In fact, Debora, our lively guide today, described Arezzo as “the ugly duckling.” It’s a real city and much bigger than Siena or Cortona, but it has not had the same influx …
Continue reading “Italy: Surprising Arezzo”
SETTING Cortona is a town in Tuscany built on a hillside at an elevation of 2,000 feet. Some of its original walls remain and the architecture is primarily medieval. It was an Etruscan kingdom, then a Roman colony, then independent, and in the 15th century part of the Medici holdings. When Italy was united into …
Continue reading “Italy: Wandering Historic Cortona”
