Day 11 - Cortona

A day off.  My alarm rang at 8:45 so we'd have time to get ready and still make breakfast. Guy suggested we sleep in and eat granola bars. I concur. Up and ready by 11, today is going to be our day off. It looks like it could rain any second, so we nixed Sienna, postponing it for tomorrow. First task of the day was to do laundry. We have plenty of clothes, but will probably need clean shorts for Rome and I needed to do my airplane pillowcase, so we just did up everything and except for what we had on, we have nothing dirty. At first I was a little put off by the property not having washers and dryers, but I actually think I prefer the Bluewater as it is fast, has multiple washers and the dryer can have it all dried in about 18 minutes. Today, at our laundry visit, we washed and dried in about 45 minutes. We now consider ourselves professionals. :) This time the owners were there and asked us if we needed any help (in Italian but we guessed what they were saying). Guy told them we were here the other day and we were good. It was nice they asked, tho! Also, while we had 30 minutes during the wash cycle, we left the Bluewater to go to the bank. Guy exchanged for a few more Euros and we should be set now for the rest of the trip.

After the laundry was folded and collected up, we drove up to Cortona for lunch. We decided to let TripAdvisor pick, so #1 was Gelateria Snoopy. It had food, too, but just had a problem with our restaurant being called Snoopy. So we went for #2. Closed for lunch. #3. Closed for lunch. #4 Open!. It looked beautiful and a bit on the fancy side, but the prices weren't more than a Euro or two higher than anywhere else. As we sat down he gave us menus and Guy saw him inside opening something. We heard a cork pop and Guy was like - shoot. I knew what he meant. We were the only ones there and that had to be for us. We didn't ask for it. So now we are flashing back to a really bad experience we had in Burrano. I wanted seafood risotto and the server said that it was the special of the day, did I want to try it? I said yes, but what I didn't realize was... I said yes to some kind of all inclusive 5 course deal. They kept bringing items out and we kept telling them no, but they kept bringing it anyway. Clearly taking advantage of the language barrier and the young tourists. So we are thinking that maybe this is what was happening here. Guy went to go wash his hands and before he got back out, the server came out with these gorgeous plates of cold potato soup with ricotta and a quail egg. Yeah, it's happening again. So Guy walks up and the server is still there. I said "It's happening" and he told the server we didn't order it. The server said, "Please, a welcome for you". Guy said "Free?" And again the server said, "It is a welcome to you from the chef". Ok. So being a bit more seasoned travelers we can usually see when a good scam is happening, but 1. it is top rated on Trip Advisor, 2. Guy asked if it was free and he kinda said yes, and 3. Guy will only pay for what we eat. It was so good but I couldn't enjoy it in fear that we were being scammed. Next our food came out. Guy had homemade pasta with rabbit ragu and I had pasta stuffed with Burrata cheese. I love Burrata. It was SO GOOD. Guy says possibly his best pasta so far. Again, with reserved pleasure as we didn't know what was next. I ordered a side of veggies and those didn't come out until the very end, but they were hot and yummy. We pretty much cleaned our plates. The server asked if we wanted dessert, but we said no and he brought us the bill. Scanning it closely, we were only charged for what we asked for. Too bad we didn't know he was legit as we would have enjoyed ourselves a lot more, because it was certainly delicious. Oh, and when we got the bill they also gave us a nice little map of the town. It had their restaurant on it, circled...what a great marketing tool!

After lunch, we walked around streets we'd never been on, just taking in the sights and visiting the church. We shopped a bit and I got a cute little leather embellishment for my new purse and I love it. Pic will be in the link for today. We walked leisurely back to the car because at that time it was only 77 degrees with a strong yet refreshing breeze. On the way back down to the lower part of the town, we got some gas. We do the full service just so we put the right kind of gas in the car. It took awhile for someone to come out, so I Googled the word "full" in Italian - "pieno" and when he walked up to the car I said "Pieno, grazie". Hee Hee. What a dork he was probably thinking. But he knew what I said and filled her up! :) Once again we ran into the Coop, have I mentioned I love the grocery store, we got a few more things and they have the cutest reusable bags that you purchase, so I bought several -my sweet friend Amanda Hickman describes purchases as "treasures"- and we headed back to the room, threw or swimmies and are soaking in the full sun of the afternoon. We aren't sure what is for dinner yet, but thinking about the hotel's restaurant. The menu is limited, but would be sufficient as we already had a lovely lunch.

Well, when we headed back to the room, we decided we'd go to the local pizzeria instead. The hotel made our reservations and we got ready for our big night on the town! Just kidding, it is really less than a block away. :) So off we went for dinner (we had lots of clothes options since EVERYTHING is clean). We fancied up a bit and headed for the Ristorante Pizzeria Cantanapoli. I remembered eating here because the road to get out was crazy steep and with our stick shift from before...it was, well, let's say...memorable. Once inside Guy totally remembered. We had our table waiting for us and as we looked around, all tables had reservation cards on them. So we felt lucky to get a seat. The menu had lots to choose from at reasonable prices. I had the gnocchi alla Sorrentina and Guy had the Bufala pizza (buffalo mozzarella and basil). Our food came quickly and we jumped in. We had a big lunch and did the best we could, but left a bit on our plates. It was SO GOOD! Being on vacation, and Amanda Hickman says European calories are zero, we ordered one pineapple Tiramisu. Oh my. Creamy and delicious. So note for anyone coming to Cortona. You must check out this fabulous restaurant. Very friendly to tourists, checked back on us regularly and was an overall fabulous night.

Once again I'll be in bed before 10pm!

Tomorrow...Sienna!