Well, I’m not sure how far I can take the title without plagiarizing, but we actually were staying in a farmhouse in an olive grove, just below the hill city of Cortona, site of Under the Tuscan Sun. But it wasn’t all sunshine – this was now November (2023) and there were a fair amount of clouds and drizzle (although nothing to rival the quasi hurricane we’d experienced as we left Florence).
We had a fairly uneventful drive from Siena to Cortona, although our AirBnb proved a little difficult to find. It was too early to check in, so we found parking and traipsed up the hill to the walled town. The Saturday market was in full swing – cheese and meats and vegetables, but lots of clothes, etc as well. It’s a charming town but still full of tourists, even in early November.
It was chilly and rainy, so we found a small lunch place where the local vegetable soup – enhanced by bread floating in the broth – was very welcome. J had a coffee and they brought over a complimentary biscuit and a bowl full of apricots and pomegranate kernels.
We managed to check into the Airbnb an hour early. It’s up a long dirt driveway that runs through an olive grove. There are a few other houses nearby but it still felt very secluded. We are on the ground floor of a stone farmhouse, and we were the very first guests to stay there.
The mother (no English) and the daughter (some English) welcomed us with a bottle of wine and olive oil that had been pressed the day before from their olive trees. It is olive harvesting season – we have seen lots of electric “shakers” that launch the olives into a net for processing. Olive trees grow like weeks here – their silver sage color is everywhere.
The Airbnb was super nice – a good kitchen, stone walls, spacious, and a TV with Netflix. Something we haven’t had for a very long time. After checking in we went to the nearby Coop grocery store – it was very large and had great produce. We stocked up – it was so nice to have a kitchen again. Prices were very reasonable – sparkling water was a whopping 24 cents.
That night, appropriately enough, we watched Under a Tuscan Sun, which was filmed in Cortona. I made braised chicken, ratatouille, and roast potatoes for dinner, capped off with cantucci and vin santo.
I could get used to this Tuscan farmhouse life.
FromSwamptoSummit 