Cortona

After settling into Montepulciano we headed off to Cortona. Since it is a hilltop town we could see it for quite a while before we arrived. It was about a 45 minute drive from Montepulciano through gorgeous farm country. The kids would say what was out their window... "Grapes on my side." "Olives on my side!" "Grapes on both sides!" It was fun to hear them say what they were seeing. We came across a beautiful road of cypress trees on our drive as well. I had to stop and take a quick picture. We continued on to Cortona and started to wind our way uphill. We didn't know how far up we could drive and find parking so we went as far as we thought we could and parked the car. We started our walk up hill and came to some stairs fairly quickly that we thought would bring us close to the main road. We were right and there was an added bonus. We got to walk through a nice park and I noted the playground that was there so that we could stop there after walking through town. We spent quite a while in Cortona. The streets are of course narrow and windy but they seemed steeper than the streets in Montepulciano. We ended up getting some bakery pizza and eating on the steps in the main piazza. It was a nice break since it ended up being pretty warm and the Sofia wanted to sit in the shade. After filling up on lunch we decided to head further up the hill to check out a church and a monastery. You couldn't go into the monastery so we couldn't see much but I'm glad we made the walk up because we ended up just winding our way back down through the town on streets where we didn't see anybody else. I love the peace and quiet that can be found in these small towns. After exploring the town we headed back to the park we started at and I showed the kids the playground. They were excited to play on a new playground. It is also a nice way to give them there second wind. There is nothing like a playground to get them excited and since they do such a good job walking around and seeing churches, old building etc. we like to give them there time to play as well. Once I get the pictures on smugmug you will be able to see all the different playgrounds the girls have played on during our vacation.