Italy 2012 – Sorrento to Cortona

I recovered my iPad! I was sure I’d never see it again, but the fabulous and apparently phoneless BA staff at Leonardo da Vinci airport found it and were keeping it for me!

The story begins with another fabulous breakfast at the hotel. Then we checked out of the hotel and got in the cab for Sorrento. Our driver was Francesco, and today I believe I learned one of the major differences between a private driver and a cab: the cabbies smoke in the car. Francesco didn’t smoke while we were in it, but you could tell the second you got in that the poor vehicle had suffered years of cigarettes.

That said, Francesco gave us a brilliant tour of the coastline as we made our way from Vico Equense to Sorrento. Just before Meta, he stopped his car in the very busy, thin, winding highway so that we could get out at the vista and take photos while receiving his impressively knowledgable natural and cultural history of the peninsula’s north coast. The steep rock cliffs were volcanic, and many of the buildings were constructed from and adorned with rock mined from the heart of the cliff sides. In particular, the rock was mined as man-made caves were excavated through the rock, all the way from the coastline up to the inland hearts of the towns, hundreds of feet up. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the original purpose of the caves, but in later years, Francesco explained, they were used for cool food storage in the summer, and boat storage in the winter. Later, they served as bomb shelters during the world wars.

Until the wars, the hillsides of the towns were almost ubiquitously lemon, orange, and olive crops. After the wars, tourism became the main industry, but the lemons and olives are still important. The crops all involve nets; the citrus fruits require nets covering them to preserve the humidity so the sun doesn’t burn the blossoms. The olive trees all have nets at their trunks for harvesting. When the olives ripen, they fall into the nets, and they need to be made into oil the same day they are collected. Oh, and a lemon tree produces fruit four times a year! I want one.

Anyway, Francesco claimed he knew where the rental car shop was we were headed to, but he was a (long) block off so it took us several minutes to find it. But to Francesco’s credit, he was very nice to make sure we did actually get there and get checked in okay. Then we parted ways, Francesco in his smoke infused older BMW, and us in our silver Renault.

As Rich got used to driving the manual Renault in the tight and lawless streets of the Sorrento peninsula (where stop signs, lanes, and following distance were all optional), we made our way back northward along the autostrada for Rome. Driving the autostrada was much better than driving the coastal alley-like highway, but at an average pace of 120-150 km/hour, excitement was still to be had.

After about two hours we had made it to Rome, although our navigator wasn’t paying attention and we missed the exit we should have taken for the airport to rescue the iPad. After some backtracking, we were headed the right direction on the highway circling Rome toward the airport. Traffic made the going slow.

I made my way into the airport while Rich parked the car, and found BA customer service. There, the nice BA lady explained that the lost and found office was empty, and they wouldn’t be back in for about 20 minutes. But luckily she got a hold of them after only 10 minutes or so, and…. THEY HAD THE IPAD! We just had to go downstairs to the Avia Partner desk and pick it up.

Well, she failed to explain that, in order to get to the Avia Partner desk, we had to go back to the international baggage claim through the staff-only security checkpoint. Which, by the way, was surprisingly easy to get through. Anyway, long story short, after about a half hour wait at the baggage desk, we were on our way with iPad in hand. In all, the detour around Rome to the airport and back and the wait at the desk took about 2 hours. But, we had two iPads again and and beautiful drive into the Italian countryside ahead of us.

Just outside Rome, we stopped at the Autogrill (the ubiquitous rest stop cafe/shop/restaurant chain) to use the Internet and get a light lunch. We accomplished one task, while discovering that the Internet system, while free, required registering by receiving a text at an Italian phone number. Rich bit the bullet and used his 3G to let the apartment company know when we’d arrive, and then we were back on our way.

The drive was scenic to say the least. It’s actually a bit like driving down the Fraser Valley in BC, with two key differences. First, in North America, the populations concentrate in the valleys, whereas here, there are very few buildings in the valley, with the population densely populated on the high cliffs and ridges. Second, instead of industrial warehouses and modern barns, there are entire medieval castle towns. Castles. Perched right on the tops of hills and edges of cliffs. Suddenly you remember you’re not in the Fraser Valley anymore.

Two hours later, we arrived in Terontola, which is a sort of rural suburb of Cortona. We met the apartment company, and then headed up the hill to the town of Cortona.

The town is completely walled, and vehicle entry is by permit only, so we parked outside the town walls and the agent took us the rest of the way to the apartment (which we easily could have walked – it was only about a quarter mile in, although uphill). We stopped in the main piazza, where our apartment is, and turned into a small alley. Back into a courtyard claimed as outdoor dining by a nearby restaurant, and the apartment entrance was a large, old, dark, wooden door to the left. Up a flight of stone-cooled stairs were two more old, dark wooden doors, one of which was the front door of our apartment.

The landlady said this building was one of the first built in main Cortona, and is about 150 years old. (However, it sounds like Cortona has been settled and established with at least a monastery since the 11th Century. It’s the walled city that wasn’t built until about 1840.). The apartment appears to be original in many ways, but has also been maintained and updated. For example, the brick floor and most the interior doors are probably original, but the kitchen area has been remodeled, possibly with a different floor plan than the original. Also, the bathroom is likely I it’s original room and location, but all of the finishes have recently been updated with beautiful tile surfaces and modern cabinets. I was worried there may be ghosts, but for whatever reason I don’t think they’re here. Or maybe there are just so many people in these dense little towns that one more presence goes unnoticed. Or, maybe there’s just too much life here for the dead to be interested in sticking around. It all feels very alive.

Next stop was an Internet cafe to call Mo. We went to the Internet wine bar and relaxed for about an hour before we got a hold of her, only for her to be more interested in fruit snacks than video chat. But, she’s cute as always, so the conversation was tons of fun. Unfortunately, though, it looks like there may only be two Internet cafes in the entire city, and neither one has computers we can use. This is a problem because not only do our iPads not get along with Google, but they also don’t get along with my Garmin watch, or Garmin’s website. So, maps of all our journeys will have to be added to the blog post-post.

Then it was back to the apartment for our welcome dinner, with a local bottle of wine, compliments of the generous people who donated the apartment to the PSKS auction. The dinner had some rich, creamy lasagna (among other treats), and a crisp, sweet, orange marmalade tarte. It was all divine, and we have enough left over for at least one more dinner.

Now it’s bedtime. Photos and posting will have to be done in the morning. On tomorrow’s agenda is time in the morning to explore the town, then a guided tour in the afternoon!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Cortona, Italy