We left after breakfast and drove to Cortona, a small pretty walled hill town. Each town is different and has its own personality. Montepulciano actually didn't have very much in the way of restaurants or shops, whereas Pienza, Montalcino and Cortona had more to do, but then that makes them more touristy too. Legend has it that Cortona was founded by Dardanus who later founded Troy, but whatever, there was already a large settlement here when the Etruscans took it over in the 8th century b.c. Most of what's there now is Middle Ages. We walked around and had a coke.


 
 
 
 


 
















 




 



























 















































 

 
And then went on to Passignano on the shore of Lake Trasimeno. It was on the way to Perugia and seemed like a nice place to have lunch. And since it was on the lakeshore it was flat!!! It was windy so there were whitecaps and big waves but a pretty day and a good stop to have a bite.
 
 
 


































 






 























 



Then on to Perugia. The problem with having a car is that you have limited maps, you aren't sure which road you are going to come into town on, the GPS didn't know the name of our hotel street (hotel booking place said the street is Via Tiburi but it's really Via Leopoldo Tiburi which the GPS did know but we didn't). Perugia has a population of 160,000 - a huge metropolis for this part of the world! But the old medival and Roman and Etruscan part, way up on top of course, isn't that big. Coming into town, we had no idea where our hotel was or how to drive there (near the cathedral but that's all we knew) so we parked at the bottom of the walls and decided to just go up and wander around until we found the hotel so they could tell us how to get there. Oh yeah, and we parked in a 30 minute spot so we hoped the car would be there when we returned. We started up this really steep hill and bumped into an Englishman who lives there. He was our saving angel appearing from nowhere!! He showed us on my puny guidebook map exactly where to walk (pretty much straight up) to get to the hotel. After 10 or 15 breathless sweaty, leg-aching minutes we got to the hotel.  The hotel guy had a much better map and drew the directions. We went back down the hill (much faster going down), found the car still there with no ticket, followed his great directions and were back here in no time.

We're in a neat little hotel about a 3 minute walk to the main square, but in a quiet area. Unfortunately we're on the top floor and no elevator, but I think we're becoming mountain goats.
 










 
 

We came here 15 years ago on our first trip to Italy and decided to repeat it this time. We're technically in Umbria, the next province east of Tuscany. Both have similar histories, similar landscapes, similar walled hill towns, so even though we've left Tuscany it still looks the same.
Perugia is also a University town so the streets were filled with students, they were hanging out on the steps of the duomo, when we finished dinner we saw the bars and taverns full - it's Saturday night after all.

After resting from our marathon hill climb to find the hotel and retrieve the car, we walked around the upper town a little bit, went into the duomo to have a look and they were just going to start mass so we stayed for that, then ate dinner and called it a day.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 











































































 





































 
 







































 

More about cleanliness - here are photos of a garbage truck and a street cleaner. We saw another street cleaner in Lucca even smaller. Today I saw a woman who was smoking, finish, pinch off the end and put the butt in a trash can. And walking around here, there was a cup in the street I didn't see and I kicked it across the way, before I could pick it up a young man picked it up and put it in the trash. In the morning we see people out sweeping in front of their shops, and I've seen men walking around the towns with brooms and dustpans sweeping litter. 









 

Yesterday in Pienza, today in Cortona and in Passignano it was flea market day. Lots of tents set up selling mostly clothing and some food. In Passignano I saw some antique looking collectibles. Many of them have trucks that have awnings so they park the truck, put out the awning, put out their wares and they're open for business. We wonder if each down has a different market day and they go from place to place.












 

We've also seen some really great art galleries, but of course you can't take photos so I can't show you.


It's definitely spring! I'm missing the azaleas at home, but here everything is in bloom - azaleas, cherry trees, crabapples, huge wisteria vines just dripping everywhere, something that looks like goldenrod on steriods, lilacs, and poppies - they must have scattered seeds along the roads, especially the freeways because they are everywhere - bright red patches. Unfortuately there is never a place to stop where I can take a photo. And no poppies in the towns. Stolen from the internet:

  
More Perugia: