Corsica/Tuscany Day 17

Day 17:  Cortona, Tuscany

This morning we bussed up to Cortona (saving us from a 2000' climb over about 2 miles!) for a tour of the city.  There was low lying fog which made for some great photos.

At the square, we met Giovanni, our guide.  We were pretty sure he was mainlining espresso; didn't stop talking moving for about 2 hours straight.  He was incredibly entertaining, though,  and pulled no punches when giving his opinion on everything from food to the Catholic Church.

The legend of Cortona  goes like this, "108 years after the Great Flood, Noah, navigating from the mouth of the Tiber River … entered the Chiana Valley and liking this place ... because it was very fertile land, stayed to live here for 30 years. His descendents, among which a son named Crano ... founded the city of Cortona in the 273rd year after the Great Flood"Additionally, it is the birthplace of the founder of Troy (Dardano), and descendants of Dardano left Troy and founded Rome.  So you can say Cortano is the birthplace of the Roman Empire.

Giovanni

Town Hall- Palazzo Comunale

Town Hall- Palazzo Comunale

From Cortona we headed off on a steep descent with a myriad switchbacks, not for the feint of heart.  The 2,000 or so feet that we drove in the van now dropped off under our two wheels. It was quite exhilarating if not terrifying. 

Once on the valley floor, we enjoyed flat riding for quite a while until we had some significant climbing to reach our lunch spot, Fattoria del Cerretino, a B&B that was converted from a tobacco farm.  The owner, again, whose family owned this for generations, converted the drying tower into apartments.  He also furnished much of the house with furniture his grandfather designed and built in the early part of the last century.  He made his own wine and olive oil both of which found their way into our delicious lunch.  Plus the views of the adjacent river valleys and mountains were spectacular.

The route back involved some rolling hills with the option of shuttling the last 8 miles from the town of Mercatale.  This last portion of the ride was back to the hotel was a 4 miles up and 4 miles down at about an average 10% grade with no flat areas.  Jeri finally said “uncle” and decided that her legs were done.  Liz and Joe had elected to press onward and though I was pretty whipped, I had told Liz I would ride with her.  Heidi had one of the high end bikes all set up ready for me and after a few tweaks, I said goodbye to Jeri, and rode without her for the first time in over 2 weeks.  Fortunately, the bike was really nice, titanium with electronic shifting, just like our tandem, but about ½ the weight.  It made the climb significantly easier than it could have been.  Liz and Joe were amazing, neither have been riding much and had no clips.  Making it to the crest was quite an accomplishment.  We were the only non-electric bikes to complete the ride. Even Carlos, who told us he would be riding up, met us at the top of the hill in the van and rode down.  We gave him no end of crap about that!

That evening we had a nice farewell dinner. Finally got to have some of the famous Tuscan beef from the huge white cows.  It was pretty darn tasty (hunger after riding the hill probably made it even better).

Tomorrow, one last ride, and then goodbyes to our Back Roads crew and off to Florence.