Sandy Tours Cortona!

NEWSFLASH:  Please check out some newly added posts;

Sandy Has Arrived!

Bye Bye Keith

San Sano Lunch (scroll down to Saturday, April 23, 2005 post)

Lunch in Asciano (scroll down to Saturday, April 26, 2005 post)

I woke up this morning to rain, rain and more rain.  Not exactly the nicest weather to impress your friends with.  But no real need to impress your friends too quickly when they sleep until 2:00 in the afternoon.  Yes, that's correct, Sandy had 18 hours of well needed sleep!  For someone who has sleeping problems I feel so satisfied that she caught up on it all out my house!

We went for a little walk around Cortona and Sandy had her first gelato at our special little place.  Mmmm.....good!  Today I had pesca (peach), and yogurt.  Fantastic as always, I think it really is the best gelato in all of Italy.

We skirted around the movie crew who were blocking most of Via Nazionale and viewed Piazza Signorelli.

It was so fun to experience Sandy's first impressions of Italy.  She is loving everything and is totally amazed by all of the old buildings and churches.  It's like being able to see everything for the first time again to see it through her eyes.



She was captured by the hills surrounding Cortona and green countryside. After a couple attempts we finally got in a good self portrait.


Martha and Ben, a couple we met via www.expatsinitaly.com website and at a get together last weekend gave us a call and invited us to dinner in Castiglion Fiorentino at a restaurant Martha had described where you can see this amazing sunset image against a church nearby.  We gladly accepted the invite which also included picking us up here in Cortona.

It continued to rain in Castiglion Fiorentino but Sandy was able to look completely fashionable nonetheless.


Isn't she the cutest?  I am just so proud of her for just being willing to come check out Italy and visit me.

After a bit of detective work we finally found the little Vicolo the restaurant was located at.

There was a bit of a wait, so we had a chance to get just the perfect picture of the church in question although unfortunately there was no setting sun to turn the building into an array of golden colors.




The restaurant was good and we had a blast watching Ben struggle to open the bottle of Lambrusco Sandy and I had ordered.  It was so rough even a gentleman from the table next to us offered to help, but Ben was determined to open it, and upon being informed his secondo plate was no longer available, he finally popped out the cork.


We received a lot of stares from everyone for being the stranieri we are, but we smiled and laughed and had a great time.

I decided I needed to try to be in more of my own pictures, which really mean I need to be able to take the perfect self portrait.


I probably need a little more practice.

And here is our happy group!  Thanks Ben and Martha!

Comments

[Alicia Lava]

Hi

I'm travelling to Cortona for 2 nights...in 2 weeks!!! So excited. We are staying at Relais Villa Baldelli.
Do you reccommend training to Arezzo or Camucia??
Also, i'd love the name of the Gelato shop...i'm intent on having a gelato every day i'm in Italy.

Thanks in advance for your info. I love your website, and I hope one day I can move to Italy!

Kind Regards
Alicia Lava - Brisbane Australia

[Pia]

Again, great photo's Tania! You and Sandy look like you're having a ball! As for the self- portraits, you are the happiest looking girl I've ever seen!
Che bella...
Looking foward to seeing the new site! I'm sure it'll be great.
Pia