14 October 2019

After our first day in Cortona we were off to collect our car from the nearest car hire place which was about half an hour south south west in a lovely town called Chiusi. We caught the bus from outside the hotel in the piazza near Garibaldi’s statue and it dropped us at the stazione Camucia-Cortona. We caught the train to Chiusi-Chianciano Terme.

This is the station we stopped at from Firenze that we bought before we left there. Chiusi is a biggish station with 6 platforms and modern signage and even braille on the signs showing which platforms to go to. Oh, and lifts which when you have cases is a boon. But this time – no bags.

Once we were out of the station we crossed the road and – being a sucker for a market – we saw one – so our plan for a cuppa was postponed until we had wandered around the stalls of amazing things.

All very practical stuff, clothing and homewares, kitchen tools and fashion items. There were fruits and veg and plant stalls too in another section. It all took up a block or so of space outside other places which were closed. There was something for everyone and a large range of stalls – about 50 stalls in all. We found a couple of things for ourselves for gifts and a wonderful delicatessan with hanging hams, cheese and breads. Just wonderful stuff. After that diversion we went to find our coffee place.

We sat outside at Bar Italia and had a coffee for 💶1.70 and 💶1.30 for tea which is the cheapest so far for Tea and Coffee. Generally we are paying 2-3 💶 per cup in more touristy places essentially. Chiusi is a decent sized place but not spoilt yet.

This becomes a little obvious when we are walking around and older women take a long time to take us in. They watch, intently, as we go about our day. It has happened in other places too – at a restaurant Cafè Braceria Chianina Via Laurentana SP10/B, Camucia Arezzo, near to where we did our laundry the other day, in Cortona. We went to Easy Wash & Easy Market, Cortona to do our laundry and then had lunch two doors down in the same strip of businesses.

The restaurant had sides of beef hanging at the end of the room and the guests in the restaurant were enjoying large serves of meat in many styles, along with pasta and the freshest salads. Just a lovely restaurant and from the outside it appeared as if no-one was inside until we open the door. It was ‘heaving’ – well there was certainly a lively crowd inside.

We then found our way to Avis in Chiusi (pronounced like choosie but more like the oo sound in book). And after a discussion and a look at the car we were getting, we asked if there was an automatic – well this is our first time actually driving on the opposite side of the road in a manual car???It would have been majorly weird changing gears with your left hand as well as driving on the right. We wanted to improve our odds and make sure we did all we could to stay safe and cause no-one else any injuries.

The journey home(back to Cortona) was about 40 mins or so but as it was nearing lunchtime we drove about 20mins north east to the lake called Lake Trasimeno in the Province of Perugia.

We found the restaurant we had chosen on google maps was closed so drove further around the lake and found a pizzeria with an extensive menu – so we shared our first Italian pizza of this trip. It was awesome. I loved it. We chose the Matador. It was a lovely place , very summery, like it was the type of place where people go in the summer with families and grab a pizza and cross the road and eat it, skim stones and play in the Italian sunshine. The pizzeria is called Peperosa – Restaurant and Lounge Bar on Via Lungolago 4, Castiglione Del Lago.