Arezzo, Cortona, Montepulciano, and Pienza

Arezzo, Cortona, Montepulciano and Pienza for towns in Tuscany to visit in two days. We departed (on bus) saturday October 1 from Florence around 8am. We had roughly an hour bus ride to our first town, Arezzo.  Arezzo - home to some of the greatest Italian artist, such as Petrarca, Piero della Francesca and Giorgio Varsai.  We arrived to Arezzo and had a guided walking tour of the medieval town.  We saw were some of the famous artist lived as well as where the very famous Italian film "Life is Beautiful" was filmed. While we were in Arezzo an insanely large and interesting antique fair was happening. SO we were able to see antiques from all over Italy! believe it or not, a lot of the things for sale were probably found in 10 white hill at some point in time. 

Arezzo is a beautiful medieval town filled with CHURCHES. We saw 8 on our 2 hour walking tour of the town.. After having some free time for lunch we got back on the bus and departed to Cortona.   Cortona is a etruscan town that overlooks Val Dai Chiana, a Tuscan valley rich in vegetation.  Our professor gave a walking tour of the town after we settled into our hotel accommodation. If familiar with the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" then you have seen Cortona! On our tour of the town we saw many of the sights from the movie. We visited the Medieval fortress, then dinner at the hotel.

view from Cortona

view from our hotel

Dinner that night was a three course Italian meal at the hotel.  We had the night to explore Cortona on our own. Sunday we had breakfast at 8am and then had to be on the bus by 9am to head to Pienza.  Pienza was a "Utopian City" built by the Pope Pius II in the XVI century to have the perfect place for human life.  It is famous for Pecorino cheese, a sheep milk cheese that is produced in Pienza.  We had a short walking tour of the village  then we were able to visit a local cheese factory to see how Pecorino cheese is made.  After learning how it was made we had cheese, salami and wine for lunch.

After seeing more cheese than I ever thought I would... We left Pienza for Montepulciano. This town is world famous for its red wine "Vino Nobile di Montepulciano" which is considered one of the best red wines in the world.  It is a preserved medieval town with working medieval wine cellars.  We had a guided tour of the Cantira Redi a wine cellar that is considered the "Cathedral" and one of the most impressive cellars in the world. Montepulciano is also where New Moon from the Twilight series was filmed. 

New Moon