Cortona, Italy Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

Travelling south from Arezzo you enter the Valdichiana , reclaimed swampland that is now prosperous cattle country, producing the much-prized Florentine bistecca . From the valley floor a long road winds up through terraces of vines and olives to the hill-town of CORTONA , 20km south of Arezzo, from whose heights you can see Lago Trasimeno. A scattering of Etruscan tombs aside, the steep streets are dominated by medieval architecture that claws its way around a knife-edge ridge, with barely a patch of level ground anywhere. Traffic is restricted, which accentuates the sense of hilltop isolation – … more »