I went on vacation last week to Cortona, Italy. Cortona is a small town located on the top of a very high hill and surrounded by a stone wall that was used for protection centuries ago. No matter how you get to Cortona, it is always uphill. We had visited Cortona before and the bed and breakfast we stayed at had a path leading up to the market place that was a challenge but doable. This year’s bed and breakfast was a three story house and located farther down the hill. I knew it was going to be more of a challenge to walk to the market place.
I was looking forward to the challenge of walking to the market place. My wife thought that while it was a longer walk — 1.5 miles of uphill — it was not as steep and we could manage it. The first trip up to the market place we drove in a car. It was then that my thoughts of walking that mile and one half uphill took on a new perspective. After a few turns I found myself looking at a very steep hill of a quarter of a mile that even in a car I gasped with the knowledge that I had a real challenge before me. An added problem was that the steep road was not the only one like it. My idea of walking that road to the market place was changing by the minute. I came to the conclusion that I would set aside one day to give that walk to the market place a try.
One good point was that our room was on the third floor and with two flights of stone stairs with 31 steps helped get my legs in shape. My fitness watch had a total of 10 flights up those stairs one day. Walking from the parking area to the center square was uphill and it didn’t take long to get in a couple of miles frequenting the espresso café and checking out all the shops for gifts. I figured by the end of the week I would be enough condition to make that walk from our place of stay to the market place.
