I went on a short vacation last week with some family members to Cortona, Italy. Most people recognize Cortona as the location from the book and movie, “Under the Tuscan Sun.” Cortona is a small city surrounded by a stone wall on top of a very big hill. We stayed in an Airbnb a little over half way up the hill. Our host said that the market square in the city is, “Just a short walk from the apartment”. He showed us a grassy path up the hill and said, “Go up to the big tree, take a right, and turn left after that.”
The next day my wife and I decided to walk to the market square and see what it had to offer. That grassy path turned out to be much longer, and steeper, than it appeared from the looking at it the day before. I had to stop near the top as my legs were starting to ache. I came up with two theories of why I should get so tired walking up this path. One is that I am out of shape and need to exercise more. The more favored second reason was that after a three-hour drive to Houston, an over-nine-hour plane ride to Rome, and another four-hour ride to Cortona, made for a lot of sitting. This aching in my legs was their way of telling me that the change from hours of sitting to walking up a steep hill was too drastic of a change. On the next section of road, it was just a gradual uphill walk until we came to the roads leading to the market square. Cortona has several roads leading up to the market square. Think of spokes of a wheel and they all lead uphill to the square. These roads were once again a long, stone paved road, leading uphill. And as with the grassy path walk I needed a rest stop near the top of the road.
Along these spokes are shops and restaurants for shoppers and people wanting to dine at the restaurants. We sat down at a local coffee shop for some something to drink and a much-needed rest. If you want just plain coffee you had to ask for “Americano” coffee. Otherwise you got espresso.
