Navigating steep hills and hairpin turns while visiting Cortona, Italy

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. 

It was about this time a new realization about the walk to the market place and some common sense started to question this challenge. It happened on a short walk of three blocks to small grocery store to pick up some supplies. The roads in Italy do not have a sidewalk or walking lane of any sort. The buildings butt up right next to the asphalt of the road. The good point seemed to be that drivers are aware of walkers and give them a little space as the whiz by. Things take on different perspective if two cars are passing by each other on this narrow two lane road. We learned from watching other walkers flatten up against the building or pause a bit to let the cars pass by that practice was one to follow. 

One point I noticed about the traffic on Italy’s roads is that there is a lot of truck traffic. Having a rail line leading up that steep hill was just not an option to get supplies to the stores. Italy has great passenger train travel but I did not see any freight trains. Here in Texas we see lots of freight trains, only Amtrak passenger trains, and some truck traffic. In Italy it was lots of passenger trains and truck traffic. This is where that common sense started to question my challenge of walking up that hill to the market place. It is a tight fit when two cars pass each other but it is even more of a tight fit when two trucks pass by each other. I thought that being the paint on the side of a building was about the only safe way to be on the road when two trucks pass by each other. The other aspect of this challenge walk was that I was going uphill and those trucks were moving at a good clip coming downhill. The fact that the road had some sharp turns, a couple of hairpin turns, and blind sight distance in a few places, made me realize that the odds are not that good for walking to the market place in safety. Common sense won the battle and the challenge of walking that one mile and a half will have to wait until another trip.

There are bike riders that pedal up that hill and all I could think of was that they were training for the “Tour of Italy”or “Tour de France.” When I witnessed a senior-aged person pedal up, I was truly amazed. One resident informed me that many of them have the electric bikes that help them climb those hills. I tried to imagine coming down those steep hills with sharp curves and hairpin turns gathering speed along the way. What a thrilling ride that must be. 

While I did not complete the challenge of walking to the market place, I still had those 31 stone steps to walk many time a day.