This is about our visit to Cortana during our Italy Trip in May, 2019

ps: sadly, this isn't set for iPhones/smaller screens… :(

Thursday May 16^th is the last transition day of our trip, driving south-east from Lucca to Cortana.
We loaded up the car & spent 2+ hours driving to our country villa… nice, a beautiful/quiet place! Stepping out for lunch en rout I had some sausages on bread w/2 beers & my wife enjoyed a re-ordered pasta/risotto vs. the planned ravioli! Still yummy :)
We then headed on via the back roads (!) to our room and unpacked etc… nice small room!
Snoozed for an hour, then headed back downstairs for a glass of wine… really nice to sit and relax outside!!

             We enjoyed being outside even though it was cooling off!
Headed in & left for dinner ~5pm; we visited Cortana (on the hill) to simply kill time before their 7pm opening & sat comfortably with a great meal and just smashing staff!
Right to sleep @8:30!!

Friday (our 3^rd & last Friday in Italy) was a simply *great* weather day!

We slept in until 8-ish / showered & grabbed brkf / headed out to the lake for a walk & a beer, then on to the (wrong!) vineyard…

We then found our way to the Avignonesi vineyard, which turned out to be a super place for lunch! Spent €80 on it w/just 6 sips of wine… great but a bit ripoffy!
          

After our lunch, we tried to find a vinyard that was one of Jackie's friends, but it seemed closed… headed back to the hotel & relaxed a little/then finished our wine & headed to Seven, a local place — great! Free music, too :)

Bed was @10pm or so

Saturday was sadly scheduled as a chilly Rain day… brkf at 8:30 or so (we were 1^st in the breakfast room); and we (well, she!) made lunch "to go" too…

We headed out to visit the Cortana countryside after lunch & hiked up a hill to visit & walked around…
       A church Hiking      

Headed back / inside for food between rain showers (luck) & spent the wet afternoon in the room

We headed out around 6:30 / found we couldn't eat until 7 so we sat with a drink. Got in w/an advisory that we had to get out by 8 (!) but food was yummy so dinner was great!

On Sunday we decided to brave the weather & take Rick Steve's Tuscany tour…
Rolling thru delightful countryside, we stopped for lunch & at another for a wine tasting   Yes, it rained. No, it wasn't bad!

We did get wet, looking for a wine thing, up a hill   but it was awesome!
A huge 15^th century horse & description (zoom in to read?)

Back at the Villa around 4pm, our concierge (Leonardo) booked a local dinner duck & (my) sausages w/delicious veggies, beans & wine… A perfect ending of our Tuscany visit!

As we are now at the end of our Italy trip, you could go from here to our return trip to the US, return to Lucca, visit Rome, Sorrento, or Florence or return to the main trip page