Cortona in Tuscany: Etruscan heritage and contemporary fame
I discovered this incredible town with a fantastic museum of the Etruscan culture during my recent trip to Italy. Instantly, Cortona stole my heart.
Cortona is a small town situated just over 100 km to the south of Florence. I could easily say that it is the embodiment of everything that comes to your mind when you think of Tuscany – it is situated on a hill, it boasts having a beautiful palazzo and offers divine local food.
The tourist (and not only) heart of the town is the Piazza delle Repubblica. This is the home of the Diocesan Museum with a fascinating collection of Renaissance art (e.g. paintings by Fra Angelico). Others sites worth seeing here include the Palazzo Casali, the Santa Maria Assunta cathedral, the Medici Fortress or the former entrance to the town i.e. the Porta Bacarelli. Interestingly, the town boasts having one of the oldest Medieval houses in Italy and these are definitely a must-see.
Apart form the sites listed above, Cortona also has a true museum gem in store for visitors: it is the home of an excellent museum of Etruscan culture. The museum opened in 2015 and according to many, it has one of the richest collection of Etruscan artefacts in the world. If you do not remember who the Etruscans were, let me just refresh your memory – the Etruscans were a people the origins of whom is still a highly debated issue but who inhabited the northern part of the Italian Peninsula and who had a very interesting culture. Their influence on the Roman culture cannot be underestimated, however, in the end the Etruscans were absorbed by the Romans.
In the late 1990s, Cortona had its brief moment of Hollywood-worthy fame after US writer Frances Mayes published her memoir Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy about her stay in the town. The book quickly became a best-seller and was translated into more than a dozen different languages. A film under the same title was made based on the book and its immense worldwide success translated into the rapid transformation of the little known town of Cortona into a mecca for tourists wanting to experience the same emotions and thrills to those described by the protagonist of the book and film.
If you are planning a trip to Tuscany, I heartily recommend paying Cortona a visit – it is a truly one of a kind. The slow contemplation of a sunny afternoon while sipping great wine and eating fresh antipasti will leave you with memories that you can cherish for a long time after you return home.
