I’ve already put a fair bit in about today in yesterday’s blog. Basically today is a final chill day in Cortona, and the grand finale dinner which Jane and Andrew have the pleasure of hosting their selected venue, it will remain a surprise until after drinks at Maladetti tonight.

The differnt crews straggle in from different destinations this morning, Dave And Ali from dropping their car off and then walking up the hill, Dave has a slightly strained look on his face for a fit bloke, a bit of sweat soaking through his shirt, Alison slightly behind looking like she wouldn’t blow out a candle. The others come from the top of the hill in  different directions, Andrew, John and Sonya found the next Bremasole, a run down place screaming for a renovation, we can only dream.

Last shopping is under way, a lot of purchases are happening or planned for this arvo. Lunch is in Piazza Signorelli at the restaurant next to La Poste bar, its mostly a pizza and grog lunch, funny about that, and strangely enough it’s delicious. It’s hard to find a bad feed here.

It’s a beautiful day again so wondering, shopping, a few get massages for sore feet and legs, some just watch the shoppers with Credit cards tightly held in their wallets. 

6 pm we meet at Maladetti’s for our last evening drinks, it’s just cool enough for a jumper, and Andrew notices that there is a Euro 44 million lotto, tickets for sale in the tabbacci store, so it’s an 8 way syndicate in the lotto, we all are in for 1/8 share and Andrew is holding the tickets, we start to plan what we’ll do with the money already.


Jane and Andrew walk us around to our final dinner destination, their choice, I can’t remember the name but Osteria del Teatro is close to the name, it’s a Michelin hatted restaurant, it’s busy, noisy, but the food is very good and 3 courses for 8 people costs 313 Euros or $450 or about $55 Aud per person, pretty reasonable. We all have a say on what we liked most about the week and I think the following comments reflect what was said;

• A place that’s comfortable to come back to
• The beauty of the town and how comfortable it feels
• To stay in a beautiful place with friends

Bags are packed for a early train to Venice tomorrow

Ciao from Cortona for the last time – this year anyway

Pauolo