Magical Monday in Cortona

Today is my friend Faith’s 86^th birthday.  Shortly after waking up, I send her a birthday greeting. Shawn and I head to breakfast followed by pool time. Our day is leisurely and it’s appreciated as we’ve been so unusually social for so many days in a row!

At four p.m., however, we do have a private wine tasting scheduled at our new friend Deni’s winery, Leuta. We secure a ride and Heather meets us there where we meet the lovely Jennifer, whose talents were discussed the night before at dinner.  Jennifer is a t-type, as my friend Tracy would say.  (Tracy is a psychologist and she and her late husband Kurt were very knowledgeable about Myers-Briggs personality types.  They taught us how to apply this information is our personal and professional lives during their years of leadership training at St. Mary.)

A t-type, especially as applied to Jennifer, is a thinker, versus a feeler.  Thinkers are unusually knowledgeable about their passions and/or fields of expertise.  Jennifer is an absolute expert in the craft of wine making.  She is the marketing specialist for the business but has her hand in nearly every part of the Leuta process.  In addition, she is friendly and welcoming and after a short tour around the facility, seats us at an inviting table with places set for each of us along with bowls of snacks and a tower of breadsticks.

She pours us five tastings, explaining the caveats and wine making process of each one along the way.  She shares with us that she moved here from the states years ago and has an apartment which she shares with her lively dog, Shiraz. Her neighbor is moving out soon and the apartment is available.  She sends us the information about the apartment, which can be rented for one year or purchased for less than 200,000 euros.  We find ourselves discussing the possibilities. 

Heather’s husband Sauro comes to pick us up.  Tomorrow is bottling day for the winery so we are mindful of the time we spend with them.  Deni makes short appearances throughout our visit and is there with Jennifer to say goodbye.  The wine is delicious so we join their wine club, purchase a bottle of wine to take with us and are given a bottle as well.

Sauro takes us to their home in the country which is close to the winery.  We are met by an artisan iron gate which leads the way to a beautiful old-style brick home on an estate with an olive grove, a guest house and a private swimming pool.  It’s peaceful and lovely but Heather doesn’t drive so they’ve decided to sell and now have a place in the actual village of Cortona. Walking to luncheons, dinners and shopping is so easy to do in the village.  This keeps them easily connected to their friends and makes for lovely everyday living.

When we get back to Cortona, Sauro parks the car in one of the public parking lots.  We will walk together until our paths part where they will go to their apartment and we will stroll up to our hotel.  As we are walking, we come upon an open garage where a gentleman is tinkering with a very old, classic style car, possibly from the 1930s.  Sauro was an Italian race car driver with a championship in 1982 and he has a love and knowledge for cars.  We stop to chit-chat with the gentleman and the immediate connection between him and Sauro is beautiful.  Heather begins snapping photos, Shawn steps back and watches and there is truly magic happening before our eyes.

We don’t understand much of what they are saying as they are speaking excitedly in Italian, but every few minutes, Sauro stops and briefly summarizes the topics of discussion for us.  The man brings us to a corner of the garage and shows us two pictures of a little blue work truck with a handwritten label that says, “Under the Tuscan Sun”!  This is his vehicle! One of the pictures shows Diane Lane leaning on the bed of the truck and the other shows the truck driving away and the young, polish man in the movie is in the bed of the truck, waving goodbye. 

The four of us are so amazed and the man shows gratitude that we know the significance of his involvement with the movie.  He tells us, “I have the truck!  Let me show you!”  We all step out of his garage and walk around the corner and there it is, parked up on a steep street adjacent to his garage.  We are childlike as we scramble to take pictures with his beautiful truck.  He politely declines to have his picture taken with us. 

Before we leave, we say a very gracious goodbye.  Heather takes note of the location and says they will be making many visits.  I love that for them.  As we end our evening, we all happily exclaim what a gift this meeting has been.  Heather says, that is the magic of living in Cortona.  We agree.  Every day we’ve been here, something special has been just around the corner.  It is truly magical.