CETONA - A GLORIOUS AUTUMN MORNING IN AN ATMOSPHERIC TUSCAN VILLAGE

Getting older can be a depressing affair if you are a "half empty" person like I am most days. I don't think there is a morning when I don't waken with something aching, giving me always the thought this is part of the inevitable slide down hill. These negative thoughts, which come easily if I waken very early, can be destructive and discouraging if I let them - and also make me see things like the great opportunities I have to travel these days - as something I take for granted. So it was this week

We arrived back in Italy courtesy of Ryanair on Monday afternoon making our second visit to Umbria at this time of year since we bought our apartment in Citta della Pieve in 2013. September is my birthday month so making a trip here is a splendid way to celebrate it and we were looking forward to the early autumn weather which I know from last year can be spectacular. I was surprised to get up the following morning, however, to open the curtains and find it dull outside with the weather forecast telling me it was going to be like that all day! I felt immediately grumpy? How could it possibly be dull on my first morning back in Italy? To cap it all I got in the shower to immediately find I'd been bitten during the night by a mosquito - once on my right knee and the other place - the cleft between the index and small fingers on my left hand! Not a good start and as the day went on I felt increasingly depressed as the bite on my hand turned to a large, ugly dark red blood blister and my whole hand was swelling to boot. It was even worse the following morning and I was beginning to think a trip to the hospital would be on the cards that day. In the end I went to the local Farmacia and some anti-histamine pills and cortisone cream soon started to provide relief! A good job - I was starting to think I would rather be grumpy at home, but that thought was rapidly disappearing from my mind as the weather had turned from the cool, grey clouds of the previous day to the most beautiful azure blue sky I had ever seen in this marvellous corner of Umbria.

View of Monte Cetona from our apartment balcony

Back in the apartment I looked out over the spectacular Val de Chiana to the extinct volcano of Monte Cetona which at over 3,800 feet is one of the highest peaks in Tuscany. The sharp autumnal but very bright morning light was casting wonderful shadows in different directions and defining everything in so much detail it was possible to see the normally invisible bullet trains gliding their way between Florence and Rome and the tiny vehicles of the busy traffic on the distant A1 motorway. Modern civilisation literally passing me by. Looking to the lower slopes of the hillside I was drawn to admire the timelessness of the patchwork of early autumn fields, some recently harvested and earthy yellow in colour and then my eyes drifted on to the huge dark green swathes of forest on the higher slopes of the mountain. I'd read somewhere recently that this very area had been shown by archaeologists to have been settled by some of the earliest peoples to inhabit the Italian peninsula. An ancient landscape indeed.

The little Tuscan town of Cetona can be seen on the lower slopes of the mountain

Almost directly in my line of vision I could also see the little medieval town of Cetona - a place we'd often noticed - particularly at night when taking a glass of wine on our balcony. We usually saw it defined by a thousand clustered pin pricks of light. Any negative thoughts I'd had about starting the day were long gone. I wasn't in heaven yet - but what a splendid waiting room. It was time to seize the moment, forget about the aches and pains and go do some stuff. What better than a first visit to see our little town from the balcony view?

We motored down the hill from Citta in our little Picasso hire car in quick time, crossed the valley through Chiusi Scalo and took the road up the other side towards the spa town of Chianciano Terme. One of my favourite calling points is a large junk shop on the roadside just outside the town and I couldn't resist a quick stop today.



Outside area of the Junk Shop near Chianciano Terme

This place is amazing - outside yard space and a number of timber sheds all crammed with everything from glass and ceramic items to a multitude of bits of furniture and lighting and lots of framed prints of madonnas, Garibaldi and  the like - most of which you would not give a new home to - but what fun. I picked up one which was just up my street - a hill in the centre with the seven ages of man depicted as various Italian men climbing and then descending the peak. I quickly put it back in the pile before seeing how the last 3 or 4 were represented! Nothing was going to spoil my positive energy today. Just occasionally we've had a good find here and taken it home to add to our apartment furnishings - I'm yet to take a piece all the way back to the UK. In the house there's better stuff including a selection of colourful Italian tin-glaze pottery and a few half good paintings, but the prices are higher in here. No luck today so it was onwards to find Cetona.

Back on the road we took a route marked green on the map which guaranteed pretty country views and it didn't disappoint. Once again my spirits were soaring as we passed quite country lanes, a multitude of olive groves and  lots of small woodlands, the leaves on the deciduous trees just beginning to turn an orangey brown. There was a porcini stall on the side of the road - this is the time for the mushroom and cep hunters to ply their skills, but we resisted the temptation to stop. Soon we turned an uphill corner and there we were in the small town of Cetona. It was only a few moments to Piazza Garibaldi where we could park the car.

The origins of Cetona go back to the beginning of the 10th century as is the case with many settlements in this area. The name is probably derived from the latin word CAEDITA which translates in to English as "felled" or "deforested". At this time most of the region was under the administration of the Pope and administered by the Papal States authorities but in more remote places like this one control was often difficult to impose - despite the fact a 'rocca' or fortress had been established on a hill on the Cetona mountain slope.

The approach to Cetona - the "rocca" fortress can clearly be seen

At the end of the 11th century Pope Gregory VII granted feudal rights in the Cetona area to a member of his family who later went on to sell them to another minor aristocratic family and so began a history of private ownership of the rocca which interestingly has lasted through to the present day. The castle is still in private hands. In the later medieval period  of the 14th century the area was fought over and ruled by Siena, Orvieto and even Perugia for a brief period at one time. In the second half of the 14th century Siena was the victor again and an outer wall to the castle was constructed which included two round towers which were completed in 1458. One of these can be seen in the photograph below - its at the end of Garibaldi square.

Surviving Medieval round tower in the centre of Cetona

In 1556 Cosimo Medici I, the Grand Duke of Tuscany at the time, sold the castle to a minor Tuscan aristocrat named Marchese Chiappino Vitelli who moved in to the rocca with his family and developed the village below outside the walls. This is the sqaure and streets round the hillside which centre on what is now known as Piazza Garibaldi. His descendants built a second palazzo in the late 17th century - the Palazzo Vitelli on another hill in the town.

Piazza Garibaldi

Read the Tuscany guide books (the one I have in the apartment doesn't even give the village a mention) and many of them will tell you the village is of no consequence with very little to see - possibly because the castles are not open to the public and there is only one small archaeological museum to visit. Take no notice of this bunkum. This is an atmospheric, charming and beautiful place well worthwhile making an excursion to see. Wander round the Piazza Garibalidi before strolling through the narrow alleys and backstreets and its like stepping back in time.

One of Cetona's atmospheric streets many of which date
back to earlier centuries

Admire the geranium potted windows and balconies and read the menus on the several trattoria before returning to the square for a coffee. Don't forget to find a vantage point to look out over the valley to our little hill top town at Citta della Pieve.

Jon with our locally grown peaches in the frutta e verdura
 in Piazza Garibaldi - Cetona

 We bought some local peaches from the frutta e verdure in the square to eat at home, went in the little church, visited an attractive interior design shop and finished off the tour with a coffee in one of the several bars. I was not suprised to later discover that Cetona was a place frequented by the glitterati in the 1960's. With a position just off the motorway half way between Florence and Rome it became the haunt of some of Italy's rich and famous at this time.

Italian fashion designer Valentio who has a home in Cetona

Valentino, the Italian fashion designer, came here with his wife and later his boyfriends. He'd come to the fore in Rome and Florence haveing studied and worked in Paris first in the early 60's and eventually he purchased the Palazzo Vitelli which he still owns today. Famous not only for his red dresses and love of dogs I cast an eye round the square to see if anyone was out walking a collection of pugs, but sadly not on this occasion. I will be back to try my luck again soon - lunch here next week sounds a good idea. And the black dog as Winston Churchill used to call it? - well that's well and truly back in its kennel!! There can be no better antidote to negative thoughts than a trip to Umbria and Tuscany in fine autumn weather.

The view from Cetona to our village just visible on the skyline at Citta della Pieve.

Ciao & KBO

Next posting - coming soon - is about our just enjoyed weekend trip to Siena and the very special and memorable journey we undertook on a vintage steam train to Buenconvento and the Val d'Orcia.