"From a high Tuscan hill, fifty miles from Florence between Arezzo and Perugia, rises the equally ancient and nobile city of Cortona. Before the city lies a vast and beautiful plain, it is flanked on either side by distant hills and valleys while behind it are towering yet fruitful mountains. Cortona has a picturesque aspect, quite a bit longer than wide, turned toward the midday sun. Her district is fertile and is abundant with all that is necessary to human life. It is Cortona marked by the Meridian-Antartic star sign, feminine, in motion, pungent, earthy, frigid and dry and under the noble reign of..."
This is the description of Cortona in one of the first known guidebooks, compiled by Giacomo Lauro and printed in Rome in 1639. After nearly four hundred years that description is still valid. Cortona has changed very little in its urban make up, it remains there- framed in the centre of a triangle which has for its corners three of the cities of Central Italy which are most rich in history and art works, Arezzo, Siena and Perugia. About eighty kilometres from Florence, Cortona remains a satellite of this city, remaining in its orbit nearly 500 years from 1411 the year of the loss of her independence as a free Comune until 1860.Before embarking on a visit of the city, it would be opportune for the tourist to be familiar with the essential threads of history which run though its culture and artistic treasures. Cortona is a quintessential Tuscan medieval hill town surrounded by olive trees near Lake Trasimeno site of Hannibal’s famous victory over the Romans.
Cortona is a little known haven of Etruscan (settlers of central Italy from Lazio to the Umbrian Appenines in the 8th century B.C.) tombs, medieval alleyways, Renaissance art, sweeping views and small town ambience. It boasts the Cortonantiquaria, one of the most prestigious national market shows of antique furniture, which is held here in between the end of August and the beginning of September.
