Today we only had a rough plan, and had no idea where we might end up. We headed off to Cortona first. Michelle doing a fine job of navigating us through the countryside to this very high, but attractive town. Parking on the bottom side of the town, we took an escalator (a first in these hill towns) nearly up to the main street, but decided to do the hard yards first by walking up a very steep cobbled road to the high point of the town, where the most magnificent Cathedral & convent dominated the landscape. We realised we had taken the *************ce we saw the tour buses parked up in what was a rather empty large parking area in front of the cathedral. The cathedral itself had the most amazing art works around the wall and wonderfully painted dark blue ceiling. R climbed upto the remnants of the fortress above the Cathedral, and then we wandered back down through some very steep cobbled streets to the Piazza, always the main hub of these small towns. The walk back down however was delightful, past private but very public homes, the old town walls and tiny gardens. After a quick tour of some local art shops (Cortona speciality) we headed back down to our car and set off for Perugia, another hill town about 32km away. This town (city really) has been a university town since the 14th century when a Papal University was established here. It's claim to fame is the most magnificent Piazza with some stunning buildings surrounding a 'L' shaped community space. After a brief investigation of this city we left for Orvieto approximately 50kms away, following the Tiber river down to a large dam through some stunning landscapes including a gorge road that would easily rival some NZ Westcoast landscapes. Before getting up to Orvieto proper we stumbled upon a little shopping mall where we needed a pitstop. We also bought some supplies for dinner as it had the first proper supermarket we had come across in two weeks in Italy. The prices were good & the selection similar to NZ. The joys of having a car to transport it all back easily! Orvieto was established 100's of years before BC, on a volcanic plateau with shear cliffs all the way around. It is very strange land mass with a flat top and cliffs approximately 70 metres straight up. This made it a great defensive town, so the compulsory walls and fortifications allowed the town to withstand many attempts over the centuries. Julius Cesar was the one of the few to succeed. It became a Papal Summer palace, and there were times when it threatened to succeed the Vatican as the churches preferred location. The main church was one of the most stunning churches we have seen. The mosaic pictures and other carvings & decorations on the front were beautiful and the scale and size impressive. Our interest however was in the towns well that M had learnt about during her Italian lessons. Yes, a hole in the ground does have some interest. In this case a 60+ metre deep well that was constructed through the rock under the orders of one Pope. The well has a double helix walk way leading down to the bottom. One was going down the other for coming back up. The design enabled donkeys to be used to cart the water up for town use during sieges. This town was definitely the highlight of our day. Speaking of Donkeys, our relationship with our car improved today as we became more acquainted. Still a Donkey but like all good Donkeys it's a work horse that gets on with the job! It zipped us back up the motorway at 120km and had us back in Montepulciano around 8.30pm (after a €4 toll charge). It had been a twelve hour day with lots of walking and climbing involved so we are both rather tired!