Day 56 (Sunday)

            Today was my day of being an official Cortona tour guide.  It felt good being able to show off the beautiful place I had been living and prove of its existence to Elli and Lauren.  In the morning, because it was Palm Sunday, there was a community procession throughout the town starting with a ceremony at the church at the bottom of the hill.  It was cool to see people of all ages in the procession singing together: young children, teenagers, younger and older couples, families....After we watched everyone go by, Elli, Lauren and I went on a gorgeous walk through the park and around the mountain.  When we got back to Cortona, we explored the exciting antique market that Cortona has the last Sunday of each month.  Once again, there was beautiful jewelry, lace, ceramics, toys, books, and other assortments of objects to touch and look at.  I fell in love with an antique box filled with an old collection of watercolor paints.  I took Elli and Lauren to everything that was open that afternoon: my favorite bread bakery, the thrift store, the chocolate shop, my favorite boutique…eventually we sat and had lunch at one of the many cafes in Cortona.  The guy who owned the café had a very exciting British accent that was far more interesting than any accent from the U.S.  It was a cozy café that had just opened up for the warm spring season.  In speaking of the warm spring season, we had just changed our clocks one hour later, so the whole day I felt I was an hour off.  After lunch, we had some delicious gelato, and wandered around Cortona some more.  Then, I brought Elli and Lauren to our monastery for a little tour.  I showed them around our quaint building and the beautiful studio where I paint, in addition to a mini painting exhibition of my work so far. 

            For dinner that night, a group of girls from my program joined us for an amazing dinner at a restaurant that has been recommended to us by everyone in my program who had eaten there so far.  The restaurant was slightly hidden, and none of us knew the actual name of the restaurant; we only knew that it was owned by a nice man named Mario.  Luckily, we stumbled upon it.  The restaurant was barely large enough to seat the seven of us.  After looking at the menu, Mario told us he would make us a couple pasta dishes for all of us to share as a table.  Our first dish was a simple, but completely delectable penne with a savory tomato, garlic, and basil sauce.  Our second dish was even better: it was a tortellini dish stuffed and tossed with savory zucchini.  We loved it so much, that we ordered a second dish of this kind.  For dessert, Mario insisted that we have some tiramisu.  Now, ordinarily, I do not like tiramisu at all, especially because I do not like the flavor of coffee.  However, this tiramisu was something wonderful, because I split a whole piece with Elli, and I could have had an entire additional piece for myself, but I was stuffed.  Food clearly fills my days with endless happiness.