A morning of wandering around Cetona...

Mom wanted to explore Cetona today, which suited me just fine!  We walked around the town, climbing up and circling round the castle at the top of the hill, although unable to go inside as it is now privately owned.  This is the castle seen from the street below:

The chimneys are really interesting here, especially this twisty one:

The next two pics are of a super cute kitty with a full belly (or so we gathered from the nearby pile of feathers), just rolling around and playing in the sun:

This is a view from the Belverde*, which runs just below the Rocca (the name of the castle):

(*not to be confused with Belverde archaeological site, a couple miles from Cetona, which we also visited today.

Here I am gazing out over the gorgeous rooftops, admiring the view:

A shrine up in the walls of the castle:

I got Mom to snap a pic of me standing in a doorway in the castle wall:

Love these rooftops!  The open space on the left is one end of Piazza Garibaldi:

One of the side streets we walked up, for no particular reason other than it appealed to us:

Mom on one of the streets up around the castle:

These cute little lizards are all over the place here, including some that live in the vines on the wall of our terrace:

This is Cantina La Frasca, where we get our wine and cheese and spiced meats.  Thanks to Alessandra and Francesco introducing us to the owner, we are able to enjoy the local option of returning our empty flask as often as we like to be refilled with farm wine (for 2.50 euro), rather than having to buy bottled wine.  (No doubt I have already mentioned this, but I just can't get over paying a mere 2.50 euro for a really drinkable table wine!)

Osteria Vecchio, where we stopped for lunch today.  I had tagliatelle nonna (translated on the menu as "handcut noodles by grandma"), mom had ravioli with ricotta and spinach, and we shared a piece of chocolate torte and a piece of warm pear and apple pie.  All very tasty, bill was 42 euro, including a small bottle of house wine, a bottle of sparkling water, and an espresso each.

The little yellow sign down to the left of the tower is the entrance to Il Merlo, where I had such tasty steak strips the other night (can't recall if posted a pic here, or just on facebook?)

The lantern outside our tower, above our door.  The flag is that of our contrade - Porte Lateri - which won the recent Cetona palio, held the day we arrived, although all we saw of it was a few people walking around in period costume.

Vicolo del Sole...the street below us, which I have yet to wander down...one of these days!