Etruscan fortress above Lake Trasimeno — where Under the Tuscan Sun was written
Cortona is one of Italy's oldest cities, an Etruscan fortress town perched 600m above the Val di Chiana on ancient walls that predate the Roman Republic. Its MAEC museum holds one of the world's finest Etruscan collections; Luca Signorelli (teacher of Michelangelo) was born here; Fra Angelico spent years in its Dominican convent. The town became internationally famous after Frances Mayes's memoir Under the Tuscan Sun (1996), filmed here in 2003, though Cortona's appeal is rooted in something far older than any book.
Cortona was one of the 12 principal cities of the Etruscan League, possibly established as early as the 10th century BCE — its massive Cyclopean stone walls (megalithic blocks without mortar) still gird the hillside. The Romans took it in 310 BCE; Hannibal camped nearby before the Battle of Lake Trasimeno (217 BCE). In the Renaissance, Cortona produced two major artists: Luca Signorelli, whose apocalyptic frescoes in Orvieto influenced Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, and Pietro da Cortona, the great Baroque decorator of Rome. The town stagnated after the 17th century — preserving its character…