'Under the Tuscan Sun' (the book, the film, or both) may have cemented (some say ruined) Cortona on the tourist map, The Luxury Travel Bible was captured by the town many years earlier while living in the outskirts of a tiny village nearby called Goiella. In one of those treasured moments of synchronicity, the reading of a small, but enigmatic, description of the winding roads up through to Cortona in 'The English Patient' preceded an actual trip by only a few hours. If you minus the squabble that can go on in finding a parking metre before you pass through the 3,000 year old Etruscan walls of the old town, the experience is equally moving. It doesn't take much of a wander up through the streets that mix Medieval and Renaissance architecture to see why it's romantically popular with the expat community that lives here. The market in Piazza della Repubblica held on Saturdays is just another reason.