After Venice we caught trains to Florence and then Arezzo. Here we picked up our hire car and drove south to Montone. Mum had found this place advertised in a magazine so we decided to spend 11 nights here and make it our base.  Casa Valdeste is a beautiful late 14th-century, terrace-style two-bedroom cottage on three floors, 60 metres from Montone’s centrepiece, Piazza Fortebraccio, the main square in the medieval village of Montone. The walls are of stone, about one metre thick and buttressed on the south-western side.  The house features huge oak and chestnut beams on all ceilings, double-glazed chestnut windows, world-renowned Cotto d’Este floor tiles and exquisite ceramic wall-hangings. Casa Valdeste is owned by some Aussies and this is their website. Check it out. It’s a one way road around the large wall of our little medieval village. From the top on a foggy day it feels like we are floating through