Nicola, from Ortonova

As we walked up and down many of the little street/paths, with the arches, stairs, and doorways in Ortonova, we could see the nearby hilltop village of Nicola. Both little towns are just as interesting as hilltop villages in France, but they are smaller and not as touristy-neat, and it doesn’t look as if either requested or expected travelers.

As we carefully drove down Ortonova’s hill we could see on the side of the hill below Nicola’s perimeter, a separate area crowded with what looked like tiny white buildings. When we got closer, we determined we were looking at the town’s cemetery.

When we did get the chance to drive up the hill to Nicola, we almost spent the rest of our vacation right there. Not because it was so fantastic (it was of course), but because we found ourselves dead-ended against Nicola’s high stone wall, with a gate too small to enter, no place to park, no room to turn around, and no place to go but to back down the hill, turning here and there, and back down the twisty road some more. That was scary.