Perugia - the ridge city

I awoke to sunshine and Michael Buble crooning to me out of my phone speakers.  Despite the pleasantness of those aspects of the morning, my addiction to the snooze button won.  After I had defeated my morning vice, I enjoyed a real shower and the breeze of the gorgeous morning out of the open window facing the lower city as I got ready for the day of walking about Perugia. 

Checking out was an ordeal I did not expect.  I mean, really, how hard is it to communicate that you were in room 51, and you needed to pay and leave.  Ah well, it all turned out ok in the end.  I caught the tail end of mass in a catholic church – I have yet to find a protestant church out here.  After that began the walking of up, down, and around the streets, entering churches as we went, wishing we had money to shop in the boutiques, drooling over the endless gelato shops, and trying to remember how to breathe when the architecture and antiquity of the city sunk in.  Just like any good Italian cities, Piazzas were everywhere, allowing the city to take breaks from the constricting streets. 

I was excited about a few aspects of the city. 

1.                 The gate that had obviously been built upon several times, and you could see the differentiation in construction and materials.  Right beside it were a couple of public water faucets, which I filled up my water bottles with.  The water tasted fine, so hopefully I don’t get deathly sick. J haha

2.                 The oldest church in Umbria was quite a change out of the ordinary.  Instead of an overabundance of frescos and gaudy baroque or gothic architecture, it contained very simple features that in themselves were beautiful. 

3.                 The northern gate to the city was MASSIVE.  And it had a little slot for those metal grate spikey things that keep bad people out. J

4.                 The market where locals peddled their junk, expecting outrageous prices of course.

5.                  The chocolate store, which had an entire wall of different chocolate bars.  I purchased a coconut white chocolate bar, which pretty much hit the spot.  I planned on eating half of it, but you know how that goes – it never happens that way.

      HOWEVER, the BEST part of the city was literally UNDER the city.  We had accidentally run into it the day before, as escalators took you from the edge of the old city through its heart and back out in the middle of the new “old” city.  A series of 5 escalators run underground, and the second from the top ends in an underground stone and brick structure.  You have to walk out, and into the old deserted streets, covered over in an arch fashion, and walk up the street to the next escalator taking you up into the open air.  Apparently a pope became angry with the rich Perugians, tore down their houses, and built a fortress literally ON TOP of that section of the city.  As soon as the pope died, the Perugians of course destroyed the fortress, but the part underground remained just that.  We traveled through the old city again as we made our way toward the train station.   

We caught the train, and to keep myself entertained, read an Italian phrase book, which covered everything from “hello” to scandalous pick-up lines.  It was great.  Some of the students that stayed behind in San Gemini met us at the train station, and we walked back to the city, where I promptly marched up to Bar Centrale and ordered an espresso gelato.  Dinner consisted of 2 pieces of white bread covered in fresh garlic butter, which I am still enjoying the smell of to this moment, 3 hours later.  J  I think it’s time for bed though… School in the morning, and it has been an exhaustingly wonderful weekend.  Buono notte, folks!

the church about 2 blocks away from our hostel

Fountain in IV Novembre

Large church

Gate built over several centuries

Sant Michele Archangelo church - the oldest one in Umbria

i was REALLY excited about my coconut white chocolate bar

the old underground city