Second half of Fall break: October 21-26

This one is going to be brief, as I'm sure most of you have heard it from my parents already! But I'm so happy that I was lucky enough to have 4 out of my 5 family members come and visit me, and that Amanda is still here - I didn't realize how much of comfort it would be to have someone I knew here. And I'm even more lucky, because I have more visitors yet to come! Betsy and Gary are coming for Thanksgiving with Amanda and I in Perugia! But anyways. Back to my original train of thought - fall break, parte due . . .

I sat down on the step outside of the Chiusi train station, expecting to be sitting there for a while, waiting for my family to battle their way onto the high-stress Italian highway, the autostrada, from Rome to Chiusi where I impatiently waited. So that’s where I was, reading my book when I hear a wonderfully familiar voice saying “Say, are you looking for someone?” I look up to see my dad’s comforting face grinning down at me, and immediately, my heart jumped into my throat as I sprang up to give him a bear hug. I couldn’t stop the goofy smile stretching across my face as I watched my always energetic and smiling Mom, a slightly groggy looking Michael (apparently he had taken the wise choice and fell asleep during the nerve-damaging car ride), and the always calm, no matter the circumstance, Amanda.

We crammed all our bags into the tiny, fuel-efficient rental car and took off on what turned out to be a couple hour search for our rented house in the Italian campagna, the countryside, near the cities of Chiusi and Città delle Pieve. Finally, after stopping to ask directions (of course the people we asked spoke solo italiano, so I got to practice my language skills), we stumbled upon the house. A while later, fashionably late, Italian-style, the owners showed up to give us the keys. They were a married couple who also spoke only Italian, so again, I became interpreter and have to say, I was thrilled at the opportunity to use my Italian or else! They had an apartment downstairs where they occasionally stayed, but they mainly just came by morning and night to do chores – feed the sheep, ducks, and the ever-hungry kittens that had greeted us as we drove up, and to care for the little vineyard, greenhouse, and olive trees scattered around on their little patch of land. They were very sweet, and during the course of our stay, gave us a traditional country breakfast cake, a bottle of their homemade wine after Dad asked questions about their vineyard, and when we left, they presented us with a little gift of a plaque that the wife had painted herself for us. We stopped at the Chiusi grocery store on our way home from our day-trips throughout the week, to grab the essentials: big, plump purple grapes, cheese, a big loaf of crunchy-on-the-outside bread, and a bottle of wine. Mmmm, there’s nothing like the Italian snack!

During the week, we took day trips. I apologize, because I am not going to do all these places justice in the small attention span of my blog.

Wednesday we went to Siena, which I won’t spend much time on, as I’ve already written a blog about that city when I went on my Tuscany Getaway weekend with a group from school.

Thursday we took the train to Florence and met up with my friend Lauren who was in Florence from Wednesday to Friday to see the sights. We went to the Uffizi and saw Botticelli’s famous painting, “The Birth of Venus” and many others from that time period and before. We then made our way over to the famous Duomo, the biggest domed cathedral, which was impressive on the outside, but not so much on the inside as they had the area under the duomo blocked off from tourists. Then, on to the Accademia where we saw the beautifully done masterpiece of David by Michelangelo. I think this was everyone’s favorite from the Florence trip. Before heading back to our haven in the country, we stopped by one of Florence’s million little markets and did some speedy shopping.

Friday we spent in Perugia, also taking the train to avoid the craziness of parking during the Eurochocolate Festival. While I am an avid lover of chocolate, this festival did not impress me – in fact, it infuriated me! A walk from my apartment to the main school building which normally took me ten minutes max, now took me literally half an hour, due to the HOARDS of people that took over the city center. Also, there weren’t really any activities to participate in, other than elbowing past people to finally reach one of the booths scattered through the city center, only to pay a fortune on over-priced chocolate that could be bought for significantly cheaper at one of the grocery stores in the city. So we stayed clear of the Festival as much as possible, instead going to a quieter street to eat at my favorite restaurant, La Lanterna, and buying chocolate from the sweet older man who works at the grocery store next to the main school building. Mom bought so much chocolate to take home that he gave us Michael’s overflowing plate of eggplant slices for free! See, this is the way to do Perugia chocolate! We went home early that day in order to see the sun set in our country refuge, making dinner and relaxing.

Saturday was my favorite of the day trips, as we drove to a city a little bit further south of Perugia called Orvieto. It’s a city built on tufa, which is volcanic rock that is only found in this region in Umbria. Tufa looks funny, as it’s full of holes – Rick Steves says the locals joke that it’s Swiss cheese! It’s a beautiful little city, touristy, but not in an annoying way. We had packed a lunch which we ate from a beautiful park on one edge of the city, which is where most of these pictures were taken. We went down into the pozzi, which are wells that Orvieto is famous for, which I also have pictures of. From Orvieto, we drove through the winding hills to get to Rick Steve’s favorite little hill town, Civita. Civita has 14 remaining residents, and cannot be reached by cars as it rests atop a pinnacle in the middle of a valley! You have to park and then take a foot-bridge from the nearest, more populated town of Bagnoregio to get to Civita! It’s a beautiful little town, caught in moment of the past, with the tourists that come there its only income. There fore, some of the residents are a bit forward from getting “donations” from you, but its worth it to walk through the city on its old stone roads and look out on the green valley below.

Sadly, Sunday Mom, Dad, and Michael left pretty early in order to get to Rome with enough time for Michael to see the Colesseum and Roman Forum before flying back to the States early Monday morning. So Manda and I made our way back to Perugia by train, and days flew by, and so here we are! Whew! Finally catching up a bit!