One of My Favorite Places: The Steps

The view from Restaurante del Sole

Morning thoughts

Last night, the gravity of my time here finally hit me. My creative writing class had our end of year reading at a local bar. The whole evening was an accumulation of laughter, tears, and sangria. Many of my classmates wrote some of the most beautiful tributes to Perugia. They were personal, yet completely resonated with everyone there, probably because each of has slowly fallen in love with the stone city. Some (like the piece I read) are little more satirical than sentimental, but everyone in attendance agreed that it was a fabulous night full of fabulous writing. I have talented friends.

I took my friend Jonathon who was visiting me this past week to the bus station this morning to catch the bus to Rome. It is a beautiful Spring day. Clear, crisp, and yellow. I took the long way back to the center of town, through parks and up a lot of stairs. Never again will I be this unfettered; never again will I be living so simply; never again will I feel this guiltless about indulging in pleasure. As the last week here arrives, I am slowly starting to realize just how much my time here has changed me, grown me, and been patient with me; allowing me to slow down and live. More on this later.....

3 weeks left

I can't believe I only have less than three weeks left in Perugia! While I am super excited to go home to see my family and friends, I am going to be sad to leave this place that has been home for four months. The weather has finally started to get warm, and my friends and I spend all of out free time on the steps of the duomo. Pretty much all of Perugia is outside all of the time, walking their dogs, eating gelato, shopping, or just hanging out.
Last Sunday morning my friends and I decided to make breakfast together, and I made chocolate chip pancakes for everyone! I found the mix for it on the ethnic food shelf at the supermarket, next to taco shells. The pancakes were actually pretty good! I'm going to miss times like those with all my new friends.
Tonight is free pizza night, a regular occurence for our school. So I will be attending. I'm hoping to upload some new videos of Perugia soon! Get ready...

Sicily in the sun

Sicily, the piece of dirt the Italian boot is kicking on the map, is a different type of Italy than where I live. When I went there this weekend, we stayed in Trapani and took a 20 minute ferry over to Favignana (one of the Egadi Islands) on Saturday. There, we rented bikes (4 of us rented scooters, but the other 4 decided to stick to a normal, peddle-power bicycle--me included)and we explored the island, finding ruins, cliffs, flowers, horses, pigs, and great places to swim. It was such a beautiful day, we all got a little sunburned.I was just in awe the whole day of the natural beauty that Sicily holds. Biking was the perfect way to explore it, we took roads cars couldnt get to, and got to go further than we ever would have gotten on foot. Great weekend with a great group of friends. We may or may not have eaten gelato twice in one day....two days in a row.
Only four weeks left in this crazy place. I am done with my big traveling for now, I just want to explore Italy for my remaining weekends. Now that the weather is nicer, there is nothing stopping me from day tripping around to see everything I can before I go back to the states at the end of April.
Ciao!

Sicily and the Egadi Islands!

Finding peace in Spoleto

I know it’s been a while since I’ve last written here; life seems to grab you by the sleave and the next thing you know it’s the last full week of March. Before I post pictures of my glorious spring break, I want to fast-forward and talk about what I did this past weekend.

Friday night I spent the night in a convent in a little mountain town near Perugia called Spoleto, famous in the States for it’s music festival (Charleston copied it and now holds a “Spoleto Music Festival” in Charleston). I found out about the convent through my creative writing professor who lives in Spoleto. She mentioned in class that it is a nice place to get away and write or meditate or whatever you want to do that requires a tranquil atmosphere. Because life can get so crazy here, and because it sounded like an adventure, I asked her to help me make reservations. And that is how, at 1pm Friday afternoon, I found myself unpacking my backpack in a nice little room with a view of a garden and a DOUBLE BED (my tiny twin in Perugia allows me enough room to barely roll over)!!!! So I decided to allow myself to do whatever I felt like doing. I was hungry, so I went to a little enoteca that my professor recommended to me. I had a wonderful lunch of polenta topped with goat cheese, sausage, and truffles; a mixed salad with lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, mozzarella, and balsamic; and a glass of wine. Devine gastronomic experience. Then, I walked around the hilly, hilly town, saw the duomo with Fra Filippo Lippi’s “Annunciation” at the front of the church. I walked around a lot more, till I decided I wanted to take a nap, then I woke up, did some writing, and walked around some more, buying an apple and some gouda cheese to bring back to my room for dinner later that night. Then I wrote some more. Then I decided to take a bubble bath. Then I read a book about Italian soccer and politics for a few hours. Then I went to sleep. The next morning, I got the great pleasure of waking up at 8 am and having breakfast with some of the nuns! They did not know English, but Sister Chiara and I managed to small talk over coffee( yes, they brought out a huge pitcher and I almost died of happiness) and bread with jam. I spend my morning in the courtyard, writing, and then headed to a café on a cliff where I was to meet my professor and a few people from my program who had came to Spoleto that morning to go hiking! And hiked we did, up into what is known as the sacred forest. It was rough, pretty steep, but we made it, and were rewarded with a wonderfully relaxed lunch. I had bruscchetta, mushroom and lemon ravioli, and a dessert typical of Spoleto that is called crescionda, and is sort of like a brownie but with a layer of more moist cake and nuts. The perfect fuel for our trek back down. We all returned to Perugia later that night.

So basically this weekend was the perfect combo of solitude, nature, food, and companionship. I feel relaxed and refreshed; ready to finish out this last half of my Italian adventure.

Of course, my camera was out of batteries, so I was not able to photograph any of this. But I think it is actually a good thing. No pressure to recreate the moments.

Anyways, Paris and Spring Break pictures to come later this week. This Thursday I embark on a great Northern European adventure---I’ll be going to Denmark to visit my good friend Jonathon for the weekend! I’ll be bringing my big, thick socks!

Ha pronto!

A little tour of the street I live on. Enjoy! It's a little shakey

Morocco

Me after a long morning of surfing; a few buildings in Taghazout, the tiny coastal town we stayed in; the view from my hotel window.

Shannon not so much in Italy...

I never planned to go to Morocco, it just sort of happened, and truly, it was one of the coolest things I’ve done in my whole life. Morocco is not what you think of when you think of Africa. Africa conjures up images of villages and singing and giraffes and tribal prints (sorry for the stereotypes, but it is true). Morocco is an Islamic country where the women are fully covered, all the signs are in Arabic, and most people speak French. Saturday morning I heard the 6am call to prayer blasting through the town on a loudspeaker.

The ride from Marrakesh to Agadir was mind blowing. We passed at least 4 shepherds watching sheep. People still do that. The terrain, the geography, was just beautiful. We were in the foothills of the Atlas mountains. It was like desert meets mountains meets red dirt meets some trees and then all empties into the Atlantic, which was our final destination. We stayed in a tiny yet well-kept hotel, about 200 yards from the ocean shore. The weather was in the 80s during the day and maybe the 40s at night. Friday, our first full day there, we actual did learn how to surf, and I stood up on my surf board for a long three seconds! I never thought it was possible—surfing looks very intimidating. We basically spent the rest of the day laying out on the beach, where my camera sustained an ocean-related injury (we miscalculated the reach of the tide..oops). So I did not take too many pictures, but I did get a few. At one point during the weekend, we got to ride ATVs on the beach, which was fun/ a little scary. On Saturday, after more surfing, we went to the market in Agadir where I haggled for my new silver and turquoise ring. We also got the pleasure(?) of going to a Hammam bathhouse, which ended with a topless Moroccan woman pouring a bucket of hot water on my head, and scrubbing me with her bristly washcloth/mitten. It was an experience. For food, we had a lot of fish and bread. We also got treated to Moroccan mint tea every night, which is a big deal there. I loved it, and at the market I bought four different types of dried leaves (including mint). I don’t remember the other dried leaves….but they all smell wonderful. This morning, I put a mixture of all of them in a pot of water and boiled it and it was delicious.

It was the perfect combination of relaxation and activity. I came back to Italy with a little color in my face, which is nice. This weekend---Paris. Oh the adventures..

Sassy Sienna

This past weekend, my roommates and I traveled to Sienna by train. We left Saturday morning at 10am, and we got to Sienna around 4pm. If we had a car to drive, it would have taken around 2 hours. But by train, it's a different story. First of all, once I'm on the train, looking out the window, being lulled to sleep by the train's rhythem, I am happy. But the stress of finding the right train at the right time at the right platform is another story. We had to switch trains twice, which is more difficult than you might think. After a few hour layovers in train stations and many caffe machiatos, we finally arrived in Sienna. Beautiful city! We stayed at a really nice bed and breakfast for 25 euros each (breakfast Sunday morning included...made by Nonna herself!) that was located literally one minute from Il Campo, the famous piazza in the center of Sienna. We went to the big museum in Il Campo, saw tons of medival art, and even some modern art in the downstairs exhibit (its was free). We did some shopping, too---Italians love their clothing stores. We had dinner at one of the restaurants in Il Campo, which was sort of pricey and the food was just OK. My new rule is that nice looking places may not have the best food. So far, the best food I've had in Italy have been in the hole-in-the-wall places. Like last night, my friend literally took me and some others through allyway after allyway to this hidden pizza restaurant that was the best pizza I've had in Italy yet. I'll be going back. Anyways, Sienna. Gelato was eaten, the huge duomo was seen Sunday morning, pizza was ordered, a train was caught. And when we finally got back to Perugia Sunday around 8pm, it was a great feeling. I truly felt like I was home, and I liked it.

The Duomo (big church), me inside of a courtyard, and the fountain in Il Campo.

Museum/church. Lots of medival art but also a modern art exhibit on the bottom floor. We saw both.

Il Campo in Sienna, a big piazza. The big museum/church is on the other side. That's a mountain straight ahead

Saturday in Gubbio

Last Saturday, a few friends and I took the bus to Gubbio for the day. Gubbio is a mideval town pretty close to Perugia, so it was a short trip. But wow, what a place. This is a picture of a Roman ampatheater. It was right next to a big park so we ended up just sitting around on the grass looking up at this crazy old ampatheater that while moms and dads played with their kids around us. It was a beautiful day---I felt like it might have reached 60 degrees at some point! I can't believe I am calling that warm, but it was. We also took a chairlift up to the top of a small mountain and hiked around and went into an old church, Basilica Di S. Ubaldo. And we got to actually see S. Ubaldo in his final resting place on an alter in the front of the church, sort of strange but hey, we are in Italy. The pictures above this are from Gubbio. We ended our day by sipping wine at a cafe that overlooked the ampatheater as the sun set behind it. I can't complain.

The sunset from my bedroom window. Not too shabby.

In our kitchen with some of our neighbors before heading over to another apartment for dinner.

A view from a central-ish location in Perugia. Amazing

This is Reema, one of my apartment-mates, and I in the town center (centro). Behind us is a beautiful old fountain.

My new home

These past few days have flown by. Between jet lag, staying out super late, meeting tons of new people, and living in a city where I don't speak the language, I am pretty exhausted as I start this week of Italian classes. My apartment is nice, not a mansion, but modest, yet cute. It is three floors, with a bedroom and full bath on the top two floors, and a kitchen and full bath on the bottom floor. My room mates are great, all cool girls from the north east. This morning I made us scrambled eggs before class.
Here a some things I have learned/experienced since getting to Perugia:
- The pizza is..fantastic. I've already tried two different places (there are like a million pizzarias all over Perugia, and Perugia is not a big town). For lunch today I split a margharita pizza with a friend. A few days ago for dinner I asked our waiter to bring me his favorite, and he brought me one with tomotos, mozzerlla, mushrooms, chili sauce, some other unknown but delicious sauce, and sausage. It was great and I ate it all (it wasnt that big)!
- Italians have three words for the color blue. One that means dark blue, one that means blue like the ocean, and one that means light blue. I love that.
- Every Italian I have met here knows right away that I am from America because of my hair, and they love to stroke it (sort of weird).
- There are no stop signs or stop lights in the centro (my area of town). Drivers are crazy.
- Last night an apartment of American girl students like me had people over for homemade lasagna, veggies, bread, and wine. Great conversations, great people.
- People in Perugia love dogs! and they are constantly walking them everywhere. Italian dogs are the cutest.
-All the views are spectacular. There is no bad view of the city. ever. ever.
-Perugia is super old. I walked on an old aquaduct; the eutruscans built a wall that still surrounds the centro. wow
I promise pictures are coming soon!!!
Lots of love!

Perugia

Well I am here! Today will be my first time to see Perugia in the daylight---I'm very excited! Last night about 14 of us explored the city, going into town and seeing these crazy old buidings was amazing. It was like going through a time machine. We find the main piazza with a large old fountain and a bunch of steps so we hung out on those for a while.
Next week classes don't exactly start, but we have a week of intensive Italian, which is good.
Pictures soon---they always take better in the daylight!
Ciao!

Ciao USA

In about 11 hours from now, I'll be boarding the plane that will transport me to the location of the next four months of my life---Italy. What adventures I will find, what people I will meet are all unknown. Get ready.