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!