Welcome to Perugia
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2011
1
10
Trip End
Apr 30, 2011
Where I stayed
Perugia, Umbria, Italy
Saturday, January 8, 2011
The plane ride here went pretty well, save a delay in Washington. A "suspicious package" caused a partial evacuation in Dulles and a few of our passengers and a lot of our baggage were delayed. After sitting at the gate for two and a half extra hours, we were finally in the air! My seat neighbor turned out to be an interesting guy--grew up in India, now an architect in the United States, and he's working on designing a huge city in Lebanon now--so he kept me entertained during the long wait. I kind of sort of slept on the plane, so that brought me up to a grand total of six or seven hours of sleep for Wednesday and Thursday nights! I also watched Never Let Me Go, which I really liked, on the plane.
I arrived in Rome and met a group of other Umbra Institute students in the arrival area. We waited a bit for another flight and I found out that Italians like their water fizzy when I opened it and it sprayed on my bag! It's kind of like sparkling water, but without the flavor. Then we boarded a bus for the three-hour drive to Perugia, and all of us passed out from exhaustion. Before falling asleep, I appreciated the beautiful Italian countryside--sheep, steep hills, quaint farm houses with satellite dishes, and all kinds of teeny tiny cars on the highway. After arriving at Hotel Gio on the outskirts of Perugia, I spent a few hours getting freshened up and getting to know one of my seven roommates (our hotel rooms are assigned by apartment) and some other people from her college. I love the people here already--everyone is so interesting and we have lots to talk about. Then at 8:00 (Italians eat supper much later than Americans) I had my first true Italian meal of pasta, chicken, potatoes, salad, and chocolate mousse--yum!
After dinner, a large group of us went exploring since we just couldn't wait for the walking tour tomorrow. We found beautiful old stone buildings, winding roads, statues, and a fountain--just what you would expect from a true Italian city. Perugia is so hilly! I'm definitely not worried about eating too much here with all the walking we'll be doing around town. We discovered a giant escalator up into the city center and found one of our group's apartments by accident. Then we found a beautifully lit festival celebrating the Catholic holiday that commemorates the wise men's visit to the baby Jesus.
Tomorrow we move into our apartments and I'm so excited to see what it looks like, along with the city of Perugia during the day! I'm going to spend lots of time exploring and hopefully pick up some Italian along the way. Next week is all about intensive Italian, so that should give me a great jumping off point. More as soon as I can--wi-fi isn't readily available here so I'll be limited in my Internet access. Until then, ciao!
Comments
Good to hear you made it there safe and sound and are already starting to explore! I look forward to updates!
Sounds like fun! :) You are going to have a great time!