D030803

Home Diaries Best Pictures Road Trip

Perugia, Umbrian Capitol

August 3, 2003

Dear Friends and Family,

We left Tuscany yesterday for a short stay in Umbria. Friends from California, the Casellis, were on an Italian vacation and we arranged to share a couple days in Perugia, the capitol of Umbria. We looked forward to both a new part of Italy and old friends.

We crossed over from below Siena through the Tuscan and Umbrian hills. The difference is perceptible but hard to describe. Particularly in this very hot summer, farms are dry with greens less green and horizons of brown harvested hay and wheat fields. Still, every cluster of farm buildings or village or town had plenty of trees for shade and it was easy to imagine this pattern having stayed the same for thousands of years.

Perugia is an old, old city, but today it is a large modern place with all the good and bad that that entails. The drive in was not particularly fun, with roads crowded with cars, trucks, and buses. We had only the vaguest of directions from the hotel: "Go to the historic center, across from the bus station." OK, but the only signs were "Centre" and following them meant turns every few blocks. The streets wove up, down, and between hills until we had no idea where we were. Nevertheless, just at the point where we were going to park the car and ask for new instructions, we spotted the San Gallo Palace Hotel, just a few meters away. The god of travelers was looking after us again.

We settled into our comfortable business hotel and then asked for instructions for the walk to the old city. The desk clerk said we just needed to go around the corner, into a tunnel and follow the people. Since we could not even see the old town from the hotel, we had to take these directions on faith, too, but again, they were right on. The tunnel led into a labrynth of ancient passages and modern escalators. At the end, we popped out into the loggia of an old palazzo, well inside the old walls.

Over the next couple days, we repeated the labyrinth (I swear it's the old sewers of the city) and managed to see just enough to say we could come back. The history museum was closed when we went, but history was everywhere in the old town. Perugia had been settled by the Etruscans for half a millennium before the Romans took over in the first century, BC. Parts of the Etruscan walls served as the base for Roman and Renaissance walls and are still there today

We did visit the cathedral, a massive Romanesque structure that showed it's original role as a last redoubt inside a walled town. Like so much else, it was a Christian building on top of Roman and Etruscan foundations. Inside, it was a huge hall decorated with 13th through 18th century liturgical art. It did not have the elegance of the Florence churches, but it was clearly steeped in history and tradition.

Our routine after the Casellis arrived was not too much different than it would have been by ourselves. Walk, look at people, find a gelato, retire to air conditioning in the baking afternoon, and return to the streets for the evening meal. I suppose we could have done more, but enthusiasm for touring, even in a place as old and interesting as Perugia, was lost as the temperatures exceeded 35C (95F) by about noon.

Of course, conversations were different with five participants instead of our normal two. Marianne caught up on all the old gossip from Adrianne about her California friends. We all learned more about a younger tourist viewpoint from Ally, who had been enjoying Italy with a friend and his family even before her parents arrived. Tony encouraged discussion about everything from current American politics to highlights of their previous days' stay in Rome. (Speaking of politics and California, who's going to vote for Arnold ... and admit it?)

All in all, this was a good stay: some history, more good food, a little bit of art, and friends.

From here, I have to return for a few days to Frankfurt and Marianne will park herself in Florence. But that's another story.

John and Marianne

Marianne and I hit the Saturday market for "bio" (natural) food. In Italy, that certainly includes wine. Our choice turned out to be pretty good.

The cathedral in Perugia was a massive building. It was easy to see how such a building could be a final fortress against invaders over the centuries.

I know this is a bad picture but hopefully it gives a sense of the main entrance into the old town. The path has been created by adding escalators in old underground rooms (sewers?) and linking the rooms together. On first encounter, the effect is mysterious but soon it was just a normal way of getting into town.

This gate was built on an Etruscan base, overlayed with a Roman wall. On top, the Renaissance builders added palazzos.

The roof horizons in Perugia seemed ancient, as did most in our tour of Italy.

We made a final stop in Deruta, outside Perugia, to look at the ceramics sold from no less than 100 shops. It was fun looking, but our car was already full!

Previous Diary

Next Diary

Home Diaries Best Pictures Road Trip

This page created on a Macintosh using PhotoPage by John A. Vink.

	Marianne and I hit the Saturday market for "bio" (natural) food. In Italy, that certainly includes wine. Our choice turned out to be pretty good.		The cathedral in Perugia was a massive building. It was easy to see how such a building could be a final fortress against invaders over the centuries.
I know this is a bad picture but hopefully it gives a sense of the main entrance into the old town. The path has been created by adding escalators in old underground rooms (sewers?) and linking the rooms together. On first encounter, the effect is mysterious but soon it was just a normal way of getting into town.		This gate was built on an Etruscan base, overlayed with a Roman wall. On top, the Renaissance builders added palazzos.
	The roof horizons in Perugia seemed ancient, as did most in our tour of Italy.		We made a final stop in Deruta, outside Perugia, to look at the ceramics sold from no less than 100 shops. It was fun looking, but our car was already full!