Weekends in Perugia!

Hey all!!
The past two weekends I spent in Perugia after an exhausting but exhilerating ten day vacation around Europe.

The weekend of the 5-8 I was lucky enough to have two of my close friends (and future apartment mates) join me in Perugia for the weekend: Kristen and Hannah. Hannah is studying in Budapest and Kristen is studying in London, I have visited them both so it was great to be able to host them in my city.

They arrived in Roma on Thursday night where I met them and we stayed with our 4th apt mate for back at SMC, Mary. We then hopped on a train back to Perugia early Friday morning in some of the most horrible weather I've had since arriving in Italy. Rain and cold and fog aside, we had a great train ride, arrived in Perugia where we dropped the bags and I took them on a tour of the city. After a great meal at the apartment that was a joint effort by all we went out with some friends for the night.

Again waking up early on Saturday we went down to the local farmers market that comes to Perugia every Saturday at the bottom of the mini-metro. Not only did we see fresh produce and meats and cheeses, but we saw shoes, and clothes as well as a travelling carnival (not unalike from the Marshvegas Fair.. . including the crazies that frequent it haha). Then we attempted to go to a local Rugby game but had gotten the dates messed up. Treking back up to the center (with a new *to us* one piece flourescent ski suit in tow) we went to one of our favorite pizza places in the center, Pizza Mediterranea for some great food and drink before returning to the apartment for a quick nap. That night we again went out with some friends walking around, in the rain, but still enjoying Perugia to the fullest.

Sunday morning, Kristen had a train to catch back to Roma for her flight so Hannah and I brought her to the train station only to find out that the trains had gone on strike for the day. Having never experienced this at a time where I had to get somewhere I didn't know where the bus station was, but luckily we located it and dropped her off in time for her to catch her flight, but not before getting caught in a hail storm. Hannah and I had plans to go to Assisi but between the train strike and the hail storm, we decided some indoor activities were in order.

Sunday night Hannah and I went to one of the only restaurants open on Sundays for a great meal and then met up with a few of my International friends for a quiet night before watching a movie and keeping warm inside. The following morning I brought Hannah to the train station, sad to see her go but happy to have shown her Perugia and looking forward to meeting her in Amsterdam in December!

This past weekend (Nov 13-15) I had a class day-trip to Spoleto on Friday. We woke up early and got on a bus (45 min) to the sleepy town of Spoleto home of many many Churches (appropriate since we were visitng for our Christianity class). Being led by our teacher and part-time tour guide he was in his element excited to tell as all about the history of this great city (which was very similar to the size and feel of Perugia but known for it's truffels *mushrooms not chocolate*). We went on a 3-4 hour tour of the city ending at the top of the enormous dam and ancient stone bridge that dated back thousands of years but was still in perfect condition, the views were unbelievable!

After our tour he set us lose on the city to find a place for lunch. We went to an amazing restaurant with a very lively waiter who loved entertaining us, his only customers on this rainy Friday. It was an unbelievable meal that had truffels in almost every dish! After filling ourselves up we all hopped back on the bus with one more church on the outskirts of the city to visit before returning to Perugia in the early afternoon.

This weekend the majority of the Umbra students were on another overnight fieldtrip so all of the kids in my class decided to meet up that night (Friday) for some fun with our Christianity class, it was a great night!

Getting to really sleep in for the first time in a while on Saturday was a welcome surprise, however I knew I had work to do for some papers coming up, and with the family joining me this coming weekend I knew I had to get some of it out of the way so I headed up to the school where I got a bunch of work done before joining a friend for dinner at his apartment before going out with him and his roomates and his friend from his college, who happened to be from Cambridge! It was great to see a fellow Bostonian :)

Sunday again was a work day followed by a great dinner of pasta with veggies and pesto had between my two friends and I and then a movie night again keeping warm out of the rainy weather!!

All in all it was a great two weekends in Peruiga and I'm sooo looking forward to Mom, Dad, Christine, Paul, and Thomas joining me in only a matter of days!! I'll keep you all posted of our family adventures! Peace and love to you all

xoxo aisling