perugia

after our assisi trip on friday we had the rest of the weekend free so craig, nick, and i decided to go the the train station in the morning and figure out a place to go for the day. since we missed the morning train to rome and we are going to flourence this weekend so we decided to take the train to perugia, the capital city of the umbria region. we really didn't know what we were getting into at the time but we met up with 5 more people who were planning to go there. when we arrived at the perugia train station we immediately thought the trip was a bust and the perugia was a mistake. we couldn't have been more wrong. the train station was at the bottom of the hill and ( like always ) the best part of the city was at the top. the trek up was the steepest of any city and once we got to the top we learned that the city offers free escalators to take you to the top. luckly we remembered for the trip down.

perugia is a city of activity. the streets were five times wider than orvieto and seemed to always be packed almost shoulder to shoulder. our first stop the the tourist information center where we found a map that helped us put together important things to see while there. we managed to go to almost every point of interest of the map and still had time to sit in the sunlight in perugia's main square piazza IV novembre. this piazza is made up of the palazzo dei priori, fontanna maggiore, and cattedrale s. lorenzo. all of the streets leading to this piazza are lined with shops and full of people. toward the end of the night the three of us got our first cuban cigar, sat on the steps of the cathedral of st. lorenzo and watched the people. toward the end of the night hundreds of people gathered at the piazza italia ( on the western edge of the cliff ) to watch the sun set over the mountains. afterward we all got chocolate ( perugia is famous for chocolate and is actually having a chocolate festival next week ) and decided to begin our decent back down to the train. we all decided that we have to visit perugia again.


flourence on friday ( and maybe back to perugia for chocolate )

top of hill

piazza iv novembre ( on steps of the cathedral of st. lorenzo )

sweet stairs and old aqueduct paved over to be a path

inside the temple of st. angelo ( my favorite church in perguia )

ancient etruscan gateway and defensive turret