Last weekend I decided to take a little trip North to Umbria! I have been feeling like I still haven't spent much time outside of Roma since being here. I am always hearing a lot about the differences between northern & southern Italy & wanted to experience this. Rome is about in the middle of the country. So, I hopped a train up to Perugia, the capitol of Umbria. It is a cultural center with a couple of Universities & an ongoing stream of festivals.
On this particular weekend, EUROCHOCOLATE fest was going on. This might be the biggest chocolate festival EVER bringing about one million people into town! Have you heard of Baci di Perugia? They are lovely chocolate candies & are Perugia's biggest export. (& wouldn't you know the company is now owned by... Nestle :( The train was absolutely full of teenagers, I had to stand the entire trip! And, unfortunately the quaint hilltop city was completely overrun with chocolate lovers, most of them teens. The historical center was loaded with people & chocolate themed pop music was constantly playing. I guess I should have done my research before setting out...
Luckily, those people did not venture far from the chocolate, leaving the rest of town fairly peaceful. Umbria is beautiful!
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| all these hilltop cities were once walled in & you can see a section in the back |
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| Umbrian Panorama |
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| there are lots of stairways with little mini-steps |
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| some of the chocolate people. This is really a beautiful piazza. For photos, the giant tents & climbing wall shaped like a chocolate bar detracted from the overall beauty. |
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| people were lining up to take a photo with this, the largest chocolate bear ever. |
Perugia is considered an Etruscan city & you can see evidence of this in much of the architecture, including arches in the city walls. I am not an expert but, I believe that the Etruscans were an ancient people that lived all throughout central Italy & were assimilated into the Roman Empire at some point.
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| the weather was pretty chilly, I had to buy some gloves. |
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| It was all very charming & had a entirely different feel from the chaos of Rome. |
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| The city is closed to outside traffic very often. Instead they have large parking lots & then everyone takes escalators (scala mobili) up into the center of town. |
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| i always like seeing the laundry |
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| the Etruscan style churches have a very different look. |
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| Etruscan archway into the city |
I had a pleasant experience of going into this church in this photo below just before it closed for the night & getting a private tour from an old priest. He showed me a chapel that included a painting by Caravaggio & one by Raphael. Raphael's teacher was from Perugia. The priest then left me there by myself to look at the frescoes. We had been speaking Italian but at the end of our visit he said in English, "when finish, out with the lights & shut with the door!" It was cute.
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| a lovely evening in Perugia |
I stayed over in a hostel where the front desk employee was from... WISCONSIN! Man, it is so nice to talk to a friendly American sometimes! We went out for pizza & beer, midwestern style. It was really refreshing. The next day I decided to hit Assisi rather than fight the chocolate festival goers. I am really not into crowds.
Next up... visit to the beautiful Assisi to commune with the pious! :)
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