This morning, after Italian class, I decided I couldn’t resist my craving for a cappuccino and a cornetto con cioccolatto (essentially a flaky pastry filled with nutella and chocolate…yummm) so I headed to a café off Via dei Priori that I’d been passing and wanted to try. Outside was a sign for a breakfast special: a cappuccino plus a pastry for 1.80 Euro. Deals like this are not uncommon in Perugia, and through traveling to other cities I’ve come to recognize the bargains I take for granted here! Even in America, imagine getting a big, delicious pastry at Starbucks AND a cappuccino for about $2.30. You’d be lucky to get the pastry by itself for that price.
The café turned out to be run by this sweet middle-aged lady who, in typical Italian style, directed me to sit down at a table and enjoy my cornetto while she made my cappuccino. Sit down and relax and enjoy my breakfast, and pay for everything afterward, of course. When I went to pay, she asked me in Italian where I was studying, and before I knew it I was having a real conversation with her in her native language. I told her why I am studying Italian (because of my Italian heritage and wanting to communicate with relatives) and about the trip I have planned this weekend to visit relatives who barely speak English. She told me that she sees lots of Umbra students in her café and we talked about how most of them come in not knowing any Italian. Having this conversation with her in Italian was just so fulfilling, because little by little over these past few weeks I’m starting to notice just how much I’ve improved with this language. Yes, I still have my strong American accent, and yes, sometimes I need people to repeat things or speak more slowly, but had I been put in these same situations three months ago and been asked to have a conversation, it never would have happened! Last semester in Italian class I had to plan responses to questions in my head before I could say them aloud, and when typing e-mails to relatives I’d always have to open up freetranslation.com to figure out certain words or phrases. Now I’ll just type the e-mails without hesitation, and spontaneous conversations in Italian are a part of my everyday life! I can credit living with a roommate who speaks no English for the fact that I feel I’ve improved so much. Being in this situation forces me to take part in casual conversations and be quick on my feet with the language…and I’m finding that my comprehension of Italian is getting stronger and stronger.
Before I came to Italy I never had such an intense interest in language and communication between cultures, but after being here and working with Italian high school students, I am so drawn to it. I don’t know how I will incorporate my fascination with foreign languages into my life or my career after this semester, but I’m glad that I’ve connected to it here. It’s something to keep in mind for the future.
This past weekend I stayed in Perugia on Friday, and traveled to Orvieto and Rome on Saturday and Sunday. During the day Friday I forced myself to get out of bed semi-early and not waste the day and the good weather. I wandered through some streets I’d never been down, found the University of Perugia campus and a park on the premises, and tried out a new café and an amazing Neapolitan-style pizzeria that had been recommended by my school. Looking out over the Perugia skyline from the university’s park, I realized I’ve truly traversed the entirety of this city. When I first looked across the sea of rooftops and churches from different vantage points, I’d wonder what lay on the other side, what each building was. Now I can look across and recognize places I’ve been, streets I’ve found during random wanderings through town. I’m proud of myself for having really taken the time to learn the backstreets and random passages of Perugia, and for getting out of bed on free days when I’m here and making the most of the place where I am. Here’s a photo from my adventure on Friday:
On Saturday I took a daytrip to an Umbrian town called Orvieto. The reason I journeyed to this specific town is because I just finished an excellent book called The Lady in the Palazzo that takes place there. It’s a nonfiction memoir of sorts by an amazing author, Marlena de Blasi. I’d never heard of her or this book before, but in my search for novels related to Italy and Perugia, I stumbled upon it at Borders before I left home and decided to buy it. Great choice. De Blasi has such a talent for making the characters, the place, and even the food she describes come to life. I highly, highly recommend this book, even if you have no interest in Italy. Her way of looking at the world is really inspiring and invigorating, for lack of a better word.
** Interjection: I just saw a lizard crawl up the side of the building next to my apartment. Ahhh. God forbid a lizard ever crawls into my bedroom, you’ll never hear the end of it. ***
So…I took a train to Orvieto on Saturday and found the palazzo where the author of the book still lives, and where the story took place. It was pretty amazing to be right there in person, at the scene of the story I felt like I knew so well. I didn’t see the author (I read online that she’s very reclusive and doesn’t seem to enjoy when her fans bombard her on the streets of Orvieto) but I snapped some photos of her house and her nameplate next to the doorbell.
I also tried the gelato place she’d mentioned in the book, called Pasqualetti. Delicious, of course. And besides visiting sights important to the novel, I soaked up the beauty of the town itself. It had literally breathtaking views of the countryside below, as the city is hoisted up on what they call “tufa rock.” Basically slabs of earth from volcanic eruptions and the like formed below the town and placed it up above the surrounding area. You take a funicular from the train station to reach the center. Right at the funicular’s drop-off point was a beautiful park with pathways extending over the view. Here are some shots I took there:
I also climbed La Torre del Moro, a big tower in the town center, to see some more gorgeous panoramas. Then I made my way over to the town’s Duomo, the major attraction in the city and one of the most beautiful duomo’s in all of Italy.
The town is also known for its mysterious underground passageways. There was a tour being offered, but I opted out (didn’t feel like spending an hour underground with annoying tourists on a beautiful, sunny day) and went instead for a quick self-guided tour of a smaller section of the underground passageways, called Pozzo della Cava. Seeing the ruins, a huge well, and the remnants of storage areas, pottery kilns and Etruscan “trash cans” was actually really cool. I ended the day by climbing up and down Pozzo di San Patrizio (St. Patrick—how appropriate I should mention his name on this day), an enormous underground well and engineering feat, designed so that donkeys carrying pails could climb up one side and down the other without bumping into each other.
As much as you’d think no one would know about this random town called Orvieto, it’s apparently a major tourist mecca, and everywhere I went Saturday I saw American travelers and heard English. A lot different than in Perugia, where occasionally I see groups of travelers, but not on that kind of scale! I thought it made a great daytrip, though, and the views from the edge of the town were just unbelievable.
Sunday, after a part-train, part-bus voyage to Rome, I met up with my friend Lindsay from UMD, who’s studying there. We walked though the Jewish Ghetto, a part of the city I’d never been to, and took a tour of the beautiful synagogue there. We opted for the Italian-language tour, and it was so amazing to sit there listening to the guide and actually understand most of what she was describing! The synagogue itself was so pretty, inside and outside. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take indoor photos, but here’s one of the outside:
We ate lunch at a restaurant called Nonna Betta, and I really enjoyed seeing the mixture of Italian and Jewish dishes on the menu. In general, seeing this seemingly odd mesh of Jewish and Italian culture in one place was so cool for me. One of the few places on Earth where both parts of my heritage meet up and form their own unique culture. The bread we were served at the restaurant had a texture and flavor reminiscent of challah, but with an Italian-style crust. And our bottle of wine had Hebrew and Italian written on it.
After lunch we took a walk through Rome’s major sights—the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps. I’d seen them all during my high school Italy trip, but I was pining to see them again, and particularly the Trevi Fountain was even more beautiful than I remembered it. I don’t think I ever saw it during the day before.
One thing I did not enjoy were the hordes of tourists EVERYWHERE. There was just no escaping them. When I finally arrived back in Perugia (after missing the train I had planned on taking due to the Pope’s car coming through an intersection I needed to cross) it was nice to be away from the crowds and chaos of the Roman city center. I may complain now and then about the lack of things to do in Perugia, the lack of tangible excitement, but there are parts of this small city that have definitely grown on me. Being here feels comfortable. The pace of life is slow, the shopkeepers (for the most part) are extraordinarily friendly, and I'm surrounded by architectural magnificence and stunning views 24/7. I definitely miss home and the people that go with it, but a part of me will be very sad to leave my Italian “home” here in Perugia.
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