Saturday afternoon in Perugia

We survived our first full week of classes at the Universita di Stranieri and celebrated with dinner out at a nearby restaurant that Tom had noticed on his walks around the neighborhood.  It is primarily a pizza and pasta joint, so I went with a pizza francescana which was only 6 euro and was really delicious--maybe the best pizza I've ever had.  Tom had scallopine con tartuffo which he said was also very good. Of course we washed it all down with a nice bottle  of Grechetto, the local wine which is usually the vino di tavola in Perugia. We celebrated last Friday at a more upscale restaurant which we also enjoyed.  They greeted us with a little plate of fresh veggies and a glass each of prosecco.  Then we had a fantastic appetizer--polenta with ragu--doesn't sound that good but it was squisito!  At the end of the meal they gave us complimentary glasses of a chocolate liqueur which is popular here (Perugia is known for its chocolate).

Tom peruses the menu at La Taverna

crostini di polenta con ragu

as usual we were the early bird diners at 8:00 pm.  The restaurant was in a very old building with arched brick ceilings
like those in our apartment

complimentary chocolate liqueur

Happily it was not raining or foggy today.  We took a nice walk past the duomo and fountain, along via vanucci (the main shopping street) to via Oberdan, where we found a small street market near the Church of San Ercolano where the vendors were selling home made ("fatto in casa) "biologica" (organic, no chemicals) products, from honey, to salami to cheese to wine.  They offered free tastes which was very effective marketing at least for us--we bought a nice salami, some almond cookies, and three bottles of wine, 2 Greccheto and 1 Sangiovese.  They were 3 bottles for 10 euros which is a good deal for some very drinkable wine.  We made it to the National Museum of Archeology, aka Paradiso di Tom, and spent a couple of hours there--the only patrons as far as we could tell.  We only saw about a third of the exhibits and Tom is looking forward to several more afternoons among Etruscan and Roman artifacts.

Nancy at the Court of Appeals in Perugia

flower vendor in front of Sant'Ercolano

Arco di San Ercolano 

Tres Archi (three arches)

Little street market we passed on the way to the museum

Tom with an old mercer islander at the archaeological museum

campanile and courtyard at the museum

creepy baby amulets on display at the museum- -a whole roomful of amulets and objects to
ward off 'malocchio' (the evil  eye)

On the way back to the apartment to skype with Kelly we ran into four of our classmates at Piazza Maggiore.  They were complaining there is nothing to do in Perugia and did not seem to think our suggestion of going to the museum was very helpful!  I think they headed off to do some shopping instead.  There are lots of sales right now and we saw a lot of beautiful shoes and boots on display.  If I was a high-heel wearing person I would definitely buy some.  As I am not, I guess I will stick with my zocoletti (clogs).

Time to study the trapassato imperfetto (in English, the pluperperfect--one time where the English translation doesn't do much for me).

Ciao a tutti.