Last day of class

Today we had our last two classes of the quarter.  The rest of the class will be taking exams for the next two days but we will be heading off to the beach.  Most of the class is continuing on, but a few others are leaving along with us.  One of them, Maeve, brought champagne to share with the class.  Toasting and picture taking ensued.

This time everybody squeezed together for a class photo.

Then a riot of individual picture taking and good-byes ensued.

Our teacher, Anna Ignone, pours the champagne

Our friend Takku takes a group picture

Tom with Prashand and Mohammed

Nancy and Pei

giggly girls

Anna and the Russian brothers

Tom and Nancy with Anna

Thus ends our return to school, not with a whimper but a bang (of champagne corks).  Tomorrow, to Formia!

Festa dei Papa and photos from the Cammino in Perugia exhibit

Thursday was Festa dei Papa (Father's Day).   It is on the feast day of San Giuseppe (St. Joseph, aka Jesus' dad) and is also the festival for carpenters.

Every festa has its own dolce and a market similar to a street fair.  The dolce for giorno dei Pappa is fritelle--kind of a donut/cream puff combination and really good.  We went to the festa on our way to a museum and bought some aged pecorino.  The proprietor threw in some maiale (wild boar) sausage, his speciality.  He had a practiced shtick involving jokes about his wife and the boar head (see below).

The museum had a show called cammino Perugia and was three floors of black and white pictures of Perugia and its citizens from the past 100 years.  It was basically a giant photo album, and was really interesting.

Perugia around 1900--this street still looks like this minus the oxen

Perugina chocolate factory and its oldest employee (on left)

Wrapping chocolates at the factory

There were a lot of newspapers and memorabilia from both world wars

A tea dance during WW II.

Saint's Day procession circa 1953

After a wedding at the Cathedral, 1958

Of course a photography exhibit is Tom heaven, so we spent a lot of time there even though it was his second visit to the exhibit.  Walking home we ran into the owners of our favorite restaurant (Ubu Re) which made us feel like locals.  Perugia has about 186,000 residents but it really is a small town.  We always see a classmate or two when we are out and about on the week-ends.  After the show we stopped at the pharmacy and I was able to buy more antibiotics (sinus infection) without a prescription, conducting the whole transaction in Italian--I was quite proud of myself.  Time to sign off and head out for a spritz and some conversation at the bar down the street.  Buona settimane tutti.

modern sculpture (and /tom) outside museum

Meals and classmates

While our classmates are cramming for 'la testa' we are planning a trip to Formia to find an apartment and a trip to Sardinia with Kelly.  Not all is study, however, the bright sunshine brings everyone out to enjoy lunch al fresco.

Mini UN:  Anastasia (Ukraine), Bestia (Turkey), Giuliana(Germany) and Natasha (Indonesia) enjoy lunch at Piazza Grimaldi across from the University

Later that day we walked up to Piazza IV Septembre for a late afternoon drink while reading the newspaper.

Tom enjoys La Repubblica and a glass of wine

Since our classes are ending next week I figured it was time to get a picture of the whole class.  The room is so big that we needed three pictures to get them all in.

Tom king of the class!

Sun brings out the students and the perugini--the cathedral steps were packed.

Check out the old fashioned Hogwarts looking broom--they actually use these
all over town to sweep the streets and piazzi.

 Today we celebrated the week-end with lunch at our favorite restaurant, fantastic as usual!

tuna in a crust of pistacchios with olives and capers

Maiale con miele e cipolle

tiramisu Perugian style

caffee of course

Tom enjoying un dolce

A flag for every nation represented at the conference for women at the university this week

Spring has arrived in Perugia!

A whole week-end without rain and with sun!  Perfect weather for a stroll to a viewpoint and then to the Rocco Paolina.  First, of course, a stop at Da Sole for a drink and snack on the terrace with a panoramic view.

In the foreground--a 'torta al testo' a kind of sandwhich popular in Perugia

Then, a nice passegiata to a viewpoint and to the Rocca.

Then, on to Piazza Italia and a triple scoop of gelato.

Spring hasn't arrived everywhere yet....

not yet open for business

But the street vendors and political activists were out in force:

Beppe Grillo's 5 star movement collecting signatures

And the window boxes are blooming.

Then we ended a pleasant afternoon with a skype call with Kelly--she will meet us on Sardegna on May 8!  That will be a great vacation after finishing our language class.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Weekly update

Today's lesson;  The future in the past requires the conditional.  That sounds more existential than grammatical.  This week in school focused on the quarter-end test coming up in two weeks. You have to pass the test to get college credit (don't need that) and to pass on to the next level (we're leaving Perugia after this class), so we are not going to bother with the exam.  The rest of the class will be taking it and they are finally starting to ask questions in class and do the homework.  Today we also reviewed pronomi combinati (when you have both an indirect and a direct object pronoun or the invariable pronoun ne or the pronoun ci), which was great review for me--I still am horrible at them.  Tom has been studying away and is doing much better than I pronoun-wise.

Tom studying at the kitchen table

In class today the teacher did something really nice for me.  She asked me at the break how I was feeling and I told her I had a sinus infection but the university doctor was out of town so I hadn't been able to get a prescription.  After the break, she came in and handed me a box of augmentin--she went to the pharmacy across the street and told them she needed it and they handed it over without a prescription!  She wouldn't let me pay for it, so I am going to go shopping and find her a nice thank you gift on Via Vanucci this weekend.

The sun has come out in Perugia and it was a beautiful day today, with a great week-end predicted.  Anastasia and Natasha, who have become besties in class, spent a lot of their time hanging out the window and enjoying the sunset.

We took a little stroll, visited a museum or two, and Tom continued trying out his new camera on landscape shots.  We also enjoyed our customary delicious lunch at Ubu Re yesterday (class from 9 until 2--no lunch break--we reward ourselves with lunch out).  They recognize us now and we enjoy chatting with the owners who are also the cook and waitress.  We also tried a new restaurant this week (the only one open on Monday pretty much) and had fantastic pizza--actually only the 2nd time we have had pizza in Perugia.  Between class and planning our upcoming trip to Sardinia (with Miss Kelly!) that is about all there is to report from Italy.  Ciao a tutti!

Pottery from Deruta displayed for sale on the Cathedral steps--we bought 2 bowls and a butter dish.

Palazzo-muiseum near Cathedral

One of many, many ancient churches in the area

More pictures of Perugia and the Umbrian hillside