Almost a month gone already!

It's hard to believe that tomorrow I begin my fourth week of lectures etc already. Time is flying and settling into a kind of routine which is based firstly around contact hours, followed by which cafe I should go to next. It's a hard life! Still, as we are all getting used to the different lecturers, it's also becoming much clearer which ones are good and which ones are not so good. Hmmm.....

Anyway, yesterday was beautiful - clear, sunny and mild, with not a cloud in the sky or even a whisp of fog. (For about a week Perugia was so shrouded in fog you couldn't see from the fountain to the Palazzo dei Priori). I decided to hop on a bus for a jaunt to Gubbio, accompanied as it turned out by an Argentinian student from my class and a Chilean friend of hers, a group of your typical American college kids and another group of loud Spanish guys who clearly assumed that their friends were all deficient in their hearing and therefore required being yelled at for the entire hour long bus ride. I concentrated on the view as we wound our way up and over some pretty steep inclines, over some of the Appenines - not perhaps the ideal bus trip for Rocco then!

Gubbio itself is tiny but rather pretty, dominated by the Palazzo dei Consoli half way up the hill. Of course, I arrived more or less as things were winding down for the siesta, but I had also expected there to be more shops etc than there were. Oh well....I wandered for an hour or so in the sunshine and checked out the Funivia which takes you to the top of the mountain into the side of which Gubbio has attached itself over the centuries. My LP guide says that you'd never forget the ride to the top, as you are basically bundled into these little open metal cages where you must stand precisely on the cross in the middle as you are whisked up at rather an alarming speed. Watching these birdcages (all empty I might add) made me think that perhaps it wasn't such a great idea after all, even though I'm usually okay with heights, so I backtracked to the main square instead. I did find out afterwards that the Argentinian had braved it, but her Chilean friend said she was loco and stayed below. Instead, I went for a look inside the Palazzo dei Consoli to check out the Eugubian Stones, like the Rosetta Stone but these record the Etruscan language - 8 bronze plates in total. We had learnt about them in my Storia della Lingua class so it was good to see them up close. Apparently they tell of the intricate rules pertaining to the 'reading' of the organs of sacrificial animals, particularly the liver since that was considered the seat of life, and the scratching, pecking and calling behaviour of different birds as these were also portents of how the gods were considering various actions. If the signs weren't good, then there were yet more rituals which had to take place to appease them. The palazzo also holds a collection of Gubbian art on the top floor so I pottered around there too, and then discovered that I could get out onto the upstairs loggia for a fantastic view out over the town and surrounding area. It was nice there!! The new series of 'Don Matteo', about the priest who always manages to solve crimes before the carabinieri do in the surprisingly crime-ravaged town, is on tv here now. The scenery is rather beautiful and many of the town's squares and streets can be identified, but the lead actor is too blond and blue-eyed to look like he fits in, plus his name in Terence Hill which just adds to the weirdness (although apparently he is Italian). If you watch it on SBS you'll see what I mean.

By this time it was getting close to the departure time of the bus back to Perugia. I met up with the two students again and we were all happily chatting away, waiting nicely for the bus, when suddenly it pulled out from behind the bus next to where we were standing and took off without us. It must have snuck up when we weren't watching because none of us had even seen it arrive. Typical!!! So, after another wait of 2 hours and 15 minutes (another wander around the town, a long coffee stop etc) we finally managed to get on the next bus, tragically with those same Spanish guys - luckily the two Spanish-speaking students gave them a few scary glares and they wisely were quiet for most of the journey. Another lesson learnt about the vagaries of Italian transport, and I guess I won't forget Gubbio in a hurry!

A casa, a Perugia!

Saluti!

Well, it's been a while so I thought I really should sort out some news about life here in the green heart of Italy. And, yes, one of these days I'll be emboldened enough to try and load up some of the multitude of photos so you can see what I'm talking about...but not today.

A quick up date about my classes. Three days a week my first class begins at 8am which is rather a shock. On the other two days I manage to start at a more reasonable 9am and 10 am respectively. A short day only has five contact hours, while a long one crams in eight. No wonder my brain gets a little frazzled! I have lectures in both contemporary and classic literature, Italian cinema, linguistics, medieval art as well as medieval history, and the history of the Italian language. So, swilling around my brain are dates about the fall of the Roman Empire, the goths, vandals and other assorted barbarians, classic greek-inspired statues, latin declensions, snippets of the Risorgimento and of course, exercises in Italian language. All of the lecturers seem nice, although the language one is so scary I had to go and invest in a grammar book just so that I have something behind which I can hide. I tell you, it's language study even more precise than I've ever done in English, let alone Italian. Still, I can't deny that I'm learning a lot!!! And I only have to stagger down the hill to Gallenga each day which is a clear advantage, rather than the trek to Prosciutti.

Most things here are reassuringly the same - like Deearna famously said, it's full of Italians here, the coffee is still good and cheap, as soon as the sun comes out people flock to the Cathedral steps, you have to watch where you walk to avoid unwanted souvenirs from all of the dogs, everyone still smokes like chimneys (but still not indoors - that law actually worked!), they still drive whilst talking on their mobiles (scary when one is on a bus going up or down Perugia's winding streets), and everything still pretty much closes down over lunch. So, life goes on....I'm off for a passeggiata.

Saluti da Perugia

Just a quick post to say that all is well here - I've done most of the paperwork and my first class starts at 8am tomorrow.I'll have to do an update when things settle a bit more.

Some things in Perugia are still the same - frustrating lines at the Student Office at the Uni, sales on at Donna Piu', Benetton and Segue (which make me think of the 3 CWs), good coffee at all of the favourite haunts - not that I have tried them all yet, but I will soon! Perugina signs everywhere, the beautiful view from the gardens near Piazza Italia towards Assisi, the Carousel near the Coop - but no ferris wheel....it's nice here. I'll just have to sort out how to load on some pics and all will be well.

A presto!

I Tre Magi, la Befana and a spot of shopping

Saluti da Firenze!

Well, the blog was a good idea at the time but as usual with my correspondance I've been a bit lax. I've had a busy time since my first post, mostly just pottering about Bocken over the Christmas/New Year period and revisiting old haunts like Great Missenden, Amersham, Chesham and Beaconsfield. Plus Pud and I have been trampling over the fields each day reaquainting ourselves with the different rights of way.

Christmas was the usual over indulgence, including brandy butter and rest of the festive trappings. No sooner does lunch finish when it's time for tea, and then supper. Hilary bought an entire round of Stilton so Dad would have been in his element. Two days after Christmas Bob and Liz came up for dinner, bringing with them a bottle of 1987 Grange so I finally got to try it - and it was good!!! Seeing in the new year involved watching the entire adaptation of 'Pride and Prejudice' (all 6 hours of it so we didn't finish it until 4am!!). Having scarcely retired for the night, I then jumped on a train and headed into central London to meet up with Rubee who was staying with her cousin Kate in Cambridge. We spent the day just strolling really, after observing but soon tiring of the annual London Parade. The incongruous sight of a gaggle of cheerleaders chanting 'Happy New Year' was just too much to bear.

January 3 was the Ritz Experience - completely over the top in the gilt mirrored restaurant overlooking Green Park. Luckily Romie provided me with suitable clothing for the event. I had a champagne cocktail to begin, then game terrine with vegetables a` la grecque and truffle brioche (I'm afraid I avoided the truffle part), then stuffed saddle of lamb with spring vegetables (absolutely divine, and a 'Ritz Classic') accompanied by Chilean merlot. Bruce managed to avoid ordering a 1996 bottle of Grange for 500 quids!!! Dessert was a 'Frivolity of Chocolate', followed by coffee and a selection of friandises. It was delicious!!! Margaret Thatcher was lunching but she was the only famous person we spotted. I managed to snap one photo in the foyer but was told off by one of the flunkeys for breaking the hotel's 'No camera policy'. Oh well, I took one snap at least, which I will load on once I have recovered from my technophobia.

My last day at Bocken was spent taking Pud for one last walk before I tackled the nightmare of packing. Needless to say, and quite inexplicably, my gear didn't fit even though I hadn't bought anything new. Hence, a repacking once I got to Romie's that night was essential, with some things to go back to Bocken, but at least it all went in! Still, it's a scary thought if I'm having luggage issues at the start of a trip - or perhaps I'll be investing in Italian Post before I leave. Hilary and I then went in to Leicester Square to see 'Atonement' before it finished. It was very good and the cinema where we saw it was this tiny little studio cinema which only held about 50 people at the most. Another strange observation I made was the number of beer ads prior to the screening, alternated with really graphic ads for drink driving and sensible alcoholic consumption. Strange!

My easyJet flight to Pisa was uneventful once we got in the air. I had a slight panic getting from Turnham Green Terrace to Victoria because a signal fault at Gloucester Road meant a big backlog of trains, but I got there eventually. At half the price of the Gatwick Express, Southern Trains were a much better option too. There's a new and ridiculous rule about taking only one bag on the plane with you from the UK - after clearing Check in etc everyone ignores this with their sacks of duty free etc. I gather that there have been so many complaints that the rule is soon to change. The free seating allocation method employed by easyJet was also clearly destined to be a disaster with a full plane load of Italians whose ability to follow instructions is non-existent. I waited for the scrum to pass before I boarded, and of course, the whole thing was repeated on arrival, except that we had to take a bus to the terminal which had to wait for all of the passengers anyway. Just crazy!!!

After all of these trials and tribulations, I finally met Rubee who was already ensconced in the rather charming Hotel Gallileo. It's nice there!!!! We didn't really do much due to being in holiday mode as well as having to cope with the persistent and annoying drizzle. The usual things - strolling the streets, indulging in coffee (me) and the odd gelato, checking out the markets and Christmas lights, the people dressed in befana and medieval costumes for the parade in honour of the Three Kings, eating too much....like I said, the usual. Besides being alternatively amused and annoyed by loud and ignorant American tourists, that is. After all, what makes noodles green??? And why can't they order a plate of vegetables with tomato sauce on the side?? Or insisting on having each item on the menu explained to them, even though it was already all listed in English! Strange! The poor waiters actually displayed surprising patience.

Rubee has once again departed for Madrid, and my adventure in Perugia awaits. A presto!