Roma, la città eterna

I'm still recovering from the busy weekend spent trekking from one end of Rome to the other. Anya and I caught the 8am bus, somewhat bemused by the typical Italian bunfight which results from their inability to queue in an orderly manner. However, we made it safely on board and then had the disconcerting realisation that we had not bought tickets yet. Having been earlier in the week to the ticket office to be told that you buy them on board, it seemed a little strange that the bus departed without any purchases being made. It all turned out in the end though when the bus pulled in at a blink-and-you-miss-it stop to collect the ticket seller, and finally the tickets were acquired.

Two and a half hours later we pulled into the spectacle that is the Stazione Tiburtina. It's not exactly the most elegant place in Rome, but I suppose bus terminals rarely are known for this. Our next mission was to use the Metropolitana to get to Termini, which was quickly accomplished. Our hotel was conveniently located in Via Napoli: the people were nice and it was clean but it felt like being stuck in a 60s timewarp ie dodgy decor. And the breakfast the next day was awful - very much on the cheap side. For future reference, the Hotel Corona will not be the first choice for a visit to Rome.

The sun was shining and the air was balmy, so off we set for a walk around the city - along the Via delle Quattro Fontane to the Trinità dei Monti, onwards to the Pincio, back to the Vittoriano on the way to the Fontana di Trevi and a lunch stop of pizza con broccoli from Pizza Planet, then on to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, the Campo dei Fiori and the statue with the turtles in the Jewish Quarter. All of this walking obviously necessitated stops for gelati and coffee which reinvigorated us for the walk to Piazza del Campidoglio, the Foro Romano and the Colosseum, complete with the usual guys dressed as gladiatori hassling the tourists for photos. Then it was time for a quick rest back in the hotel before dining on pasta and a visit to the Irish pub on Via Nazionale, packed with British ex-pats cheering on the Rugby 6 Nations competition - to their noisy delight, England beat France. Returning to the hotel to test out the hot water for a shower situation, I was pleasantly surprised, except that we had been allocated the room with the disabled bathroom which meant it was spacious, but there was also no shower screen to stop the water from going everywhere. Hmmm.....still, the water pressure was good.

Sunday dawned just as mild and sunny as Saturday had been, so much so that the coats were left behind along with the day packs. After the poor excuse of breakfast (hard bread, watered down orange juice, coffee in an urn!!!) we set off again in search of something tastier. Our first official stop was St Peter's, where the queue for the security check seemed ridiculously long but in the end was deceptively quick. As we walked around the hushed interior we discovered that a sung Latin mass was about to begin in the chapel behind the main altar so we decided to join in. It was quite an experience, complete with about 40 cardinals, monsignors etc helping to officiate, incense burning, ushers telling us to hurry up to Communion etc. By this stage we felt that we had seen enough of the interior but as we went outside, we discovered that the Papal Address was about to start. With a huge crowd packing the square, there was no point trying to leave in any event, so we stayed and listened to the various addresses in Italian, German, Spanish, French and English, met with cheers from the crowd which included a group of enthusiastic sbandieratori. As the people dispersed I was able to complete one of my missions by buying rosary beads so at least that's one thing off my list to do.

We then strolled along the Tevere towards the Trastevere district - I'd never been there before and it's gorgeous!!! Arty little shops, cute cafes, winding narrow streets, and in the middle, the oldest Christian church in Rome, complete with glittering mosaics. We wandered at leisure and finally wound our way back to the hotel to collect the bags for our return to the bus station, and ultimately Perugia. What a perfect weekend!!!!

Tripping around the country

Well, it's been a while since I updated this so I should probably do so. I've just tried to upload some photos without success - it's too tricky at internet cafes since you can't save anything and who knows what's actually on these computers anyway. So, it will just have to wait until my return to the UK.

Classes are going on as ever - some are great and some are dire. We still don't actually get to speak in Italian in class - we just listen, which is very frustrating. Lecturers have started giving us exam dates for the end of March but you get no recognition for them without doing the six month course. Hence, I don't think too many people are bothering to go through the hassle of them. Plus they're all orals which is ironic because we don't get to speak and practise in class. It's so typical.

Enough whinging though. I decided a couple of weeks ago now that I had to get a move on with my tripping around the country, as long as it wasn't raining/snowing/blowing a gale etc. My first jaunt was to a little town in Umbria called Marsciano, accompanied by three students in my class (Hannah, from Boston; Ambar from Ecuador and Anya from Belarus). We went to a Chagall exhibit in this tiny gallery, pottered around the town (that took 10 minutes) and then we went to have a snack in one of the cafes. It was a bit like being in a film since all the locals fell silent as we entered, as if they had never seen foreigners before. Quite entertaining really.

The next day, in beautiful sunshine, I headed off to Arezzo, armed with my trusty 'Lonely Planet' guide to Tuscany and Umbria. It's the home of Petrarch (along with Dante, he's one of the fathers of the Italian language) and Roberto Benigni, so you can see stills from La vita è bella around the town. I walked around the city, checked out the main squares, the Medici fortress, looked in antique shop windows and gazed at the Piero della Francesca fresco cycle of the Legend of the True Cross in the church of San Francesco. It was amazing. By this time, understandably, I was in need of caffeine and luckily I found the perfect cafe, where I could sit and flick through a magazine while I imbibed - just like at home!!! It's funny the simple things that you miss from home....then it was time to head back to Perugia and plan the next adventure.

The following day (Sunday) I headed back to Florence with Anya to act as her tour guide, since she had never been there before. To get to the station I decided to try out the new Minimetro which opened on my birthday after five years of construction and a completely expected budget blowout. It's an above ground light railway which feels a bit like being on a rollercoaster. As it was relatively early on Sunday morning I even got a little carriage all to myself - travelling in style! Arriving in Florence, the sun was shining once again as we strolled around the main attractions of the city - past the Duomo, Campanile and Battistero, Piazza della Signoria, a restorative latte macchiato at Gilli, the Ponte Vecchio, the markets, lunch at Donnini, up to Piazzale Michelangelo to savour the view, Santa Croce....the usual. After a day of trekking around, it was time to return to Perugia and prepare for the week ahead. Homework!?!

The next week passed in a bit of a blur. We went to see Love in the time of cholera at the cinema Pavone, which used to be an opera house and you can still choose to view your film from the individual boxes. So of course we did. Then we went to the launch of a novel by a friend of Hannah's and made the local RAI news as the camera panned around the room at Feltrinelli. The rest of the time was spent with the usual classes, coffee breaks etc. Then, last Saturday I went to Spello with Anya for a walk around. There's an exhibition of works by the painter Pinturicchio on here at the moment to celebrate his 500th anniversary and in association with the big show at the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria here in Perugia you can see his works in other towns. Spello has two churches which feature his work. The bigger of the two was previously free to view, but because of the exhibition, they've put up a wall to block it off, and you have to pay five euro to see it. We declined, went next door and saw the other fresco for free - a much better deal! We also picked up a map of an 8km walk from Spello to Assisi (as mentioned in the LP) so we are going to do that another day, had a coffee, wandered some more and then headed back to Perugia, mis-timing our return unfortunately to coincide with the Italian teenagers getting out of school for the day. As you can imagine, the train ride was ever so slightly less enjoyable because of this.

So that's about it. I'm over half way through the course already and time is flying. This weekend I'm off to Rome to act as tour guide once again for Anya. This way I get to revisit all of my favourite places...and I'll definitely be having broccoli pizza when I'm there. Yummo!!!!! Ciao for now...