Hilltowns

We all just got back from our trip through hilltowns in Umbria. We visited Foligno, and stayed in Assisi and Perugia. Foligno was cute, and Perugia was a mid-sized college town, but Assisi was beautiful. We stayed in a quiet little hotel just downhill from the big castle. The locals were nice, and it was great to get away from the crowds and the heat of Rome.

On Saturday we visited several churches, including San Francesco and Santa Chiara, the burial places of St. Francis, and St. Claire, respectively. I did a little hiking in the afternoon and painted the view from the smaller castle in Assisi.

While I was painting, men kept coming in and out of the courtyard where they were preparing for a party. They managed to cobble together enough English to talk me into coming and seeing "il cow." Sure enough, there was a whole cow roasting on a spit.

Apparently, every two years the town throws a big party, and this was the first time the party was to be held in the castle courtyard, as the castle had only been recently retrofitted. They all insisted that I attend the party (15 euro, but hey, it smelled great) and I had a great time. The upstanding men of the community all were dressed in medieval costumes and carried food to us on big planks. There was an Italian band doing covers of American songs, which was entertaining, and the courtyard was lit with torches. I struggled to converse with my table partners, as my Italian isn't extensive enough for any conversations longer than 2 minutes. But they were patient, and I worked at it and we all had a good time laughing at my struggles to eat the food properly (turns out you have to peel the salami before you eat it). It was great to get a chance to see the local people hanging out and having a good time.

The next day, we took off for Perugia, which is also an interesting town, but we all were pretty bummed to be leaving Assisi. I got a really successful watercolor, and learned the Italian names for colors from a huge group of schoolchildren who were touring the city, summer camp style. They were very impressed with my painting and the fact that I spoke some Spanish, and thought it was great fun to teach me.

On Monday, we took off in the direction of Orvieto, but were stymied by the train strike, which had flared up again, unexpectedly. We spent a couple hours cooling our heels at the Terontola train station, playing cards, comparing sketches, and photographing each other. We finally caught a sweltering train back to Rome, aka Christmastown, and squelched back to our apartments. Since then we've been devising ways to avoid the heat of the day, and enjoying Rome at night, when everybody comes out of hiding.

Kirsten and I visited Ara Pacis today, Richard Meier's new building in Rome. Unfortunately, they're still putting the finishing touches on it, so we could only circle it, and enjoy the air conditioning pouring out of the open doors. I also splashed my feet in the fountain a little, but Kirsten disapproved, so I desisted. It simply doesn't do to embarrass one's traveling companions.