Umbria Field Trip

Perugia

Last night we got back to Rome after an amazing weekend in Umbria. We left on Friday morning, and visited Spoleto for the afternoon, then Perugia for a day, then off to Assisi for the rest of the weekend.Spoleto was very entertaining for the few hours we where there, especially the aqueduct. We poured water over the edge and watched it fall for a long time. We also took an escalator system all the way back down to the train, it was defiantly something we had yet to see in Italy. We got into Perugia at nighttime, and went to find a restaurant that had the soccer game (Germany vs Greece) on the TV. It was a great dinner because the food was amazing and Germany won by a landslide! Perugia was also nice because it had a great night life of people around our age, so it was fun to sit in the Piazza and hang out for awhile. Perugia has a lot to offer, beautiful churches, underground areas, and some good non touristy shopping including an antique market. They also had a neat transit train that brought you up into the historical town. Assisi was much more calm than Perugia, but also more relaxing. We attempted twice to make the 'hike' up to the meditation space up the hill, once at night and we turned around because we didn't think we were going the right direction, and the next day because it was getting too hot, and we needed to go check out of our hotel. While we were in Perugia I spent quite a bit of time sketching, and I really enjoyed sketching the Basilica of Saint Francis the best. It took a chuck of time, and awhile to lay everything out, but it was well worth it. There is just so much going on with that church (domes, arches, rose windows, buttresses, etc) it becomes very entertaining, especially once you begin to shade. Overall I think it was a very nice weekend, and I would love to go back someday. The architecture and the layout of the city was something I really found appealing, especially the materiality of the buildings.