Umbria!

Another great weekend trip!! The adventure this weekend included three different and great cities! The first train ride brought us to Spoleto. It was nice to get out of Rome and see a different part of Italy. The hill sides were amazingly beautiful and the towns that climb to the hilltops are just as picturesque. The streets of Spoleto were surprisingly quiet as we took a walking tour of the city carrying our backpacks on our backs. On the back side the hill there is a huge aquaduct bridge spanning the distance between hills. On the way down from the hill we used a people moving system ( a series of escalators) back down the hill and into town.

 Another train ride brought us to Perugia. Perugia as a city had a very different feel. The location of the university there meant the streets were full of young people day and night. The most interesting part of this city were the ancient roads that had been filled in and covered to provide the base for the palace foundations. It was so cool going down into what are now walled in passageways with barrel vault ceilings. Perugia had a lot of modern sculpture inserted into different parts of the city and this was the most successful modern insertion. There were roads that ran all the way down to the bottom of the city as well as empty rooms off the main asiles. The main roadway had been converted to a people moving system for a way to get around the city. The escalators and signage made the undergroud passageways usable for not only the tourists but also the people who live in Perugia in a way that wasnt obtrusive to the history that was there.

 After one night in Perugia we left for Assisi. A short, hot train ride later and we arrived in a mideval looking town. The buildings in Assisi have been stripped of all the stucco that usually decorates facades, leaving the stone exposed. The long, hard life of these buildings was made obvious by walls that have begun to bow outward under weight and weather which are now held in place by steel tension wires that connect to the outside of the exterior walls. Assisi is the city of origin for the Francescian order as well as the birth place of St. Francis. The quiet town has accepted its role as a peaceful city and now is home to many relics from the saint as well as Staint Claire. We spent two nights here in a hotel room that opened onto a courtyard which helped make mornings gloriously cool compared to the hot days that we are used to. On the second night that we were there we walked up to the castle on the hill above the city to watch the sunset. From there we had a view of the valley, surrounding hillsides, and all the towns dotting here and there throughout the landscape. The sunset was beautiful and the picnic was delicious. My favorite part of the trip came after the sunset when a group of us went to watch the Italia vs. England game. We stopped at a little gelataria with a tv and about six Italian boys decked out in blue jerseys. We joined in on there cheering and when Italy won the shoot out everyone went crazy. It was a great weekend trip but I am happy to be back in the city that feels like home.