Pouring rain and good luck charms

---

Day 14 Perugia

Every hilltown has a different layout. Trevi was straight up the side of a hill; Spoleto was surrounded by a valley; Montefalco was at the end of a ridge. Perugia is on the top of several hills: a central one that has been inhabited for more than 2000 years, and slightly lower ones that have been built upon later. We are staying on one of the lower hills, just outside the Etruscan walls.

After a very quiet night, we woke up to dark, cloudy skies, and rain by the time we went to breakfast. The hotel has free van service to the town center, and since it was pouring, we decided to take it. The desk personnel called up the very surly driver who dropped us and a Dutch couple off at....who knows? We certainly didn't and the people waiting there couldn't locate the spot on our maps...the rain was getting worse....The day was certainly starting out badly...wet and frustrated, we decided to take the covered pedestrian passage even though we were trying to get to the Archeological Museum in the other direction. At the top of the combo walkway, elevator, and stairs, we were in a market area. A few more passageways, and then into a piazza we recognized, and a tourist office, where the Dutch couple had also landed.

We found out that the museum was open, and that it was short walk down the hill. The rain had let up..we made it there without a hitch, and spent a delightful couple of hours in the former monastery looking at Etruscan and Roman artifacts, and a collection of talismans and good luck charms from a range of many centuries and cultures. I think the charms worked since the rest of the afternoon went so well!

We left the museums, hoping to see one of the giant archways through the city walls, on our way back into the center. We didn't see it right away, and it began to pour again...we ran up a side street...there was the "door" and it was open. We ducked inside and found ourselves alone in a massive underground web of arched passageways and rooms. As we walked on, there were more and more people, and we realized that we were near one of the underground escalators, and were shortly back up on one of the main streets.

I had found the name of a good pizza place in the guidebook and in tripadvisor, and we decided to look for it. We negociated the streets as if we were locals, and got there in no time. The pizza was good, but not great...(Well, when the benchmark is my own with freshly ground flour in the dough and Pagliacci's....). We then walked back to the acqueduct street, and up to another gate, always ending up exactly where we wanted. We decided to look for the Roman mosaics that are inside the Mathematics and Science building in the university, and randomly walked into the site from the street!

Finally as we were walking home, I told Bill that I had read about a really good chocolate and gelato shop on our route, but hadn't seen it the day before...and....there it was in front of us....yum!

We will stay here another night since it is supposed to be even wetter tomorrow. We will rent a car and head south to Sicily on Wednesday, taking our time to get there.

Day 15 Perugia

We woke up to rain again. We did some trip planning, and set out for town. After about 15 minutes of walking, it really started to pour. We sheltered in an ancient archway near the statue of some saint's pig (???). Bill decided to head back to the hotel, while I continued on. I visited the 3rd century BC Etruscan Well, 36 meters deep, and used in WWII as a water source. The sun came out so I went back and fetched Bill, and we headed up the hill again.

We wanted to see the money changers' rooms. They have great frescoes and we thought they had free admission. We finally found the entrance, but it was 4.50 euros to go in. The ticket office was in an amazing room, full of brightly colored frescoes. Bill didn't want to pay, but I decide to go in....and found that there were only 2 other tiny rooms which took about three minutes to see. I asked for a refund, to no avail....

Next was the old lawyers hall (free), the Cathredral, and then a stroll looking for some place open to eat. We are off the Italian schedule for meals since we eat a big breakfast and then want dinner around 5:00pm. We didn't find anything open, so walked back in the direction of our hotel, stopping for gelato again, (My idea, of course). Bill had spotted a small tratorria yesterday, near our hotel. It appeared to be sort of open (a few lights on, an old man buying a slice of something from the deli case...). We went in and asked if we could eat...the owner had us sit down, after he locked the doors, and made us a delicious dinner himself.

Mauro, whose 70 year old parents actually own the shop, fell in love with sailing at the age of 15, and works in the shop to earn money to sail. He runs a charter service in Aegean every spring. He made us pasta and stuffed artichokes. A delightful evening....

---

Photos

God as Merlin
This painting looks 3D..inside the cathedral, Perugia.

Mist coming in towards Perugia
We had beautiful views from all the windows in the archeological museum.

Underground
Too little light for a good photo, but this gives you an idea of what we ducked into to get out of the rain...

Floor of Roman baths in University building
This is right in the middle of the building. There was a mathematics lecture in a room next to us...

The Etruscan Gate
We walk through or past this going to our hotel. The bus gives you a sense of the massiveness of the walls.

Looking down the well
It is very wet inside...there are several spring still feeding it...

Tower in the clouds
This is the largest church in Perugia, and is next the archeological museum.

Dinner
This restaurant was opened in 1962 and the decor hasn't been changed...our wonderful host Mauro, is in the kitchen, behind Bill.