Nostro primo pranzo nella Perugia

I'm in Italy!

For the next month, I'm going to be using this space not for its normal purpose, describing my attempt to be a foodie in Spokane, and instead talk about my trip.  Of course, me remaining me, even in Italy, I will still be talking a lot about food.  Because, man oh man, do Italians know how to eat!

Yesterday was either a very long day, or two very short days, neither of which contained any sleep, depending on which way you looked at it.  We left our house in the capable hands of Alissa and Amy a little before ten in the morning, when Heather took us to the airport.  Funny -- the most trouble we had with people during our entire trip occurred in the Spokane airport, where the Horizon clerks announced that we had an "illegal" lay-over in Seattle (really, there's a law about the length of lay-over?  Seems doubtful to me), and that our bags probably wouldn't make it to Rome, and that the airline wouldn't pay for our bags to find us, and that we should probably just reschedule the whole thing.  We did not follow their advice.  

Our plane from Spokane to Seattle was slightly delayed, and our plane from Paris to Rome was slightly delayed, and it took forever for our bags to come out of the carousel (which they did, eventually, just fine), and we got hopelessly lost inside the gigantic Roma Termini train station, which meant that we missed the quick, direct train from Rome to Perugia, and had to take a much slower regionale, with a transfer in a small town called Terontola.  We had an hour wait between trains, and were worried that we wouldn't be able to find an open supermarket once we were in Perugia (or would be too tired to even try), so I left Jeremy with the bags and headed out into the town looking for transportable food.  I found a small grocery attached to a butcher advertising "sopprasseta nostri produzioni" (of our own making) in the window, so in I ventured.  I asked about the sopprasseta, expecting to find a salami-like product, only to be pointed to some enormous headcheese looking thing with lumps of fat the size of my ear.  On a different day, I would have been game, but after being awake for going on thirty-six hours of continuous traveling, I was not looking for a food adventure.  I was looking for comfort food.  I managed to buy some coppacola, some pecorino staggione (which, turns out, is in between fresh and aged), and some bread, and made it back to the station before Jeremy had time to get nervous.  I think this was all rather brave of me, considering how little Italian I know and how no English anyone in Terontola seemed to speak.

We ended up arriving in Perugia just in time for a magnificent sunset, negotiated the local bus system and found our apartment all surprisingly easily, especially given how punchy we were from lack of sleep.  Our apartment is beautiful, and Anna, our landlord, was waiting to greet us and give us a tour.  I can't believe how enormous it is -- twice the size of the place we had in Florence!  It's on a quiet side street maybe two blocks from Piazza Italia, one of the main squares in town and home to an outdoor antique fair, at least on the weekends.  There are some problems:  one of the beds has a mattress apparently made of wood.  There is a full tub and shower, but no curtain, so how to use the shower without soaking the entire bathroom (which is plaster walled, and hence not meant to be a shower stall, as many Italian bathrooms are) is something of a mystery.  The internet connection is very slow, which is a big problem for Jeremy, who needs to be able to do some work here.  And, the stove has very, very little juice, which is a problem for me.  It took me 45 minutes to boil water for pasta!  These issues seemed almost overwhelming last night, but today, after ten hours of sleep, they seem small and manageable.

Grocery shopping in Italy is both a joy and a set of challenges.  One of them is that supermarkets are not open on Sundays, or particularly late into the evenings.  We were very happy and lucky to hear from Anna that there was a Despar open until eight on Saturdays within a close walk, so we decided to go buy a little food there.  We didn't have it in us for a full, restaurant meal, and we knew that we might have trouble finding food on Sunday, so it seemed prudent.  We found the place easily enough (Perugia seems much easier to negotiate than Florence so far), and found it packed with people.  Specifically with young people.  All buying beer.  So, apparently, a college town in Italy is a lot like a college town in America!  We ended up with some fresh tortellini, splurged on some good olive oil, and bought breakfast cereal and milk.  I realize that this is going to sound strange, but we are both really excited to be able to buy Special K here.  The Special K one can buy in Italy is not like the Special K in the states.  It is more substantial, more roasted, I think it has more whole wheat in it, and is just altogether more delicious. 

Jeremy and I both slept soundly and long (with the help of some Nyquil capsules, just to make sure we got a full night's worth of sleep even when our bodies thought we were getting a full day's worth).  This morning, we had our Special K and headed out to explore the town a little.  There's a cute bar around the corner from us where we had coffee while the Italians around us had there after church beer.  Really -- all of them were drinking beer at noon on Sunday.  Even the little old ladies.  I think I even saw a dog with a bottle of Moretti.  We walked the streets, found our school for tomorrow morning, saw some views, and tried to get the lay of the immediate land.  It is incredibly beautiful here.  Perugia is a hill town, although not one on a particularly high or precipitous hill, unlike Montalcino or Montepuciano (the other hill towns I've been to).  The city walls are intact, and the old town is wonderfully old, with lots of tiny, enclosed streets and lots of big, open piazze.  It feels like a bustling young college town blended with an ancient fortress, which a) is exactly what it is and b) is exactly what I was hoping for.  

After our walk, which was cut short by a thunderstorm, we came back to the apartment for our first lunch, comprised of the cheese and meat and bread I had so bravely bought yesterday.  It tasted mighty good.  Tonight, dinner out.  Tomorrow, our first day of class.  Now, I think I might be ready for a little nap . . .