Student Bloggers
Perugia Bella!
Date
January 12, 2015
So I have been in Italy for about a week now. Perugia is a city as beautiful as it is ancient; with cobblestone streets, chocolate shops older than my hometown, and the most stunning hillside views at sunset. Wandering around, you feel as if you are in a magic place, where everything is wonderful and nothing can go wrong.
However, everyone makes mistakes. For example, my roommate learned the hard way that 'bon giorno' is a greeting only used in the morning, and certainly not at 8:30pm. On holidays, everything is closed save for a few aperitivo spots or mercados so you will walk around hungry for a couple hours until you find anything.
Umbra is really great about helping out with these things though. One of the first things you do is go on a practical walking tour of the city with a guide to show you where different shops are, where you can get bus tickets, how to get to different university buildings and the best restaurants in town. They also gave a very instructional safety talk with a police sergeant from Florence. We have four days of intensive Italian language classes and trust me, they are intense! However I now feel like I can go into a café or ristorante and order intelligently and without just pointing at different things. I even elected to change to a more intense Italian class for the rest of the semester so I can more fully develop my language skills.
So far, here are some favorite things about Perugia. The espresso is so amazing, and quite reasonably priced. Every time you order food, you won’t be disappointed. We ordered panini (the singular is panino) at a local place and they cut the prosciutto right in front of us, and topped it with a drizzle of olive oil and spices. So delicious. Aperitivo’s are amazing. You pay for a drink and get a buffet of seriously great food like pizza, pasta, rice, meats, cheese and more. Molto economico, as my Italian professor would say. And everywhere you walk, you enjoy the sights of buildings and streets rich with history with food places on every corner. It’s a feeling like no other.
Next week I will start my regular classes at Umbra, which I am ecstatic about. I get to study Food and Culture in Italy, the Business of Wine, Sustainable Agriculture in Italy and of course Italian language. It’s a dream come true!
Until next time, ciao!