Assisi & Perugia

Early Saturday morning (2/12/11) I woke up to catch our group bus to Assisi & Perugia. We had our first "Cultural Introduction to Italy" class field trip. We began after about a 3 hour bus ride to Assisi where we had a guided tour of the S. Francis's Basilica. The Basilica is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Order of Friars Minor, commonly known as the Franciscan Order, in Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis. Being the burial place of St. Francis himself, the basilica is one of the most important places of Christian pilgrimage in Italy. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside the basilica, but I have some of the outside. The basilica consisted of two churches one built upon the other. Both were beautiful, but extremely different with the under church dark and covered in frescos. The upper church was filled with light coming through stained glass, frescos depicting his life and high ceilings, unlike the lower church with low roman arches. After our tour we had free time to eat lunch and discover the rest of the small town of Assisi built upon a mountain.

On our way to Perugia we stopped about 10 min down from Assisi to look inside the church where St. Francis originally began preaching. After walking inside you are able to see that the current church is built around the original church that still stands. It felt almost as if we were walking back in time passing through the doors of the original church after learning about St. Francis and the history of his life and Order. On a side note our teacher kept getting yelled at by the volunteers throughout the church while she tried to tell us about everything. After finishing our mini tour with our teacher we got back on the bus to head to Perugia in the Umbria region of Italy.

After arriving in Perugia we were all checked into our hotel (just before 5). While two of my roommates (not my roommates from my apt. these girls are from my cultural class) went out and explored the town of Perugia my other roommate and I opted to take a short nap after the long day. After an hour and a half they came back and we decided to find a place to eat. Walking around the small city did not take long and so we came upon a restaurant that we ended up loving (but really how could any restaurant be bad in Italia - if it is Italian). My friend Mary and I shared made to order risotto (amazing) and a huge pizza who's edges were falling off the side of the plate. After dinner we walked through the main piazza, which was filled with young Italians (Perugia being known as a young college city). After finding gelato most of us retired to the room after the long day.

The next morning we again were guided by our teacher throughout the city of Perugia. We went to and  through all the main sites of Perugia including the monumental center, Piazza IV Novembre, the Fontana Maggiore, Cattedrale di San Lorenzo, and my favorite the underground Etruscan fortress "Rocca Paolina". Rocca Paolina was built in 1540 when Perugia (the last free city in Italy) was defeated in the Salt War. Pope Paul III commissioned the fortess by destroying over a hundred houses as well as churches and monasteries to be used as building materials. It showed the Roman papal power and was used to house the fryers. Perugia is also known for its famous confectionery company, which produces "Baci" chocolate "kisses" that are filled with hazelnut and then wrapped in a multilingual love note. Our teacher bought us all the famous chocolate after our walk through the city. After our tour we walked to our pre planned (part of the class) traditional Italian lunch.

The traditional Italian lunch was served family style to us at tables of 6 or more and consisted of vino rosso, antipasti (breads with tomato, cheese, and mushrooms), primi piatti (two kinds pasta 1. cream and sausage -more like a ground beef not actually sausage- penne (favorite) , 2. a fettucini with tomato sauce), secondi piatti (three kinds of meat 1. turkey 2. chicken (favorite) 3. lamb), and a salad which I am sure had more bread in it than lettuce. After we had dolce (dessert) a cake with a small shot glass of vino dolce. Overall I was very full and satisfied with the amazing food.

We then boarded the bus and headed to a wine tasting in Torgiano at the Cantine Lungarotti. Here we tried two the of Lungarotti wines (one bianco, one rosso). Along with the wine we learned about ages, grapes and even some paring tips. By the end I was ready to head back to Florence filled with food and wine I fell asleep on the ride 3 hour ride home.