Primavera dell’artigianato

Today was wonderful. We had planned to take the number 87 bus to a little town just outside Perugia called Corciano. According to the brochure we picked up at the Information office here, there was to be a “Mercato Medievale” a festival of arts and crafts, with the artisans dressed in medieval costumes and demonstrating their crafts. The very kind man at the bus station informed us that the number 87 bus does not run on Sundays but that we could take the number 9 which would leave us around 3 kilometers away from Corciano and we could then walk the rest of the way. We thought about it for a few minutes and decided to give it a try. The walk was a gentle uphill slope, very easy with lots of beautiful scenery and lovely homes along the way and within around 40 minutes we were heading into Corciano. I even found a bench along the road with a beautiful view of the city and spent about an hour lost in my sketching and painting. Bob took some photos, then settled down and read his book while I finished my sketch.

The town of Corciano, referred to as a “hamlet” is one of the prettiest little towns we have seen. It reminded us of Cortona, with the soft golden stones, the stained-wood doors and shutters and all the flowers spilling out of window boxes, along staircases and walks leading up to the houses. There is a tower and a church and all the twisty, turny streets we love so much. We wandered around, enjoying the exhibits – sort of like a Renaissance festival with the artisans spinning silk, doing calligraphy like the monks of old, demonstrating weaving and lace making, and another group showing how ropes were made with a complicated arrangement of laying strands of cotton back and forth from one side of the piazza to the other, 4 separate groups of thick threads and then turning the cranks on both sides to twist the whole affair into a single strand of rope. We bought a plaque that had been made in a mold of the goddess of fortune with the word “Fortuna” carved into it.

We had lunch in a restaurant called “Ristorante dell Convento (in a converted Convent), spending too much time and money and then wandered back into the streets to see what else was going on. By then the crowds had thinned and the sky was growing darker so we decided we had better head home. Keeping our fingers crossed that we wouldn’t get caught in the rain before we got back to our bus stop and we were fortunate that it didn’t (I guess our little plaque was doing its work for us!) We waited a short while for the bus and met some teenagers who were having a little weekend in Perugia and talked with them, answering their questions about Centro Storico (the historic center of Perugia where we live and where apparently now we can give some advice about!)

We just finished our dinner – I cooked chicken cacciatore with fresh asparagus and we drank a glass of red wine. All in all a very satisfying day.

Buona sera,
Rosemary & Bob