We have arrived!

Perugia, Umbria, Italia

I am so happy to tell you that we have arrived in Perugia. Apparently the Pope was dying as we were flying to our destination. The flight was filled with journalists who were hurrying to cover the story and we wondered how it might affect us. Very little is all I can say. The flight was uneventful. We watched movies and slept and arrived at 8am as planned. We put all our bags on those little carts and bought our tickets for the train to Perugia. We had some time to kill, wandered around the airport and bought snacks and lunch. We arrived in Perugia in the afternoon and were thrilled to find that the taxi was a station wagon and could hold all of our bags without any problems! It was evident that spring had finally arrived here as there was sign of trees beginning to bloom and the weather not so cold. The son of our landlord met us at the apartment and we were thrilled to be there! The apartment is not as "mini" as we had expected. When you walk in, there is one big room with dining table and couch/sofabed and in another area, is the kitchen. The ceilings are around 10 feet high with 7 foot windows so it feels very spacious. The separate bedroom has windows on both sides and two large pieces of furniture - the armoire that was in the photo plus a large dresser and two bedside tables with drawers. There is plenty of space under the bed for our suitcases and lots of other storage throughout the apartment. We are ecstatic!

The apartment is located on a quiet backstreet just off the main square. We enter through a locked gate (not the door we had expected) and there is a small private garden, complete with a little gazebo and a table & chairs, trees, a lawn and daffodils and other flowers and plants. The best part however, is that there is a set of stairs that leads to a larger more formal, private garden and at the end of that is the most fantastic view - This is the view that was in our Christmas letter and it is the most amazing thing to be standing there now looking at it in person. I had this image as the screensaver on my computer at work and now we can look at it any time we want to. We feel that we have arrived in heaven! There is also a nice wooden bench we can sit on and comtemplate the view.

We spent today relaxing and unpacking. We slept until noon! Then we went out to find an open-air market and bought a few fresh things to cook for tonight and some wonderful cheeses and fruit. Last night we found a local pizzeria and enjoyed a bottle of wine and a pizza, then wandered around centro and off to bed.

The adventure has begun and we thrilled to be here! We are doing this blogging at an internet cafe. Hopefully, next time we will be able to download some photos. We still have to see about getting the internet in our apartment, if that is possible, a cell phone and our permesso di sigourno and codice fiscale and simply making ourselves at home. There is no shortage of gelato and we plan on having our share when the weather is just a bit warmer!

Buona sera!
Keep in touch,
Rosemary & Bob