Busy Socializing and Having Guests!

6 Guigno 2005
We are now into our 3rd month in Perugia! Hard to believe, the time has gone by so quickly. And yet it seems like such a long time ago since we waved goodbye to John and Sally as we drove away from their home in Encanto, in Phoenix, leaving our life in Arizona behind and heading across country.

Last week we finished our classes at the University and have spent this past week doing a whole lot of nothing! On Saturday we got on the bus to try to find a Strawberry festival, only to get to the town of Marsciano to find that it wasn’t actually in Marsciano, but in a town within the area. We stopped in a rosticceria and realized it was the same town that Art and Barb brought us to several weeks ago, which is not far from their little village of San Venanzo. So we gave them a call and they decided to come and meet us there and the four of us spent the afternoon wandering around, stopping in Todi to see a little festival there. We tasted wines and cheeses and watching an artist create wine labels using his etchings and a small press, staining the edges of the paper with red wine, printing on his handmade papers. We were so enthralled we watched the entire process. He was very friendly and delighted that we were interested, he gave us a gift of a small etching of Venice. He lives somewhere here in Perugia so we are hoping we can find him. It was a very cool experience.

Art and Barb invited us back to their house where Barb threw together on the spot the most incredible dinner. She is an amazing cook and the meal she prepared for us was so delicious! They are gracious and generous hosts. It has been a pleasure to meet them and have them share their knowledge of Italy with us. We were supposed to get together on Sunday here in Perugia so they could attend the Sister Cities (Gemelli – which means twin in Italian) that has been going on in Piazza Italia for the past week and ended yesterday). This was a fun festival that consisted of the sister cities of Perugia – cities in France, Slovakia, Germany, the U.S. - showing off their special arts, crafts, and foods with information about their cities, accompanied by jazz music from Seattle and a folk band from Slovakia. The German pretzels were the biggest hit! And Bob found his favorite beer called “Zlaty Bazant”, a beer he has been searching for since he returned from his Fullbright in Slovakia and there it was in Perugia centro.

We were also anxiously awaiting the arrival of John McMahon, a firefighter who worked with Bob on the Tempe Fire Department for years and became a very dear friend, traveling with his son Johnny, his friend Matt and John’s girlfriend Valerie. They are backpacking (traveling between campgrounds by car) throughout France, Italy and northern Europe. During the day Saturday we had a call from John that he was in Perugia and we invited him and his entourage to stay with us Saturday night hoping to be able to show them around the city and just spend time with them. We had to take a rain check from Art and Barb for Sunday and appreciate their understanding our wanting to visit with our friend who was just passing through.

It was wonderful to see John. He hasn’t changed a bit in all the years we know him. He’s still a big, strong and handsome, boyish man with a lock of blond hair and a winning smile. His son John looks exactly as he must have when he was a boy and it was really wonderful to get to know these two young guys – ragazzi – they are both19 years old – who have a dream of traveling around Europe with only their good looks and a guitar. It’s an exciting time for them. Although, as a parent, I’m not sure John shares their excitement but we wish all of them well as they continue on their adventure. We had a lot of fun, walked them all over and cooked a lot of food in our kitchen. It was great to be able to show off our garden here to a very appreciative audience. In fact, John and Valerie opted to sleep out in the garden under the stars with the boys inside on the sofa bed.

This morning they did their laundry, Valerie checked email, they picked up a loaf of bread and off they went, headed for Venice. They told us about their favorite city so far and we found it on the map. We’ll have to try to go there, they liked it so much. There is so much to do and see it’s hard not to keep going every minute! After we said goodbye to them, we walked back to our apartment and took a nap. Now we are off to post this and try to make a haircut appointment and buy some groceries. It’s a cooler day than it has been. Yesterday seemed the warmest so far and then around 5 it started to rain; a beautiful light rain for a few hours as we cooked and chatted and just hung out together.

Ciao amici. Buon Viaggio. Buona Fortuna. Keep in touch!

Rosemary and Bob

p.s. check for photos to come